Garage Wine Co - Sémillon Isidore Single Vineyard 2021

Druvor

Semillon

Tasting note

'The white 2021 Isidore Vineyard Maule Valley Semillon was produced with grapes from a vineyard planted in the 1940s on decomposed granite soils. It fermented in tinaja with skins (one-third each with full skins) and some whole bunches added, and it matured in tinaja, FlexTank, stainless steel and used barriques for 12 months. It has 12.6% alcohol and a very low pH with very good acidity. It has a golden color and a complex nose of pollen and chicken broth, and there's an oxidative whiff (in a positive way) that made me think of peroxide. The palate is vibrant, and there's a chalky, austerity in the mouthfeel. 4,146 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2022.'

There are now 16 different wines produced by Garage Wine Co., one of my favorite producers in Chile. I tasted two vintages from each of their wines (so a lot of bottles), mostly 2018 and 2019, some of the best wines they have ever produced. They now farm 36 hectares of vineyards, sell some premium grapes to well-known wineries and produce their own wines. They are dynamic, and there are always new things, like their first Cru bottlings, what they say is a cut above the single-vineyard wines. Tasting Garage Wine Co. wines is always an exciting moment, as the wines have strong personalities and are among the best produced in Chile, and Derek Mossman's explanations are always amusing, enriching and fun. I reproduced a lot of the stuff he told me about their wines in my tasting notes, because I thought it was worth sharing. Many of these wines start off earthy and sometimes reductive and benefit from the time in the glass and possibly decanting in advance. There are always many changes in places, Caliboro, fermentations, more stems in some of the wines, more concrete, more tinaja, amphora and foudre, less extraction, gentler vinifications, the business, Pilar is now the CEO of the company, some new wines, Cabernet from the south and what they call their Cru after 14 years in Maule. In essence, they just say, "We revive old vineyards, practicing regenerative farming—to grow tastier fruit."

Robert Parker Wine Advocate