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90POINTS
16½/20
Garage Wine Co. 215 BC Ferment País 2018
Pirque, Valle del Maipo, Region del Valle Central, ChileThe Pais 215 BC Ferment falls into the Garage Wine Co "Single Ferment Series," although the fruit could be sourced from multiple blocks or vineyard sites, it is co-fermented in one single ferment. The fruit comes from Portezuelo and the "2015 BC" refers to 215 years before the first documented cabernet in Bordeaux in 1763. The Chilean bodega was making pais in 1548. Winemaker Derek Mossman explains that "Sometimes all the fruit does not enter the tank at the same time and we simply stack on top of the fermenting tank when the next fruit is ripe — one single ferment one single wine." Mossman goes on to say that "For years we watched as the small farmers with whom we grow the parcel wines were forced to accept prices fixed [illegally] by agro-giants far below their costs for working the earth. So we developed Single Ferments as a dignified means of getting more of their wonderful fruit made into wine for export. The wines are affordable, yet we still manage to pay a bonafide price to the farmers." In 2018 the pais were from two farms. It was farmed and picked using ancestral methods and horses and all naturally fermented with native yeasts. The ferment is open-top, hand punched down and pressed off manually. It gets a pinch of sulphites after the malolactic fermentation and is aged in old barrels over one winter. The attack is fresh; there is a surprising level of acidity. The rest is wild, scrubby, mineral red fruits with a touch of graphite. Unique and ready to drink, but somehow, it seems as if it could age for some time. A huge effort to reach back into the history of Chilean wine.Tasted: 14 October 2020Tasted by: Anthony GismondiPrices:| CDN | $28.99 | 750ml | select private retailers |
Nicholas Pearce Wines
Grape: Pais
