Inaugural Wine Fest Splashes Together Graffiti and Affordable Labels

Between the live hip-hop, food trucks and fresh-fruit sangria, there are plenty of indicators that my friend-in-grapes and debut Wine Fest! organizer Jeff Moses seems to be succeeding in his aim to introduce a new generation of vino celebration July 27 at Monterey County Fair & Events Center. 

The airbrush abilities of Gabe Peralez—the wizard behind much of the urban art at Post No Bills Craft Beer House in Sand City (324-4667) and the festival art above—will fill one 4-by-8-foot wooden canvas while Lisa Haas, Amanda Burkman, Eric Mallari, Skan Arts and Reggie Lee, cover their own with paint.

Festivalgoers will vote on their favorite—and on their favorite wine label and top white and red tastes too.

"Graffiti is the people's art," says Moses, who founded the Monterey Beer Festival and ran it for a decade before selling it to the fairgrounds this year. "And the wines at the festival are the people's wines."

He smiles, and evokes a slogan he uses with his Stomper Graffiti wines, which will fuel the summertime sangria and employs street art on the label itself: "And they're both art without a frame."

The lineup of wineries drips approachability by design. While the festival will gather higher end wines in a VIP area, the main tastebud playground will feature more affordable—and also much more available—labels than typical wine events. (Check out the list below.)

The hope is that average wine drinkers will bask in the chance to learn and taste their way through new varietals and styles—and things they simply like—without feeling like they need to unspool a dissertation on post malolactic fermentation. 

"This festival was created to put a spotlight on wines you drink every day," Moses says. "That's what most people like! Why do we look down on it?"

In other words, guests try wines they can actually find in stores and buy—instead of test driving the car they can't finance, they're revving the engine of what could be in the garage. The wineries represent a diverse, often local, high value table wines, a real-world range.

Here's a peek at a preliminary list of participating purveyors:

Mimosa Wines  • Stomper Graffiti Wines • Wrath Wines • Frey Vineyards • McIntyre Vineyards • Kokopelli Winery of Arizona • Spiced Vines • Blackstone • Black Box • Ooh La La • Red Guitar • Simply Naked • Bernardus • Blair Estates • Comanche Cellars • Leal Vineyards • Chateau Julien • Scheid • District 7 • Holman Ranch • Cass Vineyards • Wente Vineyards • Figge Winery • Big Hurt Beer •  Peter B's  • Sierra Nevada • Mendocino Brewing