Garage Wine Co.

The winery

Garage Wine Co. really did begin in a garage, that of winemaker Pilar Miranda and her husband, Derek Mossman Knapp, who in 2001 bottled their first wines for family and friends. Today the project belongs to them and to their partners Álvaro Peña and Ernesto Müller, and it exports most of what it produces, something that began in 2006 with shipments to the United Kingdom and Denmark. It started with mountain grapes from Pirque, in the Alto Maipo, but soon headed for Maule's dry-farmed country in search of Carignan among small growers. After the 2010 earthquake, with a grant and the support of its British importer, it worked with those growers to make a serious wine from each plot. Pilar Miranda is also a founding member of MOVI, VIGNO and ALMAULE.

The winery says it works 34 hectares spread over 17 plots (a 2024 figure), mostly old dry-farmed vines on the granitic soils of the Coastal Range, in Maule and Itata. Some remain in the hands of their growers, who plow with horses, and others it has leased or bought. Each wine comes from a lot of 8 to 22 barrels, made by hand with native yeasts in small tanks. Its line includes Carignans such as the Cru Truquilemu, from Empedrado, and the Vigno; blends from Sauzal and Bagual; the Single Ferment Series of País and Cinsault; the Isidore Semillón, the Old Vine Pale rosé, and Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from Maule and Maipo. It presents itself as regenerative and says it has never worked for seals or certifications. Its online store, for Chile only, sells packs from CLP 66,000, and its website names Vinos La Reina, El Mundo del Vino and the distributor DESA (House Bar) as points of sale.

For years it received only importers, distributors and journalists; it now accepts groups arranged well in advance, in two places. In Providencia, Santiago, it has a house with a garden and a big table, where it holds tastings of 4, 6 or 8 wines with the winemakers, usually with boards of cured meats, pâté and cheese, and sells wines at cellar prices; the address is not published. In Maule, and only at certain times of year, it offers vineyard visits, winery visits and a country lunch in Sauzal, in the municipality of Cauquenes, all with a tasting of four wines. Its website gives km 5.8 of Camino San Antonio, in Caliboro, as its winery and says it shares it with Erasmo: they are separate companies, with their own wines, and also partners in the Bagual vineyards. An earlier page of its website explains that it sometimes suggests a joint visit with a tasting from both producers. Groups are 4 to 10 people, up to 20 with notice, and a smaller one pays the four-person minimum. No prices are published, and tastings may be deducted from what you buy, at the winery's discretion. Minors may accompany their parents, but do not taste. Book through the form on its website, by WhatsApp at +56 9 9750 0379 or at info@garagewineco.cl.