Garage Wine Co. Chilean Carignan // Set Of 3

Garage Wine began quite literally in Derek Mossman and his wife Pilar Miranda's garage in 2001. After half a dozen vintages of making wine for an informal market of family and friends, the firm was featured in Chile’s El Mercurio newspaper in an article dedicated to the growing grassroots movement of small wine. The firm was referred to as “that Garage Wine Company” and it was too late to change the name, so it was time to forge an enterprise.

Garage Wine Co. makes about a dozen different single vineyard wines per year that include mountain grown Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from Maipo. Each wine is from a different place: Caliboro, Sauzal, Truquilemu, Portezuelo – a separate parcel of 1-2 hectares belonging to a small farmer who works with horse and plough as his family has done pretty much since colonial times. The wines are about place not varietal, nor consumer.

Grapes are trucked to harvest in a trailer behind Derek Mossman's trusty pickup 2,000 kilos at a time. Winemaking here veers towards the "natural" spectrum - all wines are fermented with native yeast, see no additions of any kind, very little new wood, and are low in sulfites. Punch downs are by hand, and pressing is done in a small traditional basket. There may be a slight variation in bottle thickness and shape within their cases, as Derek Mossman takes recycling to the next level and actually reuses old bottles, bottling in salvaged, used wine bottles in partnership with a recycling company located near the winery. Derek is also the founder of M.O.V.I. (Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes), Chile's exciting, fast-growing association of independent vintners.

This Chilean Red is a tribute to the resilience of the ploughmen farmers of the Secano Interior who have been stewards of the vines since colonial times. Portezuelo was the site of the first winery in Chile. The 58th wine we have bottled since 2001 it is thus labelled Lot # 58.

“Lot #58….is the 2014 Portezuelo Vineyard, a Cariñena field blend planted in the early 1940s with some Cinsault from the Lavin family in Itata. The vineyard is on the initial slopes of the Coastal Range and enjoys shade early in the afternoon due to its exposure facing east. It compensated for the relative warmer temperatures from Portezuelo. Some people dismiss it because it's a warm place, but it really keeps the freshness. It's more Mediterranean with notes of dried herbs and spices, quite balsamic. The palate has the austerity and tastiness of the granite. 2,170 bottles were filled in December 2015.” ~ 93 Points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.