94 & 95 Point Reds From Chile

‘A NAME TO FOLLOW, AMONG THE MOST EXCITING IN CHILE’
–ROBERT PARKER’S THE WINE ADVOCATE

“We scored a great allocation on the hottest wine coming out of Chile: Garage Wine Co. Paying homage to the concept of celebrated wine companies who began in a garage, Derek Mossman Knapp is a driving force in the new, alternative market coming from Chile. As Luis Gutiérrez in Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate says, Garage Wine Co. is definitely ‘a name to follow’! We’ve got two of their top cuvees that scored 94 and 95 points respectively from The Wine Advocate, as well as the second version of their single ferment País with great pricing, 14% off the release price. We have extremely limited supply, so get it while its hot!” –Glen Knight, The Wine House

“Sometimes is hard to get your head around the different bottlings, so it took me some time to understand the differences between this wine I'll call 2014 Bagual Vineyard and the Garnacha field blend from the same place. This is a Carignan, Garnacha and Mataró field blend marked lot #56 where the Carignan is approximately 75 years old and the Garnacha and Mataró were grafted on roots of País that was over 150 years old. It's perfumed, floral, aromatic, intoxicating, nuanced and harmonious, with the elegance and subtleness of a white wine. It has good grip, with very fine tannins and great acidity. 1,694 bottles were filled in November 2015.” –Luis Gutiérrez, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, April 2017

From the Winery: River´s edge, alluvial Bagual Vineyard is found on the banks of the Perquilauquen River. A river that (very unusual for Chile!) flows from the Coastal Mountains East towards the Andes passing through Caliboro bringing granitic silt with it. East of Caliboro it turns North and then West joining the Loncomilla and then the Maule river and on out to the Pacific. The Perquilauquen is wide through this section like a narrow lake and this water body lends the fruit cooler conditions than neighboring Melosal or Loncomilla.

Naturally fermented with native yeasts in open top fermenters using punch-down technique Barrel-aged over two winters in French Barrels (various cooperages, 2 + uses-- no new wood) This wine was grown by ploughmen farmers in the Maule. It was farmed by hand and horse with traditional methods of dry-farming old vines with vines of Garnacha and Mataró in the field-blend. It was fermented naturally in small tanks with open-tops. Caps were punched down by hand and pressing was strictly manual. The wine was aged in barrels over two winters— barrels of three or more uses. Yeasts native (we add Bagual wine from previous vintage to a ‘pie de cuba’ primer) No temp control (besides opening closing windows) open tank, Pinch of sulfites after Malolactic that normally finishes a full 7 months after harvest with next summer´s heat. Another pinch before bottling.

This wine is a tribute to the resilience of the ploughmen farmers of the Maule who have been stewards of the vines of Caliboro since colonial times. The 56th wine we have produced since 2001 it is thus labeled Lot # 56.

“The Carignan with smidgens of Mataró and País in the field blend bottled as 2014 Truquilemu Vineyard comes from an old dry-farmed vineyard belonging to the Orellana family in the cooler Empedrado zone in Maule. Mossman describes this as "Understated and layered—driven by florality & finesse." The wines never have any impact from the élevage and tend to have moderate alcohol and very good acidity and freshness. This is no exception. It has incredible freshness with notes of blood orange peel and wild herbs—floral, insinuating, harmonious and elegant. The palate is elegant and shows vibrant acidity, is super balanced and incredibly tasty. This is very much like the Vigno. 6,428 bottles were filled from 21 barrels of Cariñena and one of Mataró (Monastrell) in November 2015. In fact, they select a number of these barrels to make their Vigno bottling.” –Luis Gutiérrez, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, April 2017

From the Winery: This wine was grown by a small farmer in the Maule. It was farmed by hand and horse with traditional methods of dry-farming 70+ year old vines with vines. It was fermented naturally in small tanks with open-tops. Caps were punched down by hand and pressing was strictly manual. The wine was aged in barrels over two winters— barrels of three or more uses.

