In a nutshell / the Nitty Gritty
Acá esta la formula Garagewineco 😆
#gwcoharvest2022 #garagewineco #singleferments #vino #vinoschilenos #chile #vinosmaule #wine #vin #instawine #gwcosingleferments #oldvinerevival #oldvines #winevin
Once again in 2022 we are short barrels— just like every year. #gwcoharvest2022 #gwcowinery #mauleadicto
Makes we want to JUMP ( Old Vine Pale Rosé 2022 ) #gwcoharvest2022
Pisoneos finales / final punch downs #gwcoharvest2022
Cosas cool pasando en los pasillos de @terranoble con @marcelogarciadeandraca Cool things happening in the passages between the tanks of Terra Noble with Marcelo García - stay tuned #gwcoharvest2022
Punching down is an important part of our cellar work. Less extraction than years ago but here and there one does have to get physical . . . El pisoneo sigue siendo importante en bódega. Mucho menos extractiva que en el pasado pero hay días cuando uno tiene que ser bien físico . . .
#letsgetphysical #olivianewtonjohnforever
#gwcoharvest2022 #gwcowinery
Last day cutting #gwcosauzalvineyard #gwcoharvest2022 #mauleadicto
Cabernet Sauvignon 12 Alc 14 de abril 🍇
#gwcoharvest2022 #garagewineco #singleferments #vino #vinoschilenos #chile #vinosmaule #wine #vin #instawine #gwcosingleferments #oldvinerevival #oldvines #winevin
Cheers Harvest 2022 / Liz Taylor Coshecha 2022 - we finish with Pais from Don Nivaldo in Sauzal #mauleadicto #gwcosauzalvineyard #drinkchile #winesofchile @singleferments #gwcoharvest2022
Última gamela abordo #gwcoharvest2022
Getting close to the end of the cutting #gwcotruquilemuvineyard #gwcoharvest2022
Cabernet Sauvignon 12 Alc Apr 14 #gwcoharvest2022
#gwcoharvest2022 Puico Alto
Painting still life Cab Sauv #gwcoharvest2022
Cutting Cab Sauv 12,8 on April 14 - we are not in Maipo anymore Toto! #mauleadicto #gwcoharvest2022
Thanks to @pairedexperiences for their help with small bin of odds and ends from Garnacha to Cariñena to Negramol. Great foot work 😉 #gwcoharvest2022
Thibault has been helping bring in the fruit and deserves more than a brief mention / Thibault ha estado canasteando en estos dias y merece aparecer entre los canasteros. #gwcoharvest2022
Hot out this morning as we wait for the breeze of mid-day.
#gwcotruquilemuvineyard #mauleadicto #gwcoharvest2022
Small problem starting out this morning. (My father always said one should give the 4x4 some excercise very once in a while.) País in Sauzal - Puico today / pequeño problema entrando con camión hoy pero nada que la camioneta 4x 4 no podía resolver. País en el barrio de nuevo hoy de otra familia del equipo de astros. #oldvinerevival #gwcoharvest2022
Ceci n'est pas un Cabernet #gwcoharvest2022
Old vine revival - Secano Interior #gwcoharvest2022
A harvest with a cool long finish full of bad hats and worse cell coverage #gwcoharvest2022
How does the harvest look Pilo? #gwcoharvest2022 como se ve la vendimia Negra ?
I am reminded of @rush Album 2112 “wires that vibrate and give music, what can this thing be . . . #gwcocabfranc
#gwcoharvest2022
#gwcolashiguerasvineyard
#mauleadicto
#mauleprofundo
#regiondelmaule
#drinkchile
#maulevalley
#valledelmaule
Let’s zoom in on harvest of Cab Franc in Las Higueras hagamos el otro zoom hacia una fruta Cab Franc de Las Higueras hoy #gwcocabfranc
#gwcoharvest2022
#gwcolashiguerasvineyard
#mauleadicto
#mauleprofundo
#regiondelmaule
#drinkchile
#maulevalley
#valledelmaule
Calivoro forever gwco
#gwcobagualgarnacha
#gwcoharvest2022
#mauleadicto
#mauleprofundo
#regiondelmaule
#crdpmaule
#maulevalley
#valledelmaule
I love the box shots
#gwcoharvest2022 #gwconegramole #gwcosanfrancisco
#mauleadicto #maulevalley # maule #drinkchile #oldvinerevival
Daughter and father dupla Maria y Juan Arias cutting Cab Franc in #gwcolashiguerasvineyard #gwcoharvest2022 #mauleadicto #drinkchile #regenerativeagriculture #agriculturaregenerativa #agriculturaregenerativachile
Raspón tensión inspiración / lignified stems create tension and inspiration. #gwcoharvest2022 #gwcocinsault
Sauzal Vineyard CGM today we cut the Cariñena (original spelling) #gwcosauzalvineyard #harvest2022 #gwcoharvest2022
White made red. Semillon Isidore Vynrd is made in pieces. One piece is simply fermented as red fruit with all the skins in amphora. #gwcoisidorevineyard #gwcosemillon #gwcoharvest2022
Idyll toys #maule #mauleadicto #maulevalley #gwcoharvest2022
Up close to Isidore Semillon #gwcoharvest2022 #gwcofieldcraft #gwcosemillon #mauleadicto #maulevalley
