What Do You Get When You Cross Booze and a Garage??

Posted by Jeff Flