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Our thoughts and ruminations on the Garage, the wines, the wine trade and all things wine.

Our present logo begins with 2008 vintage

Wednesday, 18 January 2023 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Found in a photographer’s files. 2005-6? From an article published in the Wiken El Mercurio (without our consent) about the fledgling garage wineries in Chile. Somehow they got their hands on a bottle sold to friends and managed to make us the centre of the piece about a new phenomenon for Chile.

Our present logo begins with 2008 vintage.

Encontrado en los archivos de un fotógrafo. 2005-6? De un artículo publicado en el Wiken El Mercurio (sin nuestro consentimiento) sobre las incipientes bodegas garaje en Chile. De alguna manera se consiguieron una botella vendida a unos amigos y alcanzaron a convertirnos en el centro del artículo sobre un nuevo fenómeno para vino en Chile. Logo actual se hace por cosecha 2008.

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Alvaro ¨The Investigator¨

Friday, 16 December 2022 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Terrific to see our partner Alvaro ¨The Investigator¨ given some well deserved ink. Alvaro is a study in under statement in the classic English tradition. A wine scientist he has published a great deal of ink / of papers over the years although perhaps he is better known in the 
academic community for his teaching. Never one to toot his own horn— nor take the time to be interviewed come to think of it, he is today Chile´s representative for the OIV, various academic boards and scientific bodies to boot. Alvaro quietly spends a great deal of time with Pilar and I in the Garage. He is an essential part of our viticulture practices and a fundamental part of blending. Trained in Europe and very well wine travelled, with years consulting he remains acutely and technically curious. He has one of the best palates in Chile, and his humility forms an integral part of its application. We have learned a great deal from Chile´s investigador. @la.cav

Estupendo ver nuestro socio Alvaro ¨El Investigador¨ recibe un poco de tinta bien merecida en La Cav. Álvaro es piola en la clásica tradición inglesa. Un científico del vino que ha publicado una gran cantidad de tinta en los últimos años, aunque tal vez es más conocido en la comunidad académica por su docencia. Toma pocas oportunidades de ser entrevistado, hoy en día es el representante de Chile en la OIV y en varios consejos académicos y organismos científicos y también Premio Mérito Vitivinícola por sus colegas. En silencio, Álvaro pasa mucho tiempo con Pilar y conmigo en el garaje. Es una parte esencial de nuestras prácticas de viticultura y una pieza fundamental en el ensamblaje. Formado en Europa y muy viajado por el vino, con años de consultoría sigue siendo un perseguidor curioso. Tiene uno de los mejores paladares de Chile, y su humildad forma parte integral de su aplicación. Hemos aprendido mucho de El Investigador. 

#gwcogente#maule#maulechile#regiondelmaule#universidaddechile#gwcompanywines

Alvaro Peñachilean winesgaragewinecoLa Cav
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Regenerative farming

Tuesday, 22 November 2022 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Some of you have asked what do you do on the vineyards where you do not till?  

The simple answer is to cut the vetch growing between the rows with a flail mower (mulches little bits so organic material is reincorporated into the earth) See the pictures here with this Cariñena in Bagual—old Calivoro. Depending upon the year this green almost flowers 2-3 times and each time pass with the mower insuring the nitrogen stays in the soil so it can be utilized by the vines later on. 

The “the tough part” is right around the plants. The second photo-video shows how we keep the vegetation from bothering the vines. We simply break the stocks with our feet or with small planks of wood. It can be cut but the best method is stomping to bend stems plant by plant so their nitrogen stays in the ground and they continue to lend shade to the earth after they dry up in an orderly fashion. When the stocks create shade for the earth around and between the vines we have less moisture evaporating from the vineyard. Eventually this plant matter will break down into the soil but not near as fast as the bits we have mulched. This is Pilar’s favourite part.  

@agricolabagual @efecto_manada @savoryinstitue   

Stomping credit : Laura from Guadalajara  
 

Stomping credit : Laura from Guadalajara 

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Garage on tour

Thursday, 30 June 2022 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Guess where we are plying our wares this week?

Adivina donde estamos laborando esta semana ? 