Nico (Grandson of Erasmo) seen making space for 2022 helping shuffling some of 2021 about— and asking when we are challenging the neighbors in some baby-futbol. #gwcoharvest2022 #mauleadicto
Full gurgling in these days with punch downs performed by various including Danni #gwcoharvest2022 #mauleadicto #mauleprofundo #maulevalley
Would you trust a young man with Udder Tugger on his shirt to do your punch downs? Answer: only if he is from Wisconsin #gwcoharvest2022
A white today to switch things up #gwcoharvest2022 #gwcosemillon #gwcoisidorevineyard #gwcofieldcraft #mauleadicto #mauleprofundo #maulevalley #maule #drinkchile #pinchyourselfharvest
Crossing the Loncomilla to save a few kilometres (like miles but slimmer and more European) #gwcoharvest2022 #maule #mauleadicto #maulevalley
Cap brims shielding morning sun or shy ? (Don Álvaro y Don Cristian) #gwcosauzalvineyard #gwcoharvest2022 #gwcoregenerative #mauleadicto #drinkchile #maulevalley
Cristian & Ester early morning picking #gwcoharvest2022 #mauleadicto #maulevalley
Syrah speeds up #gwcoharvest2022
#mauleprofundo #mauleadicto #maulevalley #regiondelmaule
Syrah starts in slow #gwcoharvest2022
Anticipating the difference some new ideas of regenerative farming make on the fruit and in the wine this year. Perhaps it is unfair, bush-head vs wires and rows but I am interested in seeing what both can do in a glass when they are ready. (We shall only have to wait 3 yrs to see 😉 #gwcolashiguerasvineyard #gwcoregenerative #gwcoharvest2022 #drinkchile
Renacido Cabernet #gwcoharvest2022 soonish #gwcorenacidovineyard | 2022 last week hanging / 2021 sleeping in barrels ‘between 2 winters’ / 2020 recently bottled / 2019 sold out / 2018 cellared at yours hopefully /
Malbec en Secano — de chupete #gwcorenacidovineyard #gwcoharvest2022
Garnacha 2022 timid fruit #gwcoharvest2022 #getyourmotorsrunning
#gwcobagualgarnacha #gwcobagualvineyard
Welcome to Garage Wine Co. wherever you are — español aquí.
Garage Wine began quite literally in Pilar and Derek’s Garage. After half a dozen vintages making wine for an informal market of family and friends, it began exporting to UK & Denmark in 2006
The Parcels
GWCo 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: Bagual, Caliboro, Coelemu, Guarilihue, Loncomilla, Portezuelo, Puico, Ranquil, Sauzal, Truquilemu…
Over the years working in the community we have raised a veritable posse of vineyard hands whose skills are working the vineyards the old way / the traditional way– originario. We cultivate vineyards with small vigneron partners who work with horse and plough as his family has done for generations. Some of the parcels, where the next generation moved to the city, we have opted to rent long-term creating more work for the local hands who do want to stay on the farm.
The vineyards are on the old Coastal Range of mountains closer to the Pacific — Chile’s other mountains. These are older and cooled more slowly so they have granitic soils, many with intrusions and cracks for roots to get deep down into. When GWCo. speaks of the provenance of our wines however we mean more than just the geology of the terroir. This is a good start, but we are convinced the farming practices that have evolved over generations have as much to do with the wines’ personalities as the soils. The regeneration of the vineyards long since neglected depends upon this farming.
GWCo. also makes an old-vine Cab Franc (old bush head vines) and a Cab Sauv blend in the Maule as well as two Cabs mountain-grown in the Maipo where the firm began in 2003.
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,ooo kilos at a time.
Single Ferment Series Wines
Pais & Cinsault in the Secano Interior, the cradle of the original Chilean viticulture, have been forever the victim of commodity pricing. When GWCo saw it’s Carignan growers being paid paltry sums for their other fruit we began acquiring small bits from various farmers to experiment. From the beginning, we paid bonafide prices that would allow for the traditional field works to cultivate the soil properly to continue into the future. Commercial bottlings of “Single Ferments” began with serendipity when we simply could not resist not one but three small bits of Cinsault. And then promptly plain ran out of tanks to ferment them in. With nowhere to put all three, we simply stacked the second bit of newly harvested fruit on top of the first already fermenting—and then the third on top of both, creating one single fermentation from the fruit of three farms. We adopted the same technique with Pais and subsequently named both wines: Single Ferment Series.
