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Garagiste

Sublime Mornington Peninsula from “a gem of a producer”

Anyone with a passing interest in cool-climate Australia will already know that Garagiste is one of Victoria’s brightest stars. Barnaby Flanders created this label in 2006 following his amicable split with Allies co-founder David Chapman. Cam Marshall joined Barney in 2010, and together, they focus on a range of small-batch Mornington Peninsula wines with an emphasis on single-site, sub-regional expressions of his region.

Flanders’ goal is to work with high-quality, respectably farmed parcels from Tuerong and Moorooduc, in the North (sandy soils), to the more central Merricks and Merricks North (brown loam/red volcanic soils) and finally the more elevated and southern subzones of Red Hill and Main Ridge (vibrant red volcanic soils). Tuerong is the oldest site that Barney works (planted in the late ‘80s). The Chardonnay here is always picked first, providing a barometer for the progression of the rest of the vintage. The opportunity to work with the Balnarring site came up in 2012 and immediately “had a good feel to it”. It’s his ‘aspirational’ site, providing high-quality fruit that is elevated year after year.

While both the Tuerong and Balnarring sites play important roles in the Garagiste story, inevitably it is the Merricks Grove vineyard that stars as the headline act. It was here in 2000, that Barney Flanders first began to cut his teeth as a winegrower. Since day one, he has been in control of every aspect of the Merricks vines—with all the advantages that this brings—and today he governs each step from earth to bottle; still a relatively rare phenomenon in the Australian wine scene.

Merricks Grove was planted in 1994 and is the highest of Garagiste’s vineyards. Predominantly south-facing with undulations and variations, the grey sandy loams are marbled with red ironstone, giving Flanders more red dirt than can be found at Tuerong and Balnarring. The grapes also ripen later here, and so, most years Merricks is the last vineyard to be picked. All these factors (altitude, volcanic influence, length of season—and likely more) combine to create Garagiste’s finest, most linear and savoury expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The winemaking tenets here are quite simple: precise picking to capture acidity, whole bunch pressing (for the Chardonnay), natural ferments and a maximum of 20 to 35% new oak. Maturation is in large (300 to 500-litre) barrels to make fresher wines for keeping, and the wines are neither fined nor filtered.

Barnaby and Cam manage all aspects of the viticulture and winemaking themselves and a shining range of succulent, finely tuned and elegantly crafted cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is what results. Garagiste, the main label, is adeptly supported by delicious entry-level wines under the Le Stagiaire banner. Garagiste’s Pinot Noirs have gorgeous texture whilst remaining composed, fresh and absorbingly complex. The Chardonnays, taut and linear as they are, are also immensely satisfying wines from the top-drawer.

Currently Available

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 Noir 2023

Garagiste Merricks Pinot Noir 2023

Like the Chardonnay, the Pinot vines at Merricks are 27 years old and sit on grey loams and red ferrosols, but with a north-facing aspect. Slightly higher yields than 2022 gave more volume to play with, and the fruit's integrity meant it retained balance with a greater proportion of bunches, so the whole-cluster portion ticked up a notch from 25% to 33%. The winemaking is, as always, pretty hands-off: natural fermentation as whole bunches and whole berries, with gentle extraction and nine months in 25% new oak. As is often the case with this producer, the stem component feels seamless, helping strike Garagiste’s trademark fruit/savoury balance. Perfumed, spicy and bright-fruited with deep structure, gliding weight and snappy grip, this is as complete and composed as you could wish for. It gets better and more seamless with time in the glass, which suggests it’s a keeper despite its youthful deliciousness.

“Spicy, wheaty, some green bunch and frisky perfume, raspberry and cherry, with an earthy tobacco sort of flavour, in with bold cherry and spiced plum. It has energy, and yes, there’s some winemaking magic at play here, though it works and the balance between sweet fruit and sappy spice is so appealing. Tannin is firm. Cherry pip richness is there. But the whole thing works so well. Blood orange tang and spice on a finish of excellent length. Dusty and spicy to close. Yep. Uncompromising in a way, but very good.”
94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“This always hits the right spot, bullseye, and all for its excellent fruit, tannin structure, balance and beauty. Thankfully, better yields this vintage allowing 33% whole bunches into the ferment then nine months in French oak, 25% new. It’s heady with florals, woodsy spices, autumn leaves and twigs, while the fuller-bodied palate takes in dark cherries, poached rhubarb and chinotto with blood orange, too. Tangy, juicy acidity rides in tandem with the textural raw silk tannins. Energising now in its youth and promising to develop more complexity in time.”
96 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion 2025
“Delicate strawberry compote melds with bunchy spice, wilting red florals and earth first off, with rhubarb and autumnal leaves thereafter as the wine starts to express. There’s a lovely red fruit and savoury interplay aromatically which blossoms in the glass. The palate has excellent vibrancy leading with sappy cherry, red florals, and strawberry before a rhubarb and tangy blood orange back palate. Sappy, earthy tannins frame the finish along with a latent wash of tangy acid. Great energy, complexity, and balance on show here. Time in the cellar will allow this to truly shine.”
94 points, Tom Kline, Inside Burgundy
Garagiste Merricks Pinot Noir 2023
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 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 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
Garagiste Terre De Feu Pinot Noir 2023

Garagiste Terre De Feu Pinot Noir 2023

Cropped from a specific half-acre of the Merricks Grove vineyard, Terre de Feu (the Land of Fire) takes its name from the vein of pure red ferrosol soils of this plot. Many years ago, Barney noticed that the vines in this ironstone buttonhole were producing slightly smaller bunches, yielding wines of greater depth and concentration. Thus, in 2013 the decision was made to create this micro-cuvée. The power of the fruit enables a whole-bunch ferment, and Terre de Feu remains Garagiste’s only Pinot to be made this way. Regardless of vintage conditions, be it warm or cool, if the quality is there for Terre, it’s always made with 100% bunches. In cooler years like 2023, Barney approaches the fruit with a gentler hand in the cellar to manage the bunch impact. The 2023 spent 25 days on skins, followed by 10 months in 25% new oak hogsheads. It’s a superb release; open, powerful, and highly perfumed with savoury, smoky complexity. Hat’s off!

“This is an overt, and kind of extreme version of Pinot Noir, though it works. It offers a lot of mezcal and jalapeño spice, but also carries no shortage of ripe cherry, pear and almond cake, salt, floral and sage-like perfume. The wine delivers plenty of spice and graphite grip, a sweet succulence to cherry and almost shortbread like richness, pimento, raspberry, and tangy orange amaro flavours. It’s a wild ride all right, but does have length and an irrepressible character. Wheatgerm in the aftertaste. Must be good for you? It’s a *lot*, though I really like it.”
94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“A distinct parcel of fruit off the Merricks vineyard with 100% whole-bunch fermentation. At first pour, this is a little wood-char smoky, all twiggy and sappy but with a decent airing all that becomes mere seasoning. The ripe fruit sucks it all up, adding flavours of black and morello cherries, poached rhubarb, Italian bitter herbs, chinotto and a distinct stony/ferrous character. There’s a real refreshment to this, the tannins have some grip bolstering the palate. One of the best Terre du Feu to date.”
96 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion 2025
Five Star Wine. “Restrained aromas of smoke, chinotto, and cinnamon spiced pear on opening before a wonderful unfurling of morello cherry, tilled earth, sea salt and tangelo. Graphite savouriness emerging with a good swirl along with subtle hazelnut. This is so unique and compelling, taking you on a journey as it shapeshifts and deepens in the glass. The palate is sappy, ferrous and powerful, laden with brown spice around a strong core of morello cherry, wild raspberry and blood orange tang before being quickly constructed within firm tannins and fresh acidity to a spicy, amaro-laced close. Incredible length and character. This has so many years ahead of it, and I’m wholly intrigued about the levels of complexity age will bring. An exciting release.”
96 points, Tom Kline, Inside Burgundy
Garagiste Terre De Feu Pinot Noir 2023
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AT-A-GLANCE

• Vigneron Barnaby Flanders established this Mornington Peninsula, with partner Cam Marshall joining a few years later.

• Flanders works with various vineyards across the peninsula, including Tuerong, Moorooduc, Red Hill, Main Ridge and Merricks.

• His flagship site is the Merricks Grove vineyard, a lofty, ironstone-rich, 1994-planted site Barney has worked with for over 20 years.

• Soils across the sites vary from sandy in the northern sites (Tuerong and Moorooduc) to more volcanic in the central and southern sites.

• Garagiste specialises in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but also makes rosé, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Grenache Blanc and Aligoté.

• The range includes the value-driven Stagiaire wines (Pinot, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Grenache Blanc), single-site Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, and the flagship, single-plot ‘Terre’ Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.

• The Garagiste wines are benchmark examples of Mornington Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.



IN THE PRESS

“All the [Garagiste] wines are exceptional.” James Halliday, The Australian

“After working at vineyards in the Rhône and US, Barnaby Flanders founded Allies wine with David Chapman while they were working at Moorooduc Estate. The Garagise label fell under this banner, and when the two parted ways, Barnaby took Garagiste with him. He makes a concise range of Mornington Peninsula classics with fruit from Merricks, Balnarring and Moorooduc. The Le Stagiaire wines are multisite blends, whereas Côtier focuses on smaller expressions of place, even down to the half acre.” Lopes and Ross, How to Drink Australian

Country

Australia

Primary Region

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

People

Winemakers: Barnaby Flanders, Cam Marshall

Availability

VIC, NSW, ACT, QLD, SA, TAS

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