Garage Wine Co
About Garage Wine Co.
Garage Wine Co. is a small Chilean winery founded in 2001 by Derek Mossman Knapp, his wife Pilar Miranda and Dr. Alvaro Pena. Declared by the Wine Advocate's Luis Gutiérrez as "one of my favourite producers in Chile", this dynamic producer started, as the name suggests, from a tiny garage. A duo who have both incredible vision and intuition in vine growing and winemaking, they produce wines with "strong personalities" that sit "among the best produced in Chile" according to Luis Gutiérrez (Wine Advocate).
They set out to make wine with an identity, earning them a cult status. Making wines from a series of individual dry-farmed parcels planted to old vines, GWCo produces wines as naturally and traditionally as possible. The grapes are sourced from small local growers in Maule and Maipo. They played an important role in rehabilitating the area after the deadly 2010 earthquake. They use natural and traditional production processes, including recycled bottles.

Product Name | Region | Qty | Score | Price | |||||
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Central Valley | 1 | 99 (WA) |
Inc. VAT
£241.24 |
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Wine Advocate (99)After 20 harvests comes their first Cru, the 2018 Cru Truquilemu, which they describe as "Truqui with more stuffing." It comes from a small triangular section with a lower natural yield, with greater concentration and a darker, more brooding personality. It was fermented with more stems than the other Truquilemu and with a bit of Syrah, which adds weight, depth and texture. After fermenting pieces of the vineyard separately over many years, two distinct personalities emerged, and they have bottled them separately since 2018. Truquilemu has become more ethereal after the separation, and this is sturdier, with extra stuffing but more tension. The wine has less alcohol (12.8%, and 12.5% in 2019!!) higher acidity (7.43 grams measured in tartaric acid) and an incredible pH of 3.18, amazing parameters of freshness and restraint. This is not heavier, it just seems to have the same personality but with more layers. It was produced in a very simple and slow way, fermenting in open-top lagars with some full clusters and adding lignified stems to avoid carbonic maceration, with indigenous yeasts; malolactic took 11 months (!), and the aging in used and neutral barrel was extended over two winters. For the 2018 vintage, they filled 3,449 bottles in January 2020. |
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Central Valley | 1 | 92.0 |
Inc. VAT
£115.24 |
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This 2020 release is part of the growing movement towards darker rosés that is shaking up the wine world. For our customers who have had the pleasure of trying the Pícaro del Águila Clarete release from Dominio del Águila, this is certainly comparable, cutting a perfect balance between the wonderful aromas and freshness of a white wine and the depth and soul of a red.
More Info
Scoring very highly for a rosé, with triple 92 points from the Wine Advocate, Vinous and Tim Atkin MW, this blend of Carignan with a tiny bit of Mourvèdre is "expressive in the mouth" (VN) but the broad flavours of red cherry, citrus and roses are quickly streamlined by the lively, balanced acidity. |
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Central Valley | 1 | 97 (WA) |
Inc. VAT
£239.09 |
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Wine Advocate (97)The 2019 Truquilemu Vineyard follows the path of the brilliant 2018 with moderate alcohol (13.1%) and great freshness and acidity, a tad below in refinement (within the authentic and rustic character of the zone and the wines), from the old vines on the Coastal Range mountains where the soils have lots of quartz, full of crystals on decomposed granite with silty and sandy texture. The cool place and the soil provide very fresh wines even in warmer and drier years, worked following ancestral traditions and pruned with the moon cycles but not to a modern biodynamic calendar, but rather with local custom. Tasting the different wines from the same vineyard from 2018 and 2019 was fascinating, and the wines didn't stop changing in the glass for hours. I think all these wines are going to develop nicely in bottle. 10,021 bottles were filled in January 2021. |
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Central Valley | 1 | 98 (WA) |
Inc. VAT
£292.84 |
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Wine Advocate (98)In 2018, they bottled three Cariñena-based wines from Truquilemu in Empedrado (now a DO) in Maule. The 2018 Truquilemu Vineyard, they reckon, is more focused, sultry and ethereal than ever. It comes from 1.3 hectares and fermented with more full clusters and with a dash of Syrah (around 4%) in the field blend. By taking away the part bottled as Cru Truquilemu, this has become more ethereal. The 2018, an extraordinary vintage, has less alcohol (12.8%), more flavor and, most of all, greater depth with more layers that open up with time in the glass. These wines are as much abut texture and mouthfeel as aromas and flavors, incredibly fine-grained and titillating with lots of light and energy. This is the evolution of a wine produced in the past with slightly different names, with lots 77, 67, 57 and 47. 10,127 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020 and marked with lot #97. |
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Central Valley | 1 | 99 (WA) |
Inc. VAT
£355.24 |