The Nitty Gritty
In these times it is important to stand for what you believe in, and more importantly to build the kind of business you believe in. At Garage Wine Co. we revive old vineyards in marginalized Chilean communities to make coveted wines. We’ve positioned thesewinesin a dozen established fine wine markets around the world and we grow. The wines are not made to be expensive per se, but they are found on the higher shelves– they need to command a price that allows for proper farming. What we have discovered is that the long-term practices of regenerative farming not only make for better fruit and thus more flavourful wine, but that such a business can become a force for financial, community and environmental good.
The Baby and the Bathwater
As South American wine exports have boomed over the last quarter-century, it has grown increasingly difficult for small farmers to sell their old-vine grapes at a proper price – a price that can consistently sustain family and community. Mainstream buyers want more for less and they would have the growers modernise. The modern wine business calls for spraying instead of cultivating, scaling instead of focusing, and above all: reducing the cost of labor. But with the old vineyards, the labor is precisely where one finds the wisdom of farming passed down through the ages. Throwing that away would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Regenerative Farming
Farming in the Secano Interior, the Maule and Itata valleys of Southern Chile, has been a way of life since Colonial times. Not just vineyards, but mixed farming of heritage seed wheat, free-range livestock and local market produce. Small-scale farms use dry-farming methods: turning over the earth to capture scarce seasonal rainwater, and nutrients from the clever use of seasonal cover-crops that in turn help sequester carbon from the air, and the use of horses to get into rows where tractors can’t reach.
This is where GWCo. works; too far from the comfort zone of those in the mainstream. These vineyards were neglected and relegated to bulk wine for decades because the booming market wanted branded varietals that didn’t command a price to support the work.
For more than a decade GWCo. has worked these old vines, there has been a marked improvement both in vineyard health and quality of the fruit produced.
The marrying of the fieldcraft of these small-scale farmers with the lens of modern science and GWCo’s mindful winemaking took a decade, but the marriage has proven successful not just for GWCo, but also for the farmers, our suppliers and customers alike. Over the past few years, we have begun to rent and in some cases acquire the property underneath the old vines. Today one-third of our production is worked our way with our own people.
Necessity was the mother of sustainability
Sustainability for us was never about seals and certifications. We became sustainable just trying to survive being small in an industry geared to the big. Vintage after vintage we made our way through a series of necessary work-arounds, finding a way forward, that only later would be seen to be sustainable.
Recycled bottles – Because our production runs were small we were challenged when it came to dry-goods. When bottle makers refused to deliver to us, we found a local bottle recycler who became a trusted partner. This small business employs workers in a rural part of the country where stable and safe work is hard to find. What we learned is that when bottles are manufactured they have a limited shelf-life on the factory patio—a best before date if you will. Today we buy these bottles and wash them before use. This is glass that would otherwise have been smashed and melted and remade—without ever having been used. What is the carbon footprint of a bottle manufactured twice to be used once?
Labels & Packaging– We learned to paint / silk-screen bottles because our bottlings were so small that the label printers did not want to work with us. The industry was geared to long print runs and said there was no money in printing 120
0 labels. So we built a custom machine and found experienced hands with silk-screening. Luis, our bottle painter, has been painting bottles for us for 11 years now. (Chile’s first hotel built entirely of recycled materials: The WineBox, has adapted out bottles for their lamps today.)
What’s with the wax? Regular capsules were also sold with a minimum far larger than our needs, so we found a school supply firm that would make us food-safe wax for seals from crayon wax.
All of these workarounds, bothers and hassles at the time led to a positive and durable differentiation in packaging. One that we have continued to work with earth-friendly inks for silk screening, and recycled materials for cases.
Fermentation tanks
Unable to buy new tanks– designed to make mainstream wines, large, expensive and inflexible in their design, we took the leftover cuttings and scraps of a large stainless manufacturer and pieced together Lagars (traditional word for open tanks). We did it for far less money and the upcycling created opportunities for local welding shops.
Fruit: Years ago we bought from mainstream growers. When we made a crackerjack wine, the grower would use the prestige with critics to sell our fruit to someone bigger / better known leaving us without said fruit and without continuity in our portfolio. After two or three experiences such as this, frustrated, we went South to the Secano to work with growers unknown, unpolished, and disconnected from the mainstream. Working closely with small growers far from the beaten path, we found diamonds in the rough. When the polishing was done we had forged a bond with the growers—partnerships that we have continued to build upon with others in the neighborhood.
Diverse leadership
Let’s face it, the wine business can be conservative, clubby and patriarchic. Having a female lead our work helps us work with our growers and suppliers on a different footing. We also like to mix scientists with field hands. Instead of contracting the cheapest bused-in labour, we keep it local where there are more experienced hands. Mercenary piece work doesn’t work — proper sourcing does. It’s a mouthful, but in a phrase: the difference created by the discretionary effort released when you work in good faith with local farmhands is so much more than the savings that might be achieved from cost-cutting, that there’s no comparing the two. We have never looked back.