This wine is a tribute to the resilience of the ploughmen farmers of the Maule who have been stewards of the vines since colonial times. The 57th wine we have produced since 2001 it is thus labelled Lot # 57.

ABOUT GARAGE WINE CO. – ROBERT PARKER’S THE WINE ADVOCATE

By Luis Gutiérrez

The wines from garage Wine Co. are divided into two simple categories: wines aged for one winter before bottling and wines aged for two winters before bottling! The former are simple, fresh and quaffable wines with good acidity; the latter have more depth but always keeping the freshness and especially the character of the vintage, the grapes and the places where they are grown. A name to follow, among the most exciting in Chile.

Tasting the whole range with Derek Mossman is one of the highlights of my Chilean report every year. Fun and exciting wines. When I asked Derek Mossman to tell me what was new he wrote this, in his usual amusing style, that I considered worth sharing:

1) Two new "Single Ferment Series" wines from Secano Interior: País & Cinsault
- These two wines include fruit from more than one parcel or vineyard site and are (co-fermented) "in one single ferment." Sometimes all the fruit does not enter the tank at same time, and we simply stack on top of the fermenting tank when the next fruit is ripe—one single ferment, one single wine. It took us years to come up with what we could do as an alternative to the nine wines of the line that we make from single parcels; this is it.
- Single Ferments are barrel-aged over only one winter in neutral barrels for release younger than our wines of the line.
- We give each Single Ferment a name. (Example: as the first Cinsault was the product of our incapacity to resist just one more unloved vineyard and, moreover, Pilar's premonition that we would not be able to fit this fruit into a tank that forced us to co-ferment, we called it the Soothsayer's ferment.)

2) Cab Franc and Sauvignon
- From our beginnings, we have made a Cab Sauvignon from high in the Maipo (El Principal in the beginning), and then we moved up to San Juan de Pirque. One could say we appreciated the freshness that altitude brings and finer, more finesse-driven tannin (vs. brute power).
- Our focus since about 2006 has been in the Secano Interior of Maule and Itata, and we have wanted to make Cabs of old-vines dry-farmed where our focus is today.
- In 2013, we began making a Cab Franc Las Higueras vineyard, and today we produce a Maule Cab Sauvignon from Renacido, which we shall present to you (for the first time in public).

3) Tank shape
- A) The original wooden lagars that have been used for centuries making wine in the Secano Interior are tapered toward the top creating a certain resistance when caps are naturally pushed upward with fermentation. I have been working on stainless steel transportable tanks that have the same shape but are moveable and easy to clean.
- B) Meanwhile Pilar and Alvaro have been working on a University of Chile project with funding from FIA and INDAP making a series of what are "Growers País" and/or Cinsault. I soon realized that government funds have been paying for inappropriate modern tanks with tops and needing pumps that are changing the style of the wines that the traditional growers are making! In hopes of showing them common sense, I have begun in earnest designing old style/modern material tanks in various shapes.
- C) We are now testing them widely. Hopefully we can convince FIA and INDAP to provide more practical tools in keeping with the history and legacy of the Secano for their project in future.

4) Lot numbers dropped to lesser importance
- Our lot numbers are just that: the number of bottling we have done since 2001. With nine names of vineyards we felt it was easier for the public to follow a Lot number, but perhaps we were wrong. The vineyard name and terroir is what truly defines our nine wines from parcels. With this in mind, we now use the vineyard's name at the top.

5) Local talent in the Secano
- For more than a decade, we have pursued old-vines in the Secano Costero and have met on the way a host of small farmers worthy of a trilogy.
- Beyond growing fruit together with these farmers, today we work other farms together. We are continually surprised by the wealth of knowledge these farmers have, seemingly without realizing they have it, for they are not considered, not even for a moment, by the powers that be in the trade. This is not to belittle the tremendous knowledge of our peers with degrees, but the wisdom about cultivating vines in the hands of these "curators" makes us think. Each year we are working more and more days about with this posse pruning, ploughing, prepping and harvesting the various parcels, and we have gained greater autonomy for having done so.
- We believe there is important work to be done in these years to incorporate this knowledge in the bigger picture.