On the first Thursday of every month, Pico Los Alamos affords a guest vintner the chance to discuss the how and why behind their wines, but not necessarily the where.
“There’s all these really small producers out there, and most of them don’t even have tasting rooms,” said Kace Sarvis, wine director at Pico Los Alamos and host of the venue’s monthly Winemaker Hang series.
“I’m able to invite wineries that maybe don’t have a platform yet. It’s a good way for them to get their name out there,” Sarvis said about the program. “Maybe they’re a winemaker making wines for a bigger brand but that’s their side hustle and there’s a passion project they don’t have time to get out there and sell, or if it’s made in such small batches that not everyone can get their hands on.”
One of the program’s recent featured winemakers was Kyle Knapp, the head winemaker for Stolpman Vineyards in Los Olivos. Rather than highlight his work with Stolpman though, the event focused on Knapp’s small batch brand, Press Gang Cellars, a winemaking collaboration between him and his wife, Savanna.
Press Gang Cellars has a wine club—with shipments of limited-production wines sourced from Santa Barbara County-based vineyards shipped to members every six months—but is without a brick-and-mortar tasting room.
Pico Los Alamos provided the brand a temporary outlet for wine tasting during its Winemaker Hang event, and will showcase its wines once again during an upcoming wine festival along with 15 other vintners.
With an aim to showcase unique, below-the-radar wines, Sarvis named the event the Fresh Wine Festival, which will be held at Pico Los Alamos on Friday, Aug. 25, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Representing Press Gang Cellars, Knapp will be on-site during the fest to pour glasses of Dumpster Fire, an orange chardonnay produced during the pandemic. Sarvis said that the name was chosen to summarize 2020, as “such a dumpster fire year.”
Other featured wineries set to pour during the Fresh Wine Festival include Entity of Delight, another Central Coast brand without a brick-and-mortar. Entity’s grapes are sourced from Bassi Vineyards in Avila Beach and Spear Vineyards in Lompoc.
Wines from Little Soul Wines, based in San Luis Obispo County, will also be available at the fest. Like Press Gang Cellars, Little Soul Wines started as a passion project for its founder, Molly Lonborg, who currently works as winemaker for Alta Colina Vineyard and Winery in Paso Robles.
Based in Santa Barbara County, RZN (Reason) Wines—another Fresh Wine Festival feature—is the brainchild of Nate Axline, the assistant winemaker at Liquid Farm in Los Olivos. Axline describes the brand on its website as a combination of his passions “loaded up into a wine label … skateboarding, wine, food, baseball, soccer, photography, woodworking, sustainability, you get the idea.”
The fest lineup will also include tastings from Final Girl, Riding Monkey, Roark, Story of Soil, Storm, Luna Hart, Lumen, LoFi, Piazza, Ampelos, Disko, and Dreamcote, all available to patrons of the event for a flat admission fee of $40.
Sarvis said his original goal was to cap off the featured vintner list at 15 boutique wineries, but he couldn’t help to go over by one. Since the event is open for two hours, he wanted around a dozen different vendors so that guests would have ample time to experience each brand without rushing from tasting to tasting.
“I want people to have time to connect with these winemakers, and once you go over 15, it’s hard to do that,” Sarvis said.
Originally from Huntington Beach, Sarvis said one of the most refreshing things about moving to the Central Coast and embracing its close-knit wine scene was how easy it is to network with and often befriend local winemakers.
“When I moved to this area—I’ve been here almost 10 years, I’m almost a local—I got to know all these really great people by working in wine,” Sarvis said. “It was one of the best ways to be welcomed to the community.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is getting in line for orange chardonnay. Send comments to [email protected].