@jascots_wine

chilean winesgarage on tourgaragewineco
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Art in times of covid

Monday, 29 November 2021 by Derek Mossman Knapp

photo credit Monty Waldin

After being quarantined for too long now I have begun to think that perhaps we the wine trade sometimes speak too much to our own selves in a kind of vinous echo chamber. I suppose it is natural to want to gather the herd back together like in healthier times. But I think wine is bigger than that. I do not mean bigger in a ‘comercial’ way. I am not suggesting “we could sell more” if we could just open up the audience, but rather I speak of artistry. Art is the elevating of peoples lives. And wine is art. And I do not speak of just the artisanal bits. 

The arts embody values and necessities that we are lacking in the world today. Lacking in part because of Covid and in part because populist politics have cast a dark shadow on the world in which we live– that affects all of us even if some of us are a hemisphere away.  As artists: musicians, painters, writers, cinematographers, and yes winemakers are called upon to “minister substance to the world” as Wynton Marsalis once said. To help the people get through the times.

And as we work on the farm and in the cellar we make hundreds of decisions. Today as we make these decisions there is a force pulling us to make them for practical / commercial reasons — because the buyer thinks that his customers would like a wine “like that successful one over there” or “like the neighbours make”  or perhaps the most dangerous: “like the way it is supposed be made”.

I disagree with this force’s pulling. In these times on the farm and in the cellar, I think integrity is more vital than ever, even if the need for success to win out over failure is arguably also more acute. I say integrity, like sustainability, is not a luxury that we should aim to afford when times are good, but rather I think we must hold firm– especially in stranger times. Artists have always had to fight for an audience for without one they starve. 

Art PepparLately, I have taken to listening to a lot of music. I like to listen to Jazz: Art Peppar, Wynton Marsalis… Music, like wine, matters in these times. It gives me comfort to think jazz is inherently American and in these dark times for the US it is good to remember some of the great that they have created. Jazz is soulful — like good wine.  The concerned and the soulful are always at battle with the callous and the crass. Winemakers as artists are a part of a battle against the global decline into popular mediocrity. How to do this work without snobbery, without smugness, and without falling into simply preaching to the converted? How to do it without selling out– nor selling the wine-drinker short?

I do not pretend to have the answer, but I have seen it done and I do know that when one manages to do it, one goes from being an isolated, underestimated, peasant farmer doing things back-wards to being tangible proof of the inevitable transcendence of culture and artistry.

In these times, more so than ever, we must stay the course and do the work that will help all of us get through revived and inspired.

djmk

español:Arte en los tiempos de covidDespués de estar en cuarentena durante tiempo me doy cuenta de que a veces hablo demasiado hacia la misma industria. Quizás porque anhelo reunir la manada como en tiempos más saludables. Creo que el vino es más grande que eso. No estoy sugiriendo que “podríamos vender más” si abriéramos la conversa a más público, sino hablo de el arte: la elevación de la vida de las personas. El vino es arte después de todo. Y no me refiero sólo a lo arte-sanal.

Las artes encarnan valores y necesidades que faltan en nuestro mundo de hoy. Falta en parte por Covid y falta porque la política populista ha arrojado una sombra oscura sobre el mundo en el que vivimos que nos afecta a todos, incluso si estamos a un hemisferio de distancia. Como artistas, los músicos, pintores, escritores, cineografos y sí, los enólogos están llamados a “dar sustento al mundo”, como dijo una vez Wynton Marsalis el trompetista extraordinario, para ayudar a la gente a superar estos tiempos.

Mientras continuamos trabajando hacer vino, cultivando para producir se hace cientos si no miles de decisiones para hacer un vino. Y siempre hay una fuerza que empuja a que estas decisiones se tomen por razones comerciales, porque el comprador piensa que a sus clientes les gustaría un vino “como ese otro vino exitoso” o “como hacen los vecinos” o quizás el más peligroso: “como nosotros siempre hemos hecho ”.

En estos tiempos en la bodega, creo que la integridad es más urgente que nunca, pero también lo es la necesidad de que el éxito venza al fracaso. Yo digo que la integridad, como la sostentabilidad, no debería ser un lujo que alcancemos en los buenos tiempos. Debemos adaptarnos a los tiempos especialmente a los tiempos extraños. Los artistas siempre han tenido que luchar por un publico– sin público se mueren de hambre.

En estos tiempos, yo he aprovechado de escuchar mucha música en estos días. Estoy escuchando Jazz: Art Peppar, Wynton Marsalis. . . La música, como el vino, importa en estos tiempos. Me reconforta pensar que el jazz es inherentemente estadounidense y en estos tiempos oscuros para Estados Unidos es bueno recordar algo de lo Great que los gringos son capaces. El jazz es conmovedor, como el buen vino. Lo preocupado y lo conmovedor siempre están en batalla con lo insensible y lo grosero. Los enólogos como artistas son parte de la batalla contra el declive global hacia la mediocridad y el consumismo popular. Entonces: ¿cómo hacemos este trabajo sin esnobismo, sin presunción, y sin caer en predicar a sólo los ya convertidos? ¿Cómo lo hacemos sin comprometernos, y sin comprometer el alma del vino?

No pretendo tener la respuesta, pero sí sé que cuando lo alcanzamos, se pasa de ser un agricultor aislado, subestimado, campesino que hace las cosas al revés, a ser una prueba tangible de la inevitable trascendencia de la cultura y el arte.

En estos tiempos, más que nunca, debemos seguir y hacer el trabajo para ayudar a la gente a superar estos tiempos.

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Reading Between the Points

Monday, 29 November 2021 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Years ago after a long evening of wine and wine chatter, a friend, who wasnt in the wine business, shared with me a theory about how to buy wine using points. To his thinking, from what he overheard, if there was so much hullabaloo about the latest 90+ point wine, clearly the best buys must be the 89 pointers. He reasoned they must be better priced, pack more bang for the buck, and be less likely to be “taken by someone else to the same dinner party”.

He theorized that there must be a whole bunch of these ‘sleepers’— he called them, good wines that didn’t show well the day of their dance recital what with so many other bottles all in line trying to kick a little higher than the bottle next to them. I could not help but to agree with his thinking and was intrigued by the idea of an alternative reading in wine criticism ie that which was not the writer’s intent. [Full disclosure: in my life before wine I wrote a master’s thesis on irony, so parallel communication of the unwritten does strike a chord with me.]

Fast forward to today…

Again after an evening of much wine and wine chatter I thought back to my friend, but two things are different. One: due to a more specialised wine trade crowd– and some might argue wine-point inflation, 90 points is no longer enough. Two: the chatter this time was on WhatsApp due to lockdown. Interestingly, this time the chatting revolved around wines that a certain critic insisted only achieved greatness at 95 points and up.

Applying my friend’s his logic today, the sleepers, and thus the “smart buy”, would be 94 pointers. With so much of chat dedicated to their greatnesses at 95 plus my friends theory would seem to be as true as ever. And thus, wouldn’t it be a terrific tasting indeed to line up the 94’s I got to thinking. Within these ranks there must be wines that just didn’t kick high enough, or as I shall explain: kick fast enough, when their turn came.

Garage has particpated in many tastings, and helped organise many more such tastings in the neighbourhood in Maule and or for MoVI and these are a few things I have gleaned. 

The number of wines tasted in a any session is very often inversely proportional to the time allowed each. And here I share something I have learned about the mere 94’s of the world: many, if not most, have a way of starting late. (Something I personally identify with as a late bloomer). I would go even further and say that some of the best ones are in point of fact these one’s that are slower out of the starting blocks. They can have something special, but only for those who take a little longer. These are the wines for enjoying at table. Afterall, who’s in a hurry in these times?

When my friend reads this he is going to raise the question: how much more do these wines cost than his 89 pt sleepers of yesteryear?  I would answer that these wines pack a whole lot more than that ‘first kick’. To be sure they have an initial impression, but they also have a few minutes in the glass personality, and then, if one is patient, a more evolved and complex more time required reward complexity for the patient and studiously hedonist / hedonistly studious— if only we take the time. (Pilar would say some have a best the next day on the counter grace too!)

Don’t these slouchy 94’s start to sound like the perfect wines for these times? And mightn’t this alternative reading, a kind of reading between the points be just the remedy for these last weeks of quarantine?  

What does near greatness cost?

These wines are going to set you back a little more–  more than a $20 but hopefuly less than two, but what did you expect? They will come packing a lot more. They have been crafted not fabricated more personally on a more human scale. I would ask my friend stuck in the past: why are we so stingy with wine? It‘s nourishment you know and not just for the body but also for the soul. And what did the organic beef set you back anyway?

It is important in these times to take stock of the importance and power of where we make our purchases: food, wine and much more. We must think about the importance of the small, of the independent, of the family run. Such independent, lets call them indie firms have knowledge and experience, and they can steer you to things delicious and flavourful outside your comfort zone. And, if you are online, in these times, why not try some 94’s or an alternative reading of your own, whilst we wait for all of this to turn the corner.

Be well / stay safe.

Djmk

Here is a very partial list of establishments that are purveying some great things that I know of [and am envious of those of you who can take advantage of] in the mentioned fair cities far away.

Archive – Toronto (terrific well curated selection)

Red Lion and Sun – London (See short videos on Insta and you will soon get the idea)

Garagiste – USA (a stalwart source for many a year)

La Cava del Sommelier – Santiago, Chile (consulta pregunta aquí hay ideas and patience)

@catodochile wine pusher extraordinaire

Vinos Natural (great things not easy to find in Chile including Argentine wines)

If you know of links that should ney need be included here send them on!

And finally, if in Chile, and if you have not managed to pinch a link already here is a link to a case of your’s truly’s own mere 94’s.

Finalmente, si está en Chile, y si no ha logrado clickear un enlace ya, aquí hay un enlace a una caja de 6 x 94.

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Garage Wine Co
Winery: Camino San Antonio Caliboro KM 5.8 San Javier 3660000
Región del Maule, Chile

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About Garage Wine Co.

Garage Wine began quite literally in Pilar and Derek’s Garage. After half a dozen vintages making wine for an informal market of family and friends, it began exporting to UK & Denmark in 2006

The Parcels

GWCo makes wines from a series of individual parcels, small lots / bottlings of 8 -22 barrels that include a series of dry-farmed field-blends of Carignan, Garnacha, Monastrell, País, Cinsault and Cab Franc grown on pre-phylloxera rootstock with small farmers in the Maule and Itata. Each wine is from a 1-2 hectare parcel in a different place: Bagual, Caliboro, Coelemu, Guarilihue, Loncomilla, Portezuelo, Puico, Ranquil, Sauzal, Truquilemu…

Over the years working in the community we have raised a veritable posse of vineyard hands whose skills are working the vineyards the old way / the traditional way— originario. We cultivate vineyards with small vigneron partners who work with horse and plough as his family has done for generations. Some of the parcels, where the next generation moved to the city, we have opted to rent long-term creating more work for the local hands who do want to stay on the farm.

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The vineyards are on the old Coastal Range of mountains closer to the Pacific — Chile’s other mountains. These are older and cooled more slowly so they have granitic soils, many with intrusions and cracks for roots to get deep down into. When GWCo. speaks of the provenance of our wines however we mean more than just the geology of the terroir. This is a good start, but we are convinced the farming practices that have evolved over generations have as much to do with the wines’ personalities as the soils. The regeneration of the vineyards long since neglected depends upon this farming.

GWCo. also makes an old-vine Cab Franc (old bush head vines) and a Cab Sauv blend in the Maule as well as two Cabs mountain-grown in the Maipo where the firm began in 2003.

All the wines are made by hand with native yeasts in small tanks, punched down manually and pressed out in a small basket press. GWCo is still very much a DIY operation and we still tow much of the crop back to the winery in trailers behind trusty pickup trucks 2,ooo kilos at a time.

Single Ferment Series Wines

Pais & Cinsault in the Secano Interior, the cradle of the original Chilean viticulture, have been forever the victim of commodity pricing. When GWCo saw its Carignan growers being paid paltry sums for their other fruit we began acquiring small bits from various farmers to experiment. From the beginning, we paid bonafide prices that would allow for the traditional field works to cultivate the soil properly to continue into the future. Commercial bottlings of “Single Ferments” began with serendipity when we simply could not resist not one but three small bits of Cinsault. And then promptly plain ran out of tanks to ferment them in. With nowhere to put all three, we simply stacked the second bit of newly harvested fruit on top of the first already fermenting—and then the third on top of both, creating one single fermentation from the fruit of three farms. We adopted the same technique with Pais and subsequently named both wines: Single Ferment Series.

The Nitty Gritty

In these times it is important to stand for what you believe in, and more importantly to build the kind of business you believe in. At Garage Wine Co. we revive old vineyards in marginalized Chilean communities to make coveted wines. We’ve positioned these wines in a dozen established fine wine markets around the world and we grow. The wines are not made to be expensive per se, but they are found on the higher shelves– they need to command a price that allows for proper farming. What we have discovered is that the long-term practices of regenerative farming not only make for better fruit and thus more flavourful wine, but that such a business can become a force for financial, community and environmental good.

The Baby and the Bathwater  

As South American wine exports have boomed over the last quarter-century, it has grown increasingly difficult for small farmers to sell their old-vine grapes at a proper price – a price that can consistently sustain family and community. Mainstream buyers want more for less and they would have the growers modernise. The modern wine business calls for spraying instead of cultivating, scaling instead of focusing, and above all: reducing the cost of labour. But with the old vineyards, the labour is precisely where one finds the wisdom of farming passed down through the ages. Throwing that away would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Regenerative Farming

Farming in the Secano Interior, the Maule and Itata valleys of Southern Chile, has been a way of life since Colonial times. Not just vineyards, but mixed farming of heritage seed wheat, free-range livestock and local market produce. Small-scale farms use dry-farming methods: turning over the earth to capture scarce seasonal rainwater, and nutrients from the clever use of seasonal cover crops that in turn help sequester carbon from the air, and the use of horses to get into rows where tractors can’t reach.

This is where GWCo. works; too far from the comfort zone of those in the mainstream. These vineyards were neglected and relegated to bulk wine for decades because the booming market wanted branded varietals that didn’t command a price to support the work.

For more than a decade GWCo. has worked these old vines, there has been a marked improvement both in vineyard health and quality of the fruit produced.

The marrying of the fieldcraft of these small-scale farmers with the lens of modern science and GWCo’s mindful winemaking took a decade, but the marriage has proven successful not just for GWCo, but also for the farmers, our suppliers and customers alike. Over the past few years, we have begun to rent and in some cases acquire the property underneath the old vines. Today one-third of our production is worked our way with our own people.

Necessity was the mother of sustainability

Sustainability for us was never about seals and certifications. We became sustainable just trying to survive being small in an industry geared to the big. Vintage after vintage we made our way through a series of necessary work-arounds, finding a way forward, that only later would be seen to be sustainable.

Recycled bottles – Because our production runs were small we were challenged when it came to dry-goods. When bottle makers refused to deliver to us, we found a local bottle recycler who became a trusted partner. This small business employs workers in a rural part of the country where stable and safe work is hard to find. What we learned is that when bottles are manufactured they have a limited shelf-life on the factory patio—a best before date if you will. Today we buy these bottles and wash them before use. This is glass that would otherwise have been smashed and melted and remade—without ever having been used. What is the carbon footprint of a bottle manufactured twice to be used once?

Labels & Packaging— We learned to paint / silk-screen bottles because our bottlings were so small that the label printers did not want to work with us. The industry was geared to long print runs and said there was no money in printing 1200 labels. So we built a custom machine and found experienced hands with silk-screening. Luis, our bottle painter, has been painting bottles for us for 11 years now. (Chile’s first hotel built entirely of recycled materials: The WineBox, has adapted out bottles for their lamps today.)

What’s with the wax? - Regular capsules were also sold with a minimum far larger than our needs, so we found a school supply firm that would make us food-safe wax for seals from crayon wax.

All of these workarounds-- bothers slash hassles at the time, led to a positive and durable differentiation in packaging. We have continued to work with earth-friendly inks for silk screening and recycled materials for cases.

Fermentation tanks: Unable to buy new tanks— designed to make mainstream wines, large, expensive and inflexible in their design, we took the leftover cuttings and scraps of a large stainless manufacturer and pieced together Lagars (traditional word for open tanks). We did it for far less money and the upcycling created opportunities for local welding shops.

Fruit: Years ago we bought from mainstream growers. When we made a crackerjack wine, the grower would use the prestige with critics to sell our fruit to someone bigger / better known leaving us without said fruit and without continuity in our portfolio. After two or three experiences such as this, frustrated, we went South to the Secano to work with growers unknown, unpolished, and disconnected from the mainstream. Working closely with small growers far from the beaten path, we found diamonds in the rough. When the polishing was done we had forged a bond with the growers—partnerships that we have continued to build upon with others in the neighbourhood.

Diverse leadership

Let’s face it, the wine business can be conservative, clubby and patriarchic. Having a female lead our work helps us work with our growers and suppliers on a different footing. We also like to mix scientists with field hands. Instead of contracting the cheapest bused-in labour, we keep it local where there are more experienced hands. Mercenary piecework doesn’t work — proper sourcing does. It’s a mouthful, but in a phrase: the difference created by the discretionary effort released when you work in good faith with local farmhands is so much more than the savings that might be achieved from cost-cutting, that there’s no comparing the two. We have never looked back.

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