Garage Wine Co.

Owners: Pilar Miranda A., Derek Mossman K., Doc Alvaro Peña, Ernesto Muller
Chief Winemaker: Pilar Miranda
Website: Garagewine.company
Commercial Contact: derek@garagewineco.cl


History
Pilar, Derek, and Alvaro began in the Garage — hence the name. They went south to Maule looking for growers farming old vines. They began working with small farmers who were thoughtfully dry-farming old school with horses on the Coastal Range. As the farming became more and more important, they realised the differences between the farms and began bottling the parcels separately. With time, they developed a broad mosaic of wines and clients who, one by one, embraced and celebrated the differences. It was not the most traditional way to build a business, but GWCo learned to make things work on a human scale within the local economy.

When open tanks were not available, they designed lagers and welded them up themselves, repurposing steel ad hoc. When labels were impossible to acquire in such small quantities, they learned silk-screening, and so on. Thus, successively, obstacles led to workarounds that helped the agile little firm learn to make the wines they wanted to make on their terms: wines that called attention to the old vines of Maule and the vignerons who had cultivated the hills for centuries.

Today, Garage continues to revive old vineyards, practising regenerative farming to grow healthier, more flavourful fruit, working elbow to elbow with the community. It remains a grassroots insurgent, essential and disruptive, and proves that business, alongside financial success, can be a force for good.

Vineyards
Truquilemu Vineyard, D.O. Empedrado, Maule
Planted in 1910. Dry-farmed Carignan and Syrah on decomposed granite from the Coastal Range, where the roots delve into deep cracks. Las Higueras Vineyard, D.O. Loncomilla, Maule Planted in 1900. Cabernet Franc on alluvial soil on the third terrace of the Achibueno River.

Renacido Vineyard, D.O. Cauquenes, Maule
Over 150-year-old roots. Dry-farmed Cabernet Sauvignon on decomposed granite from the Coastal Range.

Sauzal Vineyard, D.O. Empedrado, Maule
Over 100-year-old roots. Dry-farmed Grenache, Carignan, and Monastrell on decomposed granite from the Coastal Range. Bagual Vineyard, Caliboro, Maule Over 100-year-old roots. Dry-farmed Grenache and Carignan on the banks of the Perquilauquén River, banks created by the granitic sediment from the Coastal Range.

Isidora Vineyard, D.O. Cauquenes, Maule
Planted in 1948. Dry-farmed Semillon on decomposed granite from the Coastal Range.

Wines from Garage Wine Co.