Carignan, Syrah
Organic, Sustainable
Dry
Residual Sugar: 2.00 g/l
Medium Bodied
750ml
13.50% alc./vol

Garage Wine Co Truquilemu Vineyard Carignan D.O Maule 2020

Valle del Maule, Chile

96+ Points - Wine Advocate

$69.95per bottle ($419.70per case)
6 bottles per case

Floral & Finessed

This product is offered online and at select LCBO retail outlets through the Vintages Cellar Collection program. Should you require assistance finding stock, don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@npwines.com. Additionally, if you utilize NPW's services to source a case(s) for delivery, please be aware that shipping takes 2-3 weeks from the time of ordering.

Named for the humble garage that served as their initial base of operations, Garage Wine Co. was started in 2001 by home grown Canadian, Derek Mossman, his wife Pilar Miranda & their friend Alvaro Peña. As a first-generation cellar, the wine making project grew through the team's work with small farmers, deeply connected to traditional farming communities & practices left behind by the mainstream wine business. Today, they continue to revive old vineyards across a veritable mosaic of parcels amongst the Maule Valley and Itata. With a precise focus on small lots, regenerative agriculture and explorative vinification, the wines have become some of Chile's most highly coveted and sought-after bottles.

The grapes used for this wine come from the Truquilemu Vineyard - or 'Truqui' as she is lovingly called. This site has been rented long-term and worked according to old-school methods; by hand and horse with the same patience and care that many generations of curators have shown these vines over the years.

Made from a field blend Carignan with splashes of País and Syrah, this vintage shows a touch more tannin than its predecessor along with beautifully layered fruit that blooms with time in the glass. Medium-weighted on the palate and notes of lavender and violet florals are carefully weft between red berry fruits and tart cranberry freshness. The 2019 vintage will age 5-10 years effortlessly, but this wine is becoming more drinkable in its youth.

Pairs nicely with slow roasted pork and lightly charred sweet peppers.

About the Winery

Garage Wine Co.

Garage Wine was literally started in a garage in 2001, by Etobicoke expat Derek Mossman and his wife Pilar Miranda. Since then, the dynamic duo handcraft wines from a series of individual vineyards located in the Maule and Itata Valleys, in the south of Santiago, Chile.

Garage Wine Co 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.

Over the years working in the community they have raised a veritable posse of vineyard hands whose skills are working the vineyards the old way / the traditional way– originario. The vineyards are on the old coastal range of mountains closer to the Pacific and have granitic soils with cracks for roots to get deep down into.

When GWCo. speaks of the provenance of these wines they mean more than just the geological terroir. Derek and Pilar think the farming practices that have evolved over generations have as much to do with the wines’ personalities as the soils. 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 2,000 kilos at a time.

Press Reviews

Wine Advocate

96+ Points - Luis Gutiérrez

The 2020 Truquilemu Vineyard follows the path of the 2018 and 2019 with even lower alcohol (12.9%) and great freshness and acidity, a pH of 3.36 and 6.4 grams of acidity. The modus operandi was the usual: fermented in open-top vats with indigenous yeasts and manual punch-down with a slow malolactic, which took 10 months to finish, and matured in used barrels over two winters. It contains some 4% Syrah. This has the ethereal quality of this vineyard, powerful but weightless. This place makes fresh wines even in warm vintages like 2020, and you feel that especially in the palate where the wine is vibrant and lively. 5,882 bottles were filled in February 2022.