Garage Wine Co., Maule & Itata, Chile
Derek Mossman Knapp, co-founder of Garage Wine Co. (image credit: Matt Wilson)
Maule & Itata, Chile
Garage Wine Co. began quite literally in Pilar Miranda and Derek Mossman Knapp’s Garage. Today Garage Wine Co. makes wines from small parcels of individual vineyard sites, working in conjunction with local growers.
Focusing on dry irrigated old vines, they produce dry-farmed field-blends of Carignan, Garnacha, Monastrell, País, Cinsault and Cabernet Franc grown on pre-phylloxera rootstock with small farmers in the Maule and Itata.
The vineyards are on the old Coastal Range of mountains closer to the Pacific — Chile’s other mountains. These are older and cooled more slowly so they have granitic soils, many with intrusions and cracks for roots to get deep down into.
Utilising regenerative farming techniques, they cultivate these vineyards with the local community, who work with horse and plough as local families have done for generations.
“In these times it is important to stand for what you believe in, and more importantly to build the kind of business you believe in. At Garage Wine Co. we revive old vineyards in marginalised Chilean communities to make coveted wines.”
Derek Mossman Knapp