2008 | Garage Wine Co.

English critic gives top-twenty [of Chile] honours to GWCo. Carignan

A group of British critics were recently in Chile on a special visit looking for the fringes, the radical and the off-the beaten [supermarket] wine path. The group included Tim Atkin MW, Anthony Rose, Peter McCombie MW, Nigel Barden of the BBC and Karen Sutton from the UK Wines of Chile office. It was a great chance for them to meet up with most of the MOVI gang at Rukumilla out on Camino Lonquen for a meet & greet, tasting and a wee bit of lunch at the home of Andrés Costa & family proprietors of Rukumilla – organic wine produced their in their own backyard.

There was a lot of discussion about the image of the Chilean industry opening up to include new projects of [dare we say] smaller size and real provenance. There is certainly a growing interest in the world for wines from Chile made on a more human and less corporate scale it was agreed. Mum was the word amongst the critics over lunch as to what they liked and didn’t like, but it might have been the terrific lunch (plateada from the Rukumilla garden oven). When they took their plates to the kitchen I for one realised we had made them feel at home and not catered to – misión cumplido!

That the 2008 Garage # 17 Carignan Old-Vine Dry-farmed Field-blend was singled out as being so worthy of note from Chile today was a bonus, but our interest that day was in MOVI sending a message to the UK market and that done – the honours for Garage and dry-farming Carignan in Maule were strictly a bonus track.

Release – vinos cosecha 2008 (precio por caja) / Futures Cosecha 2009 ahora disponibles

Unos pocos vinos de la cosecha 2008 estan todavia disponibles por botella en el Super Mercado Diez, Portillo y Opera. Los restos estan ya reservados para la gente participando en Futures 2009.

Hay unos pocos “Futures Allotments” todavía disponible. Estos son vinos de 2009 todavia en barrica por entrega aprox marzo 2010. Estan disponibles por caja mixta 12 botellas en $90,ooo ($7,5oo / botella) para un tiempo limitado mientras hay cuota.

(Ojo los vinos de 2008 hoy se vende en aprox $ 11,ooo – $ 14,ooo)

Vease las paginas de los vinos aquí:

Barrica # 16 – Cabernet Alto Maipo,
Barrica #17 Carignan / Field Blend,
Barrica #18 Cabernet – Carignan Blend
Con cualquier duda favor llamame directo- mobile: 9750 0379 o linea fija: +562 717 7337 en casa.

#16 Mountain Cabernet – Maipo Alto (released May 09 – sold out)

If you loved #14 you are certainly going to love this year’s mountain Cab. For those of you who invested early you are going to be thrilled about this wine [please forgive my excessive modesty for now until you try the wine and understand]. This is the same fruit from the Upper Maipo, that we picked six days earlier this year.

#16 Mountain Cab was made from fruit from just about as high in the Andes on the Maipo river foothills as one can get. It was farmed for low-yields with purpose to make high-calibre Cab by a small grower who makes some brilliant wines of his own.
This is our 2008 Mountain Cabernet farmed near the banks of the Rio Claro (tributary of the Maipo). It was harvested in very early May, was cold macerated for 8 days on its skins, fermented in 500 L bins with punch down or pistonage. It was post macerated 12 days and it grew into a bigger beast than last year. If it has more wood it is only because there was more fruit to be married with it. It is deep garnet in colour, big on fruit (the touch of jamminess has firmed up this year) yet with an elegance and robustness that seem to defy co-existence.

Most of this wine is allocated early on, but we shall make and effort if you do! Get in touch very soon or forever hold your peace– bueno for another year.

#16 has the same plenty of old Cabernet cherries, dried cherries, plums, a spicey middle-eight, a soft note of honey and chestnut, and long brooding finish.

This wine is perhaps a little less approachable upon release than last year’s but should cellar significantly longer. (#18 Cabernet-Carignan is our most approachable wine upon release this year.)

#17 Carignan / Field Blend – 2008 (released May 09 – sold out)

This might be called our funky wine for 2008. It is the marraige of Old Bush Vine (80+yrs) Carignan from Maule [75%] and a Field Blend we made from Maipo 25%. The Carignan is fascinating for its freshness, spiceness, different flavour profile and perhaps most because it comes from an area where vineyards have over many decades found there natural balance and require little if any intervention at all.

There is no precise way of knowing what the field blend contained exactly as the mix in the field and not made in the winery. We picked what was ripe and so “al ojo” this wine is Carignan 75%, + Cabernet 15%, Malbec 7%, and Petite Verdot 3%. Try this wine without any preconceptions — try and try it for the first time blind and you will be surprised indeed.

Every year we have tried to push the envelope of quality and new terroirs. We had an expert opinion form the south of France (the cradle of Carignan) and he is happy with the results, but make up your own mind– trust your own palate.

The base or core of the wine is Carignan from two different tanks one hotter (31) for the spice and better extraction and the second for fruit aromas. An official tasting note will follow soon but look out for different red fruits than you are used to even some blueberry and red currants.

The Carignan is fruit from Old-Bush Vines (aprox 80 years) whose age-old balance deep in the Maule lends complexity, spiceness, and a natural freshness and acidity that make this wine rock.

This is an easy quoffing wine today would be cellarable for a few years. We would like to thank a pair of French hands for guidance with the Carignan and a pair of organics hands for their opinions in the blending– both of them know who they are.

