In a tough time when most wine festivals are either reinventing themselves or just shutting down, the Natural Coast Wine Festival is finding sell-out success through the most basic of stand-around-and-taste formulas. The draw is the curated list of wineries in attendance, all of which align in some fashion with the “natural” style of winemaking.
That’s been a controversial word in the wine industry for years. But, for the sake of this festival, being “natural” simply means that the wineries source fruit from sustainable vineyards and then use a light touch in the cellar, letting fresh fruit — rather than, say, the oak barrels or heavy extraction — do the talking.
This has long been a common path in Santa Barbara County, which is why you’ll recognize a lot of wineries pouring on April 25, such as Sandhi, Whitcraft, and The Ojai Vineyard. But the Natural Coast fest is also a prime place to meet some of the freshest faces in California winemaking. Here are four of those producers that are quite new to us.