And so it begins. . . again.

A big hello to all from Garagiste 2012!

Today we made our first announcement about the 2012 Festival line-up, including lots of exciting events building up to November 10th’s main event at Windfall Farms! We are also thrilled to announce that we have expanded the 2012 Garagiste Festival weekend to four days of wine-soaked activities.

And we are most proud to have announced today the Wineries who will be pouring at the 2012 festival. We are extremely grateful for the support shown by those Wineries who are returning for their second year – and look forward to sharing the Garagiste Festival “Experience” with those who will be joining us for the first time.

Perhaps there’s no greater compliment than seeing the vast majority of the winemakers, who bravely joined our initial foray at Garagiste 2011, once again enthusiastically putting their time, energy – and yes great wines – behind us.

I know it has been said before, but it bears repeating: without our passionate group of small wine producers taking that initial chance on us last November, Garagiste 2011 and now Garagiste 2012 wouldn’t exist.

It was somewhat tongue in cheek last year when we shot a video on What is and What isn’t a “Garagiste”?. People still ask me to explain what the term means – How is it pronounced? Who does it represent, etc.? Before the 2011 festival, I often dug myself into a hole going into detail on the history of the Bourdeaux Garagistes, what defined that movement, blah blah blah — without ever capturing the true essence of the term.

Today, I can just say, “Come and taste for yourself! Come to the Festival and meet some of them! Talk to them about their passion for a particular varietal, or their insistence on a certain winemaking technique, or why and where they started making wine.”

“You mean the winemakers will be pouring?” comes the reply.

Yes. Winemakers literally standing behind their wine. The hands pouring the wine in your glass actually crafted its contents. What a concept!

To me there’s no better way to taste than with a winemaker pouring his/her product.

Getting the story of the ‘garagiste’ winemakers first-hand is one of the true joys of the Garagiste Festival and truly unique within the wine festival world.

And most garagistes do it all, with no marketing force, no abundance of cellar rats to help with the grunt work. They craft their wines themselves, with their own hands, deep in the wine ‘trenches’.

Thanks again to everyone who pours, supports, and attends the Garagiste Festival.

A toast to us all, and to our continued ‘garagiste’ success in 2012.

P.S. Special thank you to our new board members, Fred, Matt and Maggie. And to all of our volunteers, I hope you realize the infamous PASOGARAGISTE 20011 T-shirt was actually indicating the length of your indentured service.

Additional thanks to Doug, Lisa and Melanie for their outstanding work in the garagiste trenches thus far. I’m grateful to be in your multi-talented company. I raise a toast to all.

- Stewart