The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes

What The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes does

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is an event-driven, direct-to-consumer wine tasting festival founded in 2024 (originally as the Festival of Forgotten Grapes, rebranded in August 2025) by Allison Levine through Please The Palate, a boutique wine and spirits marketing and event planning agency. The festival operates two annual in-person tasting events in California — Los Angeles (returning for a third year on March 28, 2026) and San Jose (inaugural event January 31, 2026) — where 60+ wineries pour wines made from over 100 lesser-known grape varieties (varietals outside the nine dominant grapes that constitute 93% of California's plantings). The company's core product portfolio includes three ticket tiers (VIP at $125, Early Bird General Admission at $55, and General Admission at $75), the VinoTastr palate profile test, and the Festival Passport redeemable at participating wineries.

The underlying technology platform combines event management, ticketing via Humanitix, and a proprietary consolidated wine delivery service. This logistics layer is the principal operational differentiator: attendees can order wines from multiple participating wineries at the festival and receive a single shipment for one $20 fee (waived on orders of 12+ bottles) within a 60-mile radius of the event venue, eliminating the prohibitive cumulative shipping costs and breakage risk typically associated with multi-winery direct-to-consumer orders.

The business model operates on three revenue streams — ticket sales, winery participation fees, and wine delivery transaction fees — supplemented by VIP add-ons (sponsor swag, food tickets, t-shirts, canvas bags). The company serves two customer segments: individual wine enthusiasts seeking discovery experiences with rare varietals, and small-lot California wineries (many producing ≤1,500 cases annually, some as few as 25 cases per lot) needing mass-audience distribution channels outside their tasting rooms. The festival is privately held, operates with 1–10 employees, has not raised institutional funding, and was ranked #2 Best Wine Festival in the U.S. by USA Today 10Best in 2025.

Name

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes

Legal name

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes

Website

https://festivalofundiscoveredgrapes.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is a private, event-driven wine tasting festival operating in Los Angeles and San Jose that showcases 100+ lesser-known California grape varieties from 60+ small wineries per city, selling tiered tickets and offering a consolidated wine delivery service that lets attendees order from multiple wineries for a single shipping fee.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Wine Festival Events

NAICS

Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) (72241)

SIC

Beverages (2080)

akta.pro primary industry

Wine Tastings & Vineyard/Winery Tours (THAJAGAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wineries & Vineyards (Tasting Rooms) (THAFALAE), Food, Drink & Culinary Community Festivals (Community-Led) (MPAGAEAF)

Keywords

• Wine tasting festivals
• Wine events
• Wine delivery service
• Lesser-known grape varieties
• California wineries

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Ticket Sales: Revenue generated from selling tickets to the festival events. Three ticket tiers available: VIP ($125), Early Bird General Admission ($55 during promotional periods), and General Admission ($75 standard). Tickets are sold through Humanitix platform with additional fees.
2. Wine Delivery Fees: Revenue from consolidated delivery fees charged for shipping wines ordered at the event. Standard delivery fee is $20, waived for purchases of 12 bottles or more. Delivery within 60-mile radius of event venue included.
3. Winery Participation Fees: Wineries pay to participate and showcase their wines at the festival. Contact email provided for wineries interested in participating: [email protected]

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is an in-person wine tasting festival held in California cities (Los Angeles and San Jose) that showcases 100+ lesser-known grape varieties from 60+ participating wineries. Attendees purchase tickets to taste wines directly from winemakers at the event, then order wines on-site for consolidated home delivery via a single low shipping fee, bypassing traditional multi-winery shipping costs.

Product overview

The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes is a wine festival experience produced by Please The Palate. The core offering is the annual tasting event featuring California wines made from lesser-known grape varieties. The product portfolio includes the main festival event with tiered ticket options (VIP and General Admission), the Festival Passport add-on for VIP attendees with special offers, the Undiscovered Grapes Wine Delivery Service for ordering wines directly from the event, and the VinoTastr Palate Profile test. The festival operates in two California cities (Los Angeles and San Jose) and celebrates over 100 undiscovered grape varieties from 60+ wineries.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes An in-person wine tasting festival held in Los Angeles and San Jose, California, that brings together 60+ wineries pouring wines made from 100+ lesser-known grape varieties. Attendees taste wines directly from winemakers and can order wines on-site for consolidated home delivery.
• Undiscovered Grapes Wine Delivery Service A consolidated wine fulfillment service available to festival attendees, allowing wines to be ordered from multiple participating wineries at the event and shipped to the customer's home as a single delivery for a flat $20 fee (waived on orders of 12 or more bottles), eliminating individual per-winery shipping charges.

Quantifiable outcome

• 9 dominant grape varieties make up 93% of total wine grape plantings in California, leaving 7% for lesser-known varieties - representing significant market opportunity

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Lodi Winegrape CommissionminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 31 January 2026Featured partner for VIP pre-tasting discussion at San Jose event. Stuart Spencer, Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, joined Master Sommelier David Glancy to discuss Lodi's role as the epicenter of California's hidden grape diversity, with over 130 varieties grown in the region.
• ChrysalisminorOthersNon-profit partnership with Chrysalis, an organization dedicated to 'Changing Lives Through Jobs.' Chrysalis helps people prepare for, find, and keep jobs, with free services available to all. The festival is pleased to partner with this organization as part of its community commitment.
• Please The PalatecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlease The Palate is the production company and parent organization behind The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes. It is a boutique firm specializing in marketing and event planning for the wine and spirits industry. Owner Allison Levine founded the festival and leads all operations.
• HumanitixminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorTicketing platform partner for festival ticket sales. All ticket purchases include Humanitix platform fees in addition to ticket prices.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Vinitaly: A major international wine exhibition featuring wineries pouring across numerous varietals and regions, with consumer and trade components. Comparable as a large-scale varietal-focused wine showcase with consumer access, though much broader in geographic and varietal scope.
• BottleRock Napa Valley: A large-scale Napa Valley festival combining wine tastings from numerous wineries with music, food, and broader entertainment. Comparable as a California wine-tasting event targeting consumers, but at much larger scale and without the niche focus on lesser-known varietals.
• NYC Wine & Food Festival: A large-scale food and wine festival in New York featuring winemakers, tastings, and consumer experiences. Comparable premium tasting format and consumer audience, but broader food-and-wine scope and substantially larger scale than The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes.
• ProWein: A leading international wine and spirits trade fair featuring thousands of exhibitors across grape varieties and wine regions. Comparable as a multi-winery, multi-varietal tasting showcase, though primarily a B2B trade event rather than a consumer festival.

Direct peers

• Family Winemakers of California: A California trade association that hosts public tasting events showcasing small-production and lesser-known varietal wines from member wineries. Directly comparable in curating small-lot and rare-varietal producers for enthusiast consumers via tasting events.
• Pebble Beach Food & Wine: A premium multi-day food and wine tasting festival in California featuring winemakers, tastings, and consumer-direct ordering experiences. Closely comparable to The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes in the premium tasting-event format, winemaker-attendee interaction, and California wine audience.
• Paso Robles Wine Festival: A regional California wine festival featuring multiple wineries pouring and offering direct consumer sales. Comparable as a multi-winery California wine event with DTC ordering and consumer discovery, though broader in varietal scope.
• Pinot Days: A consumer wine tasting event dedicated to Pinot Noir producers, featuring multiple wineries pouring under one roof with direct consumer interaction. Comparable in the single-varietal/multi-winery tasting event format, though narrower in varietal scope than the undiscovered-grapes concept.

Regional players

• Taste of Vail: A destination wine and food festival in Vail, Colorado featuring multiple wineries pouring and consumer tastings. Comparable as a curated multi-winery tasting event with consumer-direct wine access, but serving a different geographic market from the California-based festival.
• Wine Road (Sonoma County Vintners): A Northern Sonoma County wine association that organizes multi-winery tasting events and consumer experiences showcasing regional small producers. Comparable as a curated small-winery tasting event operator, though focused on Sonoma rather than the festival's broader California rare-varietal angle.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/FestivalofUndiscoveredGrapes
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/festival-of-undiscovered-grapes

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes