Festive April 26 Earth Happenings: SB Natural Coast Wine Fest plus SB Earth Day Fest and more!

Satellite Nat Coast Wine Fest poster by Michael Matheson

As we near the end of Earth Month, in California we received needed rain— even 6″ of snow in Tahoe. Our rain gauge shows a half inch and our rain barrels are all topped off again. This rain shouldn’t put a damper on today’s festivities— we might get a little more but that should be it. Which is great for area farmers and gardeners, and for people at local festivals like the Natural Coast Wine Festival in Santa Barbara just down the street from the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival — which is where we are headed! Then tonight we’ll go see Fantuzzi at Art City. Also this weekend is the Replant the Forest Fest in Santa Paula.

First, what in the world is the “Natural Coast?” According to organizers from the shop Satellite, “The Natural Coast showcases and celebrates the wineries and winegrowers promoting environmentally beneficial viticulture, low impact winemaking, and socially conscientious business practices throughout California’s Central Coast. These producers make wine in a natural way, honoring the earth and forging a better path forward in the wine industry. Better vineyards, better wines, better Earth.” They are featuring wines from California’s Central Coast today, Saturday April 26  from 12pm-5pm at the new Satellite “The Factory” Event Space @ 616 E Haley Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 near the “Pacific Timber Products” sign.   General admission tickets are available at the door for $80 until sold out.

To be included in the event, organizers say wines…

  • Are made from fruit mostly from vineyards in California’s Central Coast which includes the following counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo.
  • Are made from fruit farmed organically as a minimum. Whether certified or not, vineyards must be farmed without synthetic pesticides. Certification appreciated, but saying they farm *sustainable* is not enough to be accepted.
  • Are fermented natively – whether spontaneously or using a pied-de-cuve with the exception of sparkling wines.
  • Are made with no sterile filtration, no fining
  • Have no additives except for SO2 with a maximum total SO2 below 70 ppm, regardless of wine style.
  • Have no techo-winemaking tricks like reverse-osmosis, cryo-extraction, spinning cone filtration, etc.
  • None of these rules are negotiable. Breaking of any rules will result in a 3-year minimum ban from presenting at Natural Coast Festival events.

Natural Coast Wine Fest 2025 Map

Organizer and founder Drew Cuddy grew up on a conventional turkey and commodities farm in Canada. After his father launched an organic-focused wine import and distribution business in California, Drew spend summers working with natural Italian producers. He distributed wine, worked harvest in Sonoma, and launched Satellite in 2017 as a fully farmer to table//farmer to glass restaurant that focuses exclusively on naturally conceived ingredients.

Lindsey Reed has been in the industry for over 20 years but found natural wine after receiving her degree in geology from UCSB.  She spent two years learning the winemaking process in Ballard Canyon with Larner Winery followed by a year converting a Santa Barbara vineyard to biodynamic farming under the guidance of winegrower Ryan Roark.
While educating herself in every aspect of growing grapes and making wine Lindsey found a home Satellite where her passion took off and her dream of The Natural Coast began. Lindsey has since moved on from Satellite and the Fest but remains a force in Santa Barbara’s hospitality & wine scene with recent stints at Bell’s in Los Alamos and Aperitivo in Santa Barbara where she currently runs the wine program

Check out their instagram feed for who will be pouring. Find a partial list of wines here.

The event is both a consumer and professional event, and producers may elect to list a certain number of wines for sale. All wines listed for sale on the Natural Coast Website will be available for pre-order; pickup and shipping orders may be placed until noon on Tuesday, April 28th. Satellite will handle all of the sales and fulfillment from our wine shop @ 1117 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. They‘re offering a flat $30 fee to ship wines from the festival anywhere in the Continental US with some exclusions.

Geologist, podcaster, and artist Brenna Quigley made the original core artwork for the festival. Check out her work here. The proceeds from this year’s poster will go to benefit White Buffalo Land Trust.

Food nearby includes:

  • Cajé Coffee – 7am-3pm ☕️
  • Lito’s – Mexican – 6:30am – 3pm 🍳🌮
  • 3rd Window Brewing – Opens @ 12pm 🍔🍟🍺
  • Buena Onda Emapandas – Opens 11am 🥟🥗
  • Los Agaves – Mexican – Opens @ 11am 🐟🌮
  • Rascals – Vegan – Opens @ 5pm 🌯🥗

They also recommend:

 

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