Garage Wine Co. Old Vine Pale
WHY WE LOVE IT
- The vines for this wine are 75+ years old and take up 7 rows at one end of the Truquilemu vineyard with access to more water and thus more vigorous vines.
- Truquilemu is perhaps the freshest corner of the Maule, high on the Coastal Range of mountains.
- Garage Wine Co. manages this vineyard themselves (no grower partner) and use Ancestral farming cultivating vineyard by hand and horse.
Varietal Composition: Carignan with a smidgen of Mataró
Elaboration: The vineyard has granitic soils/sub-soils have cracked granite that allow roots to drink deep down. 1,5 – 2 kg per plant /about 1500 plants. It sits on the Coastal Range of mountains (not the Andes) much older and more importantly much slower to cool than the Andes ie crystals granite quartz. Ancestral farming by hand and horse is used. It is naturally fermented with native yeasts. It is fermented without skins in two parts: part of the blend pressed out like a white and part made like a red without skins. Yeasts native (we add Truquilemu wine from previous vintage to a pie de cuba). The wine is aged in barrels over one winter— barrels fourth use or more. 2019 is the 93rd wine bottled produced since 2001 and thus it is marked Lot #93.
Tasting Notes: A cheeky chilled red with a very tasty palate: vivid notes of pomegranate, cranberries, wild strawberries and citrus with herbs– that literally makes you hunger for food. Oily on the palate with crunchy berries and linear acidity to match mid-weight phenolics. Delicious and serious. A light red for chilling not a rosé—full stop.
PRESS
2020 – 92 Wine Advocate
2019 – 93 Wine Advocate
2018 – 92 Wine Advocate, 90 Vinous
2017 – 91 Wine Advocate
2016 – 90 Wine Advocate
PRODUCER BACKGROUND
Derek Mossman, his wife Pilar Miranda, and Dr. Alvaro Peña are producing 1,500 cases total per year of old-vine Carignan, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, with fruit sourced from small growers in Maule and Maipo.
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. You may notice slight variation in bottle thickness and shape if you were to open up 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.