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Wine Advocate (99)There are three Carignan/Cariñena wines from the same vineyard in Truquilemu in 2018, and the 2018 Vigno comes from a section further down along the creek where there's terrific drainage and thus low yield and concentration. It's Carignan with smidgens of País and Monastrell in the field blend, the grapes grown by a mall farmer by hand and horse with traditional methods of dry-farming, uncertified organic for 75+ years. Like all the rest, it fermented in open-top vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels over two winters. None of these wines are about the process, they are about the place and the year. In 2018, the wine finished with 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.2 and seven grams of acidity, parameters that talk about a wine with moderate ripeness and vibrant freshness, from a cooler year in a cool part of Maule. 3,336 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020. |
Product Name | Region | Qty | Score | Price | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Central Valley | 1 | 99 (WA) |
In Bond
£185.00 |
|||||
Wine Advocate (99)After 20 harvests comes their first Cru, the 2018 Cru Truquilemu, which they describe as "Truqui with more stuffing." It comes from a small triangular section with a lower natural yield, with greater concentration and a darker, more brooding personality. It was fermented with more stems than the other Truquilemu and with a bit of Syrah, which adds weight, depth and texture. After fermenting pieces of the vineyard separately over many years, two distinct personalities emerged, and they have bottled them separately since 2018. Truquilemu has become more ethereal after the separation, and this is sturdier, with extra stuffing but more tension. The wine has less alcohol (12.8%, and 12.5% in 2019!!) higher acidity (7.43 grams measured in tartaric acid) and an incredible pH of 3.18, amazing parameters of freshness and restraint. This is not heavier, it just seems to have the same personality but with more layers. It was produced in a very simple and slow way, fermenting in open-top lagars with some full clusters and adding lignified stems to avoid carbonic maceration, with indigenous yeasts; malolactic took 11 months (!), and the aging in used and neutral barrel was extended over two winters. For the 2018 vintage, they filled 3,449 bottles in January 2020. |
|||||||||
|
Central Valley | 1 | 92.0 |
In Bond
£80.00 |
|||||
This 2020 release is part of the growing movement towards darker rosés that is shaking up the wine world. For our customers who have had the pleasure of trying the Pícaro del Águila Clarete release from Dominio del Águila, this is certainly comparable, cutting a perfect balance between the wonderful aromas and freshness of a white wine and the depth and soul of a red.
More Info
Scoring very highly for a rosé, with triple 92 points from the Wine Advocate, Vinous and Tim Atkin MW, this blend of Carignan with a tiny bit of Mourvèdre is "expressive in the mouth" (VN) but the broad flavours of red cherry, citrus and roses are quickly streamlined by the lively, balanced acidity. |
|||||||||
|
Central Valley | 1 | 97 (WA) |
In Bond
£180.00 |
|||||
Wine Advocate (97)The 2019 Truquilemu Vineyard follows the path of the brilliant 2018 with moderate alcohol (13.1%) and great freshness and acidity, a tad below in refinement (within the authentic and rustic character of the zone and the wines), from the old vines on the Coastal Range mountains where the soils have lots of quartz, full of crystals on decomposed granite with silty and sandy texture. The cool place and the soil provide very fresh wines even in warmer and drier years, worked following ancestral traditions and pruned with the moon cycles but not to a modern biodynamic calendar, but rather with local custom. Tasting the different wines from the same vineyard from 2018 and 2019 was fascinating, and the wines didn't stop changing in the glass for hours. I think all these wines are going to develop nicely in bottle. 10,021 bottles were filled in January 2021. |
|||||||||
|
Central Valley | 1 | 98 (WA) |
In Bond
£228.00 |
|||||
Wine Advocate (98)In 2018, they bottled three Cariñena-based wines from Truquilemu in Empedrado (now a DO) in Maule. The 2018 Truquilemu Vineyard, they reckon, is more focused, sultry and ethereal than ever. It comes from 1.3 hectares and fermented with more full clusters and with a dash of Syrah (around 4%) in the field blend. By taking away the part bottled as Cru Truquilemu, this has become more ethereal. The 2018, an extraordinary vintage, has less alcohol (12.8%), more flavor and, most of all, greater depth with more layers that open up with time in the glass. These wines are as much abut texture and mouthfeel as aromas and flavors, incredibly fine-grained and titillating with lots of light and energy. This is the evolution of a wine produced in the past with slightly different names, with lots 77, 67, 57 and 47. 10,127 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020 and marked with lot #97. |
|||||||||
|
Central Valley | 1 | 99 (WA) |
In Bond
£280.00 |
|||||
Wine Advocate (99)There are three Carignan/Cariñena wines from the same vineyard in Truquilemu in 2018, and the 2018 Vigno comes from a section further down along the creek where there's terrific drainage and thus low yield and concentration. It's Carignan with smidgens of País and Monastrell in the field blend, the grapes grown by a mall farmer by hand and horse with traditional methods of dry-farming, uncertified organic for 75+ years. Like all the rest, it fermented in open-top vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels over two winters. None of these wines are about the process, they are about the place and the year. In 2018, the wine finished with 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.2 and seven grams of acidity, parameters that talk about a wine with moderate ripeness and vibrant freshness, from a cooler year in a cool part of Maule. 3,336 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020. |