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Garage James Suckling Scores

Tuesday, 21 March 2023 by Derek Mossman Knapp

Garage Wine Co. Cariñena Empedrado Truquilemu Vineyard Field Blend 2019

Score
Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

Beautiful blue fruit here with lots of wild herbs, white pepper, graphite and boysenberries. Flowers and garrigues. This is really soulful and incredibly silky and textured on the palate. Elegantly rendered with soft-spoken fruit quickly dominated by textured, velvety tannins. Impeccable juicy fruit and balance. Drink or hold. 

Garage Wine Co.• Carignan Valle de Maule VIGNO 2020 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2020

A very juicy, expansive VIGNO here with a twist of white pepper and herbs with plenty of blue fruit. This is more of a full-bodied carignan with an expansive mid-palate and concentrated fruit. Very bright and succulent. Fresh and lengthy. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.•Cabernet Sauvignon Valle de Maule Renacido Vineyard 2020 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2020

Really vivid and racy blue fruit to the nose. Punchy and floral with bright acidity that cuts through the tense, full-bodied palate, and creamy, melted tannins which are well integrated and expansive. Excellent fruit purity and raciness. Cabernet sauvignon grafted onto old-vine pais. Lot 114. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.• Cabernet Franc Valle de Maule Las Higueras 2020 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2020

Bright and racy deep blue fruit with a floral note. Full-bodied on the palate but so fresh and effortless, too, with dense but closely-knit tannins and a solid profile of fruit. Drinkable now, but better in a few years.

Garage Wine Co.• Cariñena Garnacha Monastrell Empedrado Sauzal Vineyard 2019 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

A rich, full-bodied but fresh Mediterranean expression here with lots of wild dried herbs and garrigues to the black cherries. Juicy and bright on the palate with dense but really fine-grained and creamy tannins. Long and delicious. Lot 105. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.• Cariñena Garnacha Monastrell Maule Calivoro Bagual Vineyard 2019 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

Rich black and red berries with some wild herbs and dark spices. Full-bodied, juicy and vibrant on the palate with deep but polished and refined tannins. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.• Syrah Maule Cauquenes Pereira 2020 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2020

Tarry nose with lots of wild herbs and violets. Juicy, full-bodied and tense on the palate with dense, creamy tannins. Really fresh for a syrah from 2020 with vivid fruit in the finish. Long and expressive. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.• Cabernet Franc Valle Maipo Pirque Vineyard 2019 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

A savory cabernet franc with some tobacco leaves to the racy currants and dried strawberries. A splash of allspice and orange peel, too. Tannins are firm and nicely present on the medium-bodied palate. Very clean and dry in terms of sweetness. Medium acidity here, which is not very common for Garage. Lot 110. Drink now.

Garage Wine Co.• Cariñena Monastrell Empedrado Old Vine Pale Rosé 2022 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2022

Bright coral pink color with a touch of reduction now. Some cherries, watermelon, grapefruit and strawberries. Vibrant, bone-dry and acid-driven on the palate with a bit of phenolic bite. A fuller rosé with brilliant tension, purity and structured tannins. One of the most serious rosés in Chile. Gastronomic! Drink now.

Garage Wine Co.• Garnacha Valle de Maule Bagual Vineyard 2019 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

Sweet strawberries and raspberries to the nose. Wild red berries and some fine herbs and flowers. Very juicy and fluent on the palate with plenty of strawberries. I love the wild dried herbs here. Silky, fruit-expressive and long. Lot 109. Delicious now, why hold?

Garage Wine Co.• Cabernet Sauvignon Valle de Maipo Reelegido Vineyard 2019 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
Valle Central
Vintage:
2019

Ripe and savory nose with pretty currants and hints of iron and graphite. Black olives and tobacco leaf, too. Full-bodied on the palate with plenty of fine-grained tannins and juicy fruit. Pretty compact, concentrated and long. Lot 111. Drink or hold.

Garage Wine Co.• Cinsault Secano Interior Single Ferment Series The Soothsayers Ferment 2021 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2021

Very bright nose full of red berries, cherries and flowers. A twist of fresh herbs. Fruity but bone-dry with succulent cherries and soft, fine tannins. Lots of drinkability here. Enjoy now.

Garage Wine Co.• País Secano Interior Cauquenes Old-Vine Revival. Vino de Pueblo 2021

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2021

A white pepper note to the wild, brambly fruit. Cherries, raspberries and some pomegranate. The bone-dry, light- to medium-bodied palate delivers firm but creamy tannins. A very well-made pais. Drink now.

Garage Wine Co.• País Cariñena Chile Single Ferment Series Phoenix Ferment 2022 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2022

Fresh nectarines, grapefruit and pears to the nose. A hint of chalk. The palate is bone-dry and creamy with a steely note to the center palate and plenty of white-fruit fleshiness. Austere. A tad more weight than 2021. 85% pais and 15% carinena. Whole bunch pressing. Fruit from Secano Interior. Drink now.

Garage Wine Co.• País Cariñena Secano Interior Single Ferment Series Phoenix Ferment 2021 

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2021

A slightly floral note to the green apple and limey fruit. Chalky and saline on the palate with a crisp mouthfeel. Very dry, fresh and gastronomic. Drink now.

2021 Garage Wine Co.• País Secano Interior Almaule

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2021

Some dark earth and soil to the nose with fresh herbs and dark raspberries. Crisp and medium-bodied with fresh and firm tannins. Drink now.

Garage Wine Co.• Semillón Valle de Maule Isidore Vineyard 2021

Score
Country:
Chile
Region:
South Region
Vintage:
2021

A little more old-school than previous vintages with a hint of Parmesan cheese to the fruit. Some apricots, stones, honey and lees. Pretty tight and full-bodied on the palate with chewy tannins and an austere finish. Drink now.

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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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