- Carignan, Grenache, Mataró
- Dry
- Residual Sugar: 1.3 g/l
- Medium Bodied
- 750ml
- 14% alc./vol
About the Winery
Garage Wine Co.
Garage Wine was literally started in a garage in 2001, by Etobicoke expat Derek Mossman and his wife Pilar Miranda. Since then, the dynamic duo handcraft wines from a series of individual vineyards located in the Maule and Itata Valleys, in the south of Santiago, Chile.
Garage Wine Co 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.
Over the years working in the community they have raised a veritable posse of vineyard hands whose skills are working the vineyards the old way / the traditional way– originario. The vineyards are on the old coastal range of mountains closer to the Pacific and have granitic soils with cracks for roots to get deep down into.
When GWCo. speaks of the provenance of these wines they mean more than just the geological terroir. Derek and Pilar think the farming practices that have evolved over generations have as much to do with the wines’ personalities as the soils. 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 2,000 kilos at a time.
Press Reviews
Robert Parker
95+ points
They say the 2019 Bagual Vineyard Cariñena Garnacha Monastrell is a tribute to the resilience of the plowmen farmers of the Maule who have been stewards of the vines of Caliboro since colonial times. It's marked as lot #106, as it's the 106th wine they have bottled since 2001. I left this wine in the glass for a long time, and it didn't stop changing and improving. At first, it felt a little rougher than the 2018, but it opened up and cleaned in the glass, and in the end it was as good (and perhaps better!). It reveals the more floral side of Cariñena, with low alcohol (13.5%) and notable acidity (6.33 in tartaric) and freshness (pH 3.25!), vibrant and long. These are intellectual wines that require time but are deeply satisfying. I have to say that I kept changing my mind (and my scores!) as the wines developed in the glass; they are not to be assessed quickly. They are a moving target! I think there's more complexity here than in the pure Garnacha...
Deschorchados
95 points
The Bagual Vineyard is located on the banks of the Perquilauquen River, planted on alluvial soils in the San Javier zone of the Maule Valley's dry-farmed secano. The soils are granitic, and that can be seen in this wine of 40% cariñena plus 40% garnacha and 20% monastrell, all grafted onto old país vines. The freshness of the fruit is powerful in this wine, and the nervy sensation from the acidity in the carignan plays a leading role here. A red to leave in its bottle for a while, but it could also be drunk now with a plate of charcuterie.