Celebrating 17 years is a monumental occasion, and the California Artisan Cheese Festival knows just how to take that celebration to new heights! This premier cheese event, which is held March 24–26, 2023, will take place in and around Sonoma County, and at various local farms, restaurants, creameries, and tasting rooms of artisan producers all over Northern California.
With tickets now on sale, let’s dig into what’s on the docket!
Friday’s Farm and Producer Tours
These tours take you all around Northern California to explore local farms, creameries, and artisan purveyors. You’ll learn how cheeses, beer, and other ag products are made, and also get a chance to meet the people making these delicious products! This year’s Festival is offering ten tours on Friday, March 24, with seven of them including round-trip transportation, three going beyond the immediate Bay Area, one self-driven tour, and two walking tours around Sebastopol.
The tours are selling out quickly, but tours that still have tickets available include “The Barlow” in Sebastopol; “Goat Yoga & More” in Escalon; “Past, Present, and Future” in Willows; and “Taste of the Anderson Valley” in Mendocino County.
Specific details for each tour can be found here.
Saturday Seminars and Pairing Demonstrations
This brings attendees face-to-face with the experts who work with and create some of America’s best artisan cheeses and the wines that pair with them, a press release explained.
They are as follows:
More information regarding the seminars can be found here.
Other events taking place during the 2023 California Artisan Cheese Festival include:
California Artisan Cheese Week
Cheese aficionados can expect to find special cheese-focused dishes and menus at some of their favorite local restaurants, tasting rooms, and businesses around the state for the third annual California Artisan Cheese Week. These businesses will be showing support for their favorite cheesemakers and guests will have the opportunity to enjoy their favorite standbys and discover new artisan cheeses in creative dishes, impressive cheese plates, special discounts, unique pairings, and more.
Cheese Crawl at the Barlow
Cheesemakers, restaurants, and breweries and distilleries will come together for this light-hearted yet energetic night of discovery featuring California artisan cheese at different businesses throughout The Barlow. Each stop will host a cheesemaker offering samples to be paired with their partner food or beverage purveyor including regional artisan wine, cider, and spirits and beer.
Artisan Cheese Tasting & Marketplace
The grand finale of the festival, the Marketplace brings together more than 100 artisan producers of the best California cheese, wine, beer, ciders, and other specialty foods.
Now this is one event that will be hard to pass up!