2020 Garage Wine Company "Bagual Vineyard - Lot 116" Cariñena-Garnacha-Monastrell Valle de Maule

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Scott Beckerley

Scott Beckerley

I just love the wines from Garage Wine Company. From the funny name to the not funny taste. This Lot 116 has red cassis, black cherries and a nicely chalky finish. As always, an extremely solid and reliable red wine that is both interesting and unique.

Notes

Garage Wine Co. was founded in 2001 by Derek Mossman Knapp, Pilar Miranda, and oenologist Dr. Alvaro Peña. Originally from Toronto, Knapp moved to Chile in the late 1990s—initially for a skiing trip—but stayed after meeting his wife, Pilar Miranda, and discovering the potential of the country's old-growth vineyards. Garage Wine Co. began as a literal "garage" hobby to make small-batch wines for family and friends. It has since grown into a mid-sized artisanal winery into a respected producer of small-batch, terroir-driven wines from the Maule Valley and other regions of southern Chile. The winery works closely with local growers to revive old, dry-farmed vineyards using traditional “originario” methods such as hand cultivation and ploughing with horses, and they ferment all their wines with indigenous yeasts in a hands-on, minimal-intervention style. One of its standout sites is the Bagual Vineyard in Caliboro, a parcel on the banks of the Perquilauquen River with rare alluvial and granitic soils that give the fruit distinctive cool-climate energy and depth. At Bagual, ancient vines of Garnacha, Carignan, and Mataró (Monastrell) are farmed by hand and often with horse work, yielding very limited lots of richly textured, earthy red wines. These wines are celebrated for their plum and berry flavors, spicy and floral notes, fine tannins, balanced acidity, and a savory, vibrant finish that speaks to the vineyard’s unique terroir.