Garagiste Opens the Door for Micro-Wineries

About 100 wine lovers, wine makers and wine bloggers inaugurated another new tasting room in Healdsburg, at the new Garagiste Tasting Room last night, welcoming the new faces on the block at 439 Healdsburg Ave.

The , organized by Healdsburg Patch wine blogger , marked the end of an five-month period of remodel for the former Artiste Tasting Room in the same location.

A time-lapse video showed the curved custom-made wood tasting bar being constructed again and again, projected on the west wall of the space.

Although representatives from larger more well-known wineries were in attendance – that was Brandye Alexander of behind the bar, Julie Schreiber, the new winemaker for Helen Coniglio for E. & J. Gallo – it was the smaller winemakers who made up the bulk of the guest list: Tobe Sheldon, Ray D’Argenzio, Rick Moshin, et al.

But the “stars of the show” were Christian and Jennifer Stark, of Stark Wines (no relation to the steak-house Starks), and Serena Lourie and Alan Baker of Cartograph. These are the two anchor tenants of this  new cooperative tasting room showcasing the talents and production of the smaller winemakers of the region.

The four of them were the primary workforce in the remodel of the tasting room, and their labors produced a comfortable, roomy showplace for their winemaking efforts.

A "garagiste," as you might expect, is a winemaker who makes his wine in the garage, or by extension a custom-crush facility. Garagistes usually source their wines from vineyards by contract rather than farm their own grapes.

The tasting room opens officially this weekend, on Saturday at 11 a.m.; live music and food will be available from 3:30 until closing, at 6 p.m. Regular tasting room hours will be Thursday - Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., or by appointment.

You can preview it all with the accompanying images of the opening party at Garagiste.