Final Note : Carignan is not very popular in Chile. There is relatively little and it makes a wine of European type acidity– higher than Chileans are accustomed. This is not very much like other Carignan we have tried. Perhaps over the next few years a clearer style will develop. Perhaps it will be a component in blends lending freshness, spiceness and finesse as it does in this wine.

Bottling the 2008 Vintage

Title: Bottling the 2008 Vintage
Description: Time to gather round and rejoice that another vintage is ready for bottling. Come and join us, call ahead if you are interested in acquiring a case at future’s price…
Start Date: 2009-03-21
Start Time: 10:00
End Date: 2009-03-22
End Time: 15:00

RSVP : 717 7337 / 9332 8385

#18 Cabernet / Carignan (released May 09 – sold out)

This wine is perhaps a species of “ending of our beginning” for GWCo.

The base or core of this wine is Cabernet from the Maipo made in classic style with both floral elegance, big shouldered firmness and that deep brooding fruit of our previous vintages working with this fruit.

mgwco-18-big Various lots go in to this meritage some fermented hotter (30C) for tannins and spiciness and others colder for finesse and persistence of fruit.

The Carignan is fruit from Old-bush vines (aprox 80 years) whose age-old balance deep in the Maule lends complexity, spiceness, and a natural freshness and acidity that make this wine groove.

Of all this years wines this for some will be the most approachable today. For others, this will be the most cellarable long-term. You decide both camps are in their right.

Again we would like to thank a pair of French hands for guidance with the Carignan and a pair of organic hands for their opinions in the blending– both of them know who they are.

Maceración en frio / Cold maceration

La fruta ha llegado con taninos tremendos. No hay apuro en comenzar la fermentación. The fruit has arrived and exceeded expectations. We are in no hurry to begin fermenting, and thus the fruit will be macerating for various days…

Fotos – Vendimia 2008 / Harvest 2008 the first pictures

Unas pocas imagenes cosechando la fruta en el Maipo y la llegada clandestina de la fruta del Maule a media noche. A few images of picking fruit in the Maipo and one of a clandestine fruit arriving from the Maipo.

Los 10 mejores Vinos “garage” – Top Ten “Garage” Wines

Cabernet 2007 está rankeado # 5 con 88 puntos / Cabernet gets # 5 ranking in recent Wiken article

Articulo completo :

Fuente : El Mercurio Revista Wiken

“Los 10 mejores Vinos “garage” – Un viento fresco en la escena chilena.”

El grupo de cata de Wikén se puso mameluco para catar estos vinos hechos a pulso, en su mayoría elaborados en forma artesanal. Un viento fresco en la escena chilena.

POR PATRICIO TAPIA

Por cierto que no está regulado ni tampoco hay definiciones precisas sobre lo que es o hasta dónde llega una bodega “garage”, este fenómeno mundial que hace referencia a proyectos pequeños, hechos casi siempre a pulso, produciendo cantidades reducidas de vinos que se encuentran al margen de los canales normales del vino. Una suerte de outsiders que luchan – en el mejor de los casos- por hacer vinos a su propia pinta, sin presiones comerciales o, al menos, no determinados por ellas.

En Chile es un fenómeno creciente que surge hace fines de los 90 con la creación de Antiyal, el proyecto de Álvaro Espinoza y sus algo más de tres mil botellas de una mezcla tinta cosecha 1998. Hoy Antiyal más que “garage” es “boutique”; es decir, una viña pequeña, aún orientada a la calidad antes que a la cantidad, mientras que una nueva comunidad de garagistas comienza a mostrar sus vinos en un intento necesario por darle algo de aire y diversidad a la escena local. En este grupo hay desde médicos hasta enólogos que buscan proyectos paralelos en donde mostrar algo más de lo que saben. También varían entre una producción de un puñado de botellas hasta un par de miles de cajas. Los vinos también son de calidad variable y la mayoría son tintos que muestran aromas y sabores generosos, pero que también pecan de texturas algo rústicas que piden comida potente para lograr balance. Aunque aún no podemos hablar de una categoría “garage” en Chile, sí creemos que es un fenómeno que ha llegado para quedarse. Los dieciocho vinos que probamos, más los otros que están en producción, lo comprueban.

PANEL DE CATA: Los sommeliers Magda Saleh (Hotel Ritz), Macarena Lladser y Héctor Riquelme (Mundo del Vino) y Patricio Tapia (columnista de Wikén) PRODUCCIÓN DE CATA: Arelis Beque.

NOta : 88 – *** Garage Wine Company, Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Alto Maipo Un garage de tomo y lomo es este proyecto de los enólogos Pilar Miranda, Alvaro Peña y el canadiense Derek Mossman. Todo es artesanal en estado puro. Este cabernet, por ejemplo, es floral y lleno de frutas rojas. Un vino amable para el asado. (www.garagewineco.cl ó 717-7337)

Deposits Futures-2008

Datos para depositar:

* Estaremos en contacto la semana siguiente para ver las detalles de entrega.

** Con cualquier duda Derek 717 7337 / mobile 9332 8385

Details for depositing:

* We shall be in touch next week to organise pickup / delivery.

** With any doubt or question call Derek 717 7337 / mobile 9332 8385

María Pilar Miranda Avendaño
Rut: 11.834.014-0
Banco de Chile Cuenta : 1590503302
e-mail avisando de transeferencia: ventas@garagewineco.cl

Thank-you for your interest! Gracias para tu interés en el Garage!

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