The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes – January 31st, 2026
Report on The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes, held on Saturday, January 31st, 2026, at Scott’s Seafood Ballroom in San Jose, California. The event showcased wines made from California’s less widely-planted grape varieties, and included a discussion focused on lesser-known varieties in the Lodi wine region followed by a walk-around tasting.
The Festival website states that part of their mission is to “celebrate the “underdogs” of the California Wine World” and to “showcase the growers and producers of these lesser-known and uncommon wine varieties.” They note that 93% of the winegrape plantings in California represent fewer than ten of the most common grape varieties here, while the remaining 7% include well over 100 other varieties – it’s those 7% that are at the center of The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes.
The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is presented by Allison Levine of Please the Palate, which does marketing and event planning for the wine and spirits industry, with event Creative Director Eva Crawford of Axis of Eva. The first Festival took place in 2024 and up until now it has been held only in Los Angeles – this year marks the first time there has been a second Festival, with its first appearance in Northern California.
There were General Admission and VIP tickets available for the event. General Admission attendees had three hours to taste during the afternoon, while VIP attendees got access to the pre-tasting discussion as well as early entrance to the tasting. VIP attendees also received a small canvas bag (which doubles as a two-bottle wine carrier) that contained all sorts of goodies, including information on several wine regions as well as on the San Francisco Wine School, a VIP Passport offering special complimentary tastings and more at over 20 wineries, a ticket for one item from the food purveyors on hand, a Festival t-shirt, and even more. All attendees received a very nice tasting booklet with information on each participating winery plus a number of special discounts and other offers as well as a commemorative Festival logo wine glass.
A bonus to The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes was that all attendees were able to order wines from any of the participating producers that were on hand, with a flat delivery fee of $20 (free for 12 or more bottles) and free delivery for any number of bottles for VIP attendees. I have to say that sometimes the VIP package isn’t greatly different from the regular one, but with all the extras included at this event, I think springing for a VIP ticket is worth it.
Lodi Wine Discussion
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The Festival began with a discussion on the place of lesser-known grape varieties in the Lodi growing region and in the wider wine world in general. The discussion was led by Stuart Spencer, Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, and by Master Sommelier David Glancy, who heads up the highly-regarded San Francisco Wine School. Stuart started by noting that there are over 130 grape varieties currently planted in the Lodi region. He pointed out that not only are the climate and soil there conducive to many different varieties, but the lower cost of doing business there – compared with Napa, for example – allows for more experimentation. David mentioned that many younger wine drinkers are looking for different varieties – some want to drink something other than what their parents drank (not just the “classic” varieties) while others want a wider range of options for pairing with the great diversity of cuisine that we see these days. We tasted three Lodi wines during the discussion, a sparkling, a white, and a red. This was a freewheeling and fun discussion, and a nice way to lead into the afternoon tasting.
Some Favorites |
OVERALL FAVORITES
Whites, Rosés, and Sparkling
Acquiesce 2024 Bourboulenc
Andis 2024 Sémillon
Bokisch 2024 Xarel•lo
Brosseau 2023 Brosseau Vineyard Chenin Blanc
Giornata 2024 “Fatto a Mano” Estate Tocai Friulano
Idlewild 2023 Las Cimas Vineyard Timorasso
Madroña 2024 “Signature Collection” Dry Riesling
Oxlee Graham 2024 “Elinor’s” Alder Springs Vineyard Chenin Blanc/Picpoul Blanc
Perlegos 2023 Sparkling Assyrtiko
Ridge 2024 Grenache Blanc
Tablas Creek 2025 “Lignée de Tablas” Clements Hills Vermentino
Terah 2024 Paicines Ranch Verdejo
Thacher 2024 “Relative Strangers” White Field Blend
Trail Marker 2023 “Kid Sister” Mokelumne Glen Vineyard Blaufrankisch Pét-Nat
Reds
Andis 2023 “Barbera d’Amador” Barbera
Camins 2 Dreams 2024 Siletto Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer
Cary Q 2023 “Perfect Storm” Grenache/Mourvèdre/Tempranillo
Comunità 2022 Schioppettino
Giornata 2024 Barbera
Heleja 2024 Counoise
Idlewild 2023 Las Cimas Vineyard Grignolino
Martha Stoumen 2021 Nero d’Avola
Ottavino 2023 St. Laurent
Perlegos 2023 Mule Plane Vineyard Carignane
St. Amant 2023 Spencer Ranch Trousseau
Tansy 2024 Fox Hill Vineyard Nero d’Avola
Trail Marker 2024 Bay Tree Lane Vineyard Gamay Noir
Two Shepherds 2023 Estate Grenache Gris/Grenache Noir Co-ferment
Others of Note
Bokisch 2021 Liberty Oaks Vineyard Tempranillo
Camins 2 Dreams 2023 Portico Dreams Vineyard Gamay
Cary Q 2023 “ViBES” Fenaughty Vineyard Picpoul
Drava 2022 Nicolini Vineyard Old Vine Carignane
Heleja 2024 Orange Muscat Blend
Madroña 2023 “M Series” Cabernet Franc
Ottavino 2023 Grüner Veltliner
Oxlee Graham 2022 “Enedina’s” McCoy Vineyard Petit Verdot
PRIE 2024 Mencia
Ridge 2023 Heringer Vineyard Teroldego
St. Amant 2024 Verdelho
Tablas Creek 2023 Estate Terret Noir
Tansy 2024 Las Cimas Vineyard Falanghina
Terah 2023 Shake Ridge Ranch Barbera
Thacher 2022 Siletto Vineyard Nègrette
Trail Marker 2023 “Kid Sister” Mokelumne Glen Vineyard Kerner
Tres Sabores 2024 “Amphora Reserve” St. Laurent
Two Shepherds 2023 Hopkins Ranch Pinot Meunier
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General Tasting Impressions
The event venue of Scott’s Seafood Ballroom is a seventh-floor event space above a parking garage in downtown San Jose. The site has access from nearby local public transit and is close to several freeways for automobile access. I drove, and there was easy parking at a very reasonable all-day rate right at the large garage in the same building as the event – attendees and vintners alike whom I spoke with mentioned how convenient this was compared with most wine events. The event space where the tasting tables were set up was large, open, and bright. Even with over 65 producers on hand plus a few tables with food purveyors and others, the room never felt overly crowded and there was space to circulate even with the sizable crowd that attended.
The event was exceptionally well-organized, and everything ran very smoothly – a great job by Allison, Eva, and the entire staff. A big plus for me was the comprehensive list of wines being poured by every producer, which doubled as a wine order form for attendees. I find this type of information is really helpful in helping me select which producers I’m most interested in checking out during the tasting. Winery tables were grouped according to wine region, something that I didn’t realize until well into the tasting – I should have looked at the tasting booklet, as a map of the tables was right there on Page 1! Even so, I didn’t have much difficulty in finding most tables, though having individual winery signage located up a bit higher would have been helpful in that regard. As is often the case at these events, I was so focused on tasting that I didn’t take advantage of trying any of the food purveyors there, though a small bag of delicious peanut brittle from Butterfly Brittles was included in the VIP bags!
The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is very reminiscent of the old “Seven % Solution” tastings from 10-15 years ago, with an almost identical focus on the 7% of California wines that are not made from the small number of grape varieties which are the most widely-planted ones in the state. The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is considerably larger though, with over double the number of participating producers and nearly double the number of grape varieties represented – over 110 varieties at the San Jose tasting. Varieties at the tasting ranged from the fairly well-known (Grenache, Carignane) to those that are still nearly unknown in California (Prieto Picudo, Terret Noir). Most of the producers who participated in this tasting are smaller-scale, and a big plus was that so many of the winemakers themselves were behind their tables pouring their wines.
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I had something of an advantage over many people for this tasting, both from having attended the old Seven % Solution events and also because I’ve worked part-time with several local small wine producers who loved working with more obscure California grape varieties, especially Italian ones. I’ve been fortunate to have worked in wine production with over 50 different varieties over the years, even including some not represented at this Festival of Undiscovered Grapes tasting – looks like those are still waiting to be discovered! With the exception of a handful of fairly obscure varieties that were listed as part of field blends, I can’t say that there were any grape varieties at the tasting that I hadn’t at least heard of and only one or two I tasted that I’m not sure I’d tried before.
As is always the case, I missed a few winery tables that I’d wanted to visit. Still, I managed to taste wines from 26 producers, with over 50 different grape varieties. Although I stuck largely with producers I was familiar with, I did check out seven whose wines I’d never tasted before, plus a few others that I hadn’t tried in quite awhile. I tried to keep moving along so I didn’t taste every wine being poured at every table I visited, and at a few tables I tasted only one or two wines. Even so, I talked with a number of vintners I hadn’t seen in some years so I know I spent too much time catching up with them!
Just because wines are made from unusual (for California) grape varieties doesn’t mean they’ll be good wines or that I’ll enjoy them. But the skill of both the grapegrowers and winemakers behind the wines at this tasting showed clearly. There were wines made using a number of techniques, from sparkling pétillant naturel (pét-nat) to carbonic fermentation to skin-fermented whites and whole-cluster fermented reds to aging in clay amphoras and large oak botti and foudres – anything that worked with a particular variety grown in a particular place. And of course there were terrific blends, both conventional and unexpected. Overall favorite producers at the tasting included Andis, Giornata, Idlewild, Ottavino, Oxlee Graham, Thacher, and Trail Marker, with Acquiesce, Bokisch, Camins 2 Dreams, Cary Q, Heleja, Perlegos, Ridge, St. Amant, Tablas Creek, Tansy, Terah, and Two Shepherds among others also pouring strong wine lineups. Lots of really good wines across the board! It was great to see such a broad diversity of producers, ranging from long-established and well-known ones to many relative newcomers.
Among the wines on my Favorites list, I’d say my top white wines of the day were the Idlewild Timorasso (my overall favorite), Giornata Tocai Friulano, and Madroña Dry Riesling, while my top red wines were the Andis Barbera, Ottavino St. Laurent, and Two Shepherds Grenache Gris/Grenache Noir Co-ferment.
It’s still very early in the year, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that this will be one of my favorite wine tasting events of 2026. There certainly won’t be anywhere else that I’ll be able to taste California wines made from Prieto Picudo, Terret Noir, Arinto, St. Laurent, and Xarel•lo all in one afternoon! There we so many terrific wines from varieties that are not widely-planted in California, made by producers from all over the state. The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes will be coming to Los Angeles in late March, so if you didn’t make to the tasting in San Jose, don’t miss the one in LA. From what I’ve heard, the San Jose event was a big success, so I expect that it will be back again next year – I’m already looking forward to it!
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