Description
Since its inception in 2006, Garagiste has emerged as one of Victoria's brightest stars, showcasing Barney Flanders' commitment to single-site, sub-regional expressions of his beloved region, the Mornington Peninsula.
This fantastic six-pack is the best way to get acquainted with the wines of Garagiste, including the ever-popular Le Stagiaire Pinot and Chardonnay!
- 2024 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay
- 2023 Garagiste Merricks Chardonnay
- 2023 Garagiste Terre Maritime Chardonnay
- 2024 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir
- 2023 Garagiste Merricks Pinot Noir
- 2023 Garagiste Terre de Feu Pinot Noir
2024 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay
Another fantastic release here of one of Victoria's best-value Chardonnays.
This year’s blend brings together fruit from some of Garagiste’s top vineyards—65% from Balnarring, with smaller portions from Merricks North and Tuerong—where vines averaging 25 years old bring depth and concentration to the fruit.
Pressed as whole bunches and wild fermented in 500-litre puncheons, this Chardonnay is all about texture and finesse. It spent seven months on lees, building a round, supple mouthfeel balanced by a bracing saline streak that keeps everything lifted and refreshing. You’ll find layers of citrus, white flowers, and stone fruits, with just a hint of oak adding subtle structure.
There is never a lot of this wine around and given the value on offer, it's no wonder. Great buying.
2023 Garagiste Merricks Chardonnay
The Merricks Chardonnay is the most sought-after of the Garagiste white wines... And it's the most powerful of Barney's Chardonnays, the kind of wine that blows your hair back.
The fruit from Merricks comes in ripe but balanced and incredibly intense - the perfect raw materials for Barney to strut his Chardy-making stuff.
Barney is one of the finest Chardonnay makers in the region and this release is bang on.
If you're yet to try Barney's wines, prepare to have your world rocked by this boutique artisanal producer. Chardy fans, get in quick!
96 points
"I’d like to be at lunch drinking this with friends explaining to them how good Aussie chardonnay is, but I could say nothing and pour instead. They’re bound to be mesmerised by the complexity and perfect balance of stone fruit and citrus, ginger, woodsy spices and subtle oak. A skein of minerally acidity matches the finely tuned palate and leaves me hankering for more."
- Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)95 points
"Woah this is so intense, it’s kind of like staring at the sun. It bursts with lime, grapefruit, green melon and nectarine (that just about covers it), has some salty pastry dough, and a little cinnamon. It’s very flinty and tight, but there’s also an explosion of flavour, and the finish is very long, saline and chalky textured. Quite a wine."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2023 Garagiste Terre Maritime Chardonnay
The 2023 Garagiste Terre Maritime Chardonnay is the pinnacle of Barney Flanders' Chardonnay offerings, sitting alongside the Terre de Feu Pinot Noir as a flagship release. Sourced from the highest part of the Merricks vineyard, this wine showcases the exceptional intensity and power of its unique terroir.
The fruit for this Chardonnay comes from a special plot of 27-year-old vines rooted in brown soils at 90 meters elevation, facing slightly east. This cooler, sheltered aspect results in less vigorous vines and smaller bunches, yielding fruit with remarkable intensity and finesse.
In the low-yielding 2023 season, Barney had just one puncheon of this precious fruit to work with. The grapes were whole-bunch pressed and fermented in a 500-litre puncheon, followed by nine months of maturation on gross lees. The result is a Chardonnay that offers a pure expression of its unique site and vintage.
Expect a wine that is salty, chalky, and complex with a long finish. This Terre Maritime Chardonnay is a sensational release from this benchmark Mornington Peninsula producer. This is a must-have for Chardonnay enthusiasts. Don’t hesitate—this will sell out quickly.
97 points & Top 100 Wines of 2024
"The finest chardonnay on the peninsula this vintage and always up there as one of the best. Spine-tingling, complex, detailed and superfine. Pure fruited, zesty citrus, juicy acidity, perfect oak and lees balance, the palate energised and finishes long. It’s something else. It’ll sell out in a flash – be quick."
- Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)
95 points
"Maritime all right. This is all salt spray and samphire, a little bit smoky and reductive, pear and lime, some jasmine and spiced pasty dough. It’s bright and tangy, orange and salted pistachio, ginger biscuits, zesty with a fine chalky texture, and a finish of excellent length. Maybe a little bit of Parmesan rind umami stuff, and custard apple richness. It’s an unusual style of Chardonnay, and maybe a little off-kilter, but gee it’s a compelling drink."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2024 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir
Barney Flanders loves Pinot Noir, and every release of the value-packed Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir seems to out do the previous one. It has been one of the most popular wines in Different Drop history.
Winemaker Barney Flanders, known for his dedication to Pinot, blends fruit from several of his top vineyards, with Merricks North’s 30-year-old Dijon clones adding plushness and floral lift to the structured MV6 clones from Balnarring, Red Hill, and Merricks Grove.
Crafted with a gentle touch, this wine goes through wild fermentation with minimal whole bunches, 21 days on skins, and careful ageing in concrete, large foudre, and old oak barrels. It’s bottled unfined and unfiltered, keeping every bit of its savoury complexity and purity intact. The result is a beautifully balanced Pinot, layered with red berries, spice, and an earthy edge, all tied together by a refreshing mineral streak.
Simply put this wine represents the essence of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir. Value for money wise, this is an Australian Pinot Noir star.
2023 Garagiste Merricks Pinot Noir
Barnaby Flanders knows good Pinot Noir, and his reputation for producing top quality wines from Mornington has grown with each vintage release.
His Merricks Pinot is in a bit more full-bodied (in comparison to his other Pinots), but still retains finesse and elegance at the same time. Loads of unique personality, class and complexity to go along with lovely drinkability.
A great wine from one of the gem humans of the Peninsula.
96 points
"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."
- Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)94 points
"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."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2023 Garagiste Terre de Feu Pinot Noir
The 2023 Garagiste Terre de Feu Pinot Noir stands as the pinnacle of Garagiste's offerings, sourced from a unique half-acre of 20-year-old vines in the Merricks Grove vineyard. This special reserve wine, named "Land of Fire" for its iron-rich ferrosol soils, showcases remarkable depth and intensity.
Fermented as 100% whole bunches and left unfined and unfiltered, the Terre de Feu captures every nuance of its distinct terroir. In the cooler 2023 vintage, winemaker Barney gently managed the fruit, allowing it to spend 25 days on skins before ageing for 10 months in 25% new oak hogsheads.
The result is a powerful, highly perfumed Pinot Noir with lovely savoury, smoky complexity. Its concentrated flavours and open, expressive nature make it a standout even amongst the very best of the Mornington Peninsula.
96 points
"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."
- Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)94 points
"This is an overt, and kind of extreme version of Pinot Noir, though it works... 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."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
Customer Reviews
| Price Bracket | $41 to $50 |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | Mornington Peninsula |
| Size | 7 |
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For orders under this amount, delivery is calculated at checkout based on your postcode. You can order in any quantity or combination of wines you like. Straight dozens are not required.
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