Garage Wine Co -- San Francisco 'Passageiro Escondido'

“In soil we trust.”

“The difference created by the discretionary effort released when you work in good faith with local farmhands is so much more than the savings that might be achieved from cost-cutting, that there’s no comparing the two. We have never looked back.”

Garage Wine Co. began quite literally in Pilar and Derek’s Garage. After half a dozen vintages making wine for an informal market of family and friends, exportation began in 2006. They "revive old vineyards, practice regenerative farming, and work elbow to elbow in the community." Just our kind of people. They also are founders in the Chilean MOVI group (Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes.)

San Francisco is a rare Chilean grape first documented in 1646, likely descended from Canary Islands Negramoll that arrived accidentally mixed with País, quietly taking root and evolving over centuries in Maule into its own distinct variety — a true Passageiro Escondido, or hidden passenger, that made its journey unnoticed across the ocean.

Grapes: San Francisco 100%

Region: Maule Valley, Chile

Good To Know: Sustainable, ancestral farming practices by hand and horse, dry farmed, egenerative agriculture, untilled soil, ambient yeast ferment in open top lagars – SERVE CHILLED