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Garagiste

“Gold-Medal-Quality”: The New Stagiaire Releases plus Merricks Pinot Gris
Garagiste
In case you hadn’t noticed, Garagiste and its main man are on fire. The new Stagiaire releases have just rolled into the warehouse and are in great form. 2024 saw a slight bounce-back in yields for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (though still well below average), and the trend of top-drawer quality prevails. “The balance is excellent, and all the purity and detail we strive for are there. These are classic Stagiaires—people definitely won’t be disappointed,” says Barney—and you can take him at this word.

Garagiste continues to stake its claim as one of Australia’s very finest producers of Pinot and Chardonnay, yet, to paraphrase The Police classic, “Every little thing he does is magic.” This release has brought a few delicious surprises. Last made in 2018, Garagiste’s uber-seductive Gewürztraminer makes a welcome return. From a handful of north-facing rows of low-yielding Gewürz rooted in Tuerong’s grey sandy loams, there’s just a single puncheon’s worth of this aromatic marvel.

Then, there is a super cameo Grenache Blanc sourced from Ian Rathjen’s low-yielding Whistling Eagle vineyard in Colbinabbin. Barney has been hankering to work with Grenache since his time making wine in the Rhône Valley, and this is the year the cat got the cream. It’s a mouth-wateringly pulpy, salty white that should be firmly filed in the ‘Don’t Miss’ category. Last but not least, we offer Barney’s single-site Merricks Pinot Gris. Barney has long since cracked the Gris code, and the new release is a masterclass in the balance and sheer personality this variety can achieve in the right hands.

The Wines

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2024

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2024

This year’s Stagiaire blend draws on fruit from Balnarring (65%), Merricks North (19%) and Tuerong (16%). The Merricks North parcel is drawn from the latest addition to Garagiste’s bench of great Mornington sites. Planted in 1996, the vines lie in similar brown loamy soils to those at the flagship Merricks Grove site located close by.

Sorted in the vineyard and winery before being pressed as whole bunches to 500-litre puncheons, this wine is wild fermented with no temperature control, followed by seven months on lees to slowly enrich the texture. A couple of barrels went through malolactic, and the nicely integrated new oak component stands at 10%. It’s bursting with youthful freshness and vigour, full of citrus, white flowers and stone fruits with a mouthwatering saline thread slicing through the fleshy texture. It’s a classic Stagiaire that will only get better with time and air.

“Complex and quite umami in character. Grapefruit, apple, saline, nutty, Japanese ginger, and a little struck match. It has bright acidity, a certain juiciness in with all that nutty almost sake-like character, creamy almond, lime rind, fine chalky texture, and a finish of excellent length. Really good Chardonnay, and all things considered, jolly good value. Charismatic, is my last word on this wine. Say no more.”
94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2024
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2024

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2024

Oof. Due to negligible yields, it’s been six years since the last release of this wine. In good years, Garagiste’s small parcel of 30-year-old vines in Tuerong yields bunch sizes averaging 20-30 grams! In 2024, there was just enough for a single 500-litre barrel. It's a shame more people won’t get to taste such a lovely wine. Half the fruit ferments as whole bunches for three weeks, where Barney looks to build mouthfeel rather than relying on high levels of ripeness on the vine: “The carbonic element ramps up the perfume and the texture.” The remaining half is pressed as bunches for fermentation in seasoned wood, and the whole matured for seven months in a single puncheon on its lees.

This is textbook Gewürz, immediately giving off scents of rose petals and water, meadow florals, some spice and beautifully ripe, pure fruit. The texture is succulent, with flecks of phenolics and a detailed line of livening acidity keeping everything tight and compact. This belongs on a degustation menu (or get this in front of some meltingly ripe Munster). Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2024
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Grenache Blanc 2024

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Grenache Blanc 2024

A stint at Ogier in Côte-Rôtie left Barney Flanders with a lasting affinity for Rhône Valley wines and, importantly, a thirst for Grenache in all its guises. After years of polite nagging, in 2024, Barney succeeded in securing a small parcel of Grenache Blanc from the Rathjen family in Colbinabbin, Heathcote. Ian and Lynne Rathjen are fourth-generation farmers and vignerons who have farmed their ancient Cambrian soils since the 1850s. 

The vines face southeast and are now 10 years old, rooted in red dirt soils that lie over a layer of limestone. The Rathjens keep yields low across the board, so Barney’s parcel was just a couple of tonnes. As with all the Garagiste wines, the goal is to balance fine mouthfeel with freshness. To that end, the fruit was picked at 12-12.5% potential alcohol and pressed as bunches to seasoned 500-litre puncheons. 

Though new to the variety, Barney has taken to Grenache Blanc like a duck to water. “I was constantly checking it to see how it was developing,” he told us, “It’s really delicate and perfumed with lovely texture and salinity. It’s pretty cool.” It’s a cracking first release, fresh and pure with pretty floral lift, pure stone fruit flavours and mouthwatering saline depth. Nailed it. 

“Good perfume, salted pistachio, pear and fresh apricot, and kind of waxy too. It has flesh and plenty of apple and pear flavour, again that saline thing, light dusty texture, some cool mint in with the waxy orchard fruit, hard steeped chamomile tea, preserved lemon, and a finish of good length. Very good wine. Texture and a slippery feel, but still keeps itself fresh.”
93 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Grenache Blanc 2024
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2024

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2024

Garagiste’s new Merricks North ‘fermage’, home to 30-year Dijon clones, plays a starring role in this year’s Stagiaire blend, accounting for 40%. The balance comprises fruit from Barney’s Balnarring (44%), Red Hill (10%) and Merricks Grove (6%) sites. Balnarring, Red Hill and Merricks Grove are all MV6 clone, whereas Merricks North brings Dijon 114 and 115 into the mix, lending pretty plushness and perfumed nuance to the MV6’s natural structure and power.

After sorting in the vineyard and winery, spontaneous fermentations took place in concrete and stainless steel with whole berries complemented by a 5% bunch component. The fruit spent 21 days on skins, with gentle pumpovers and a small amount of plunging towards the end. The wine matured on its lees in 300-litre hogsheads for seven months, with just 5% new oak. Bottled without fining or filtration, this is quintessential grower Mornington Pinot, bright and perfumed, with red berries, spice and some earthy depth allied to juicy weight, a powerful core and a subtle but refreshing mineral line. Simply outstanding personality.

“Spicy, perfumed, complex. It has plenty of structure, juicy cherry flavour, bright but balanced acidity, and excellent length. A short note for an impressive wine. What else do you need to know? Oh, yes, it drinks a charm.”
94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2024
Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2024

Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2024

In Barney Flanders's hands, Pinot Gris can be a wonderful thing. Time after time, you can expect a mouthwatering pure Gris with texture, structure and balance, and the 2024 is right in the zone. The fruit is sourced from 28-year-old, northeast-facing vines rooted in the signature grey loam and red ferrosols soils of Merricks. The majority of the fruit is pressed as bunches to old puncheons with full solids and kept on lees, while a small portion of the blend (10%) ferments carbonically for three weeks. The whole bunch thing works a treat, capturing stone fruit and floral perfume, whereas the maceration nails the spice, red fruit zip, blush colour and elegant, detailed structure. Expect a pure-fruited, perfumed, spicy and savoury Gris, deftly weighted with waves of flavour, nippy texture and drinkability that’s off the scale. 

Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2024

“Single-site chardonnay and pinot noir star, but a rare bottling of aligoté, plus gris and rosé also compel. Add to that the two micro-block wines, the Terre Maritime Chardonnay – one of the Peninsula’s most singular and brilliant chardonnays – and Terre de Feu Pinot Noir, plus the value and gold-medal-quality Le Stagiaire range, and we have a major star on our hands, albeit, as noted, a quiet one.” Halliday Top 100 Wineries 2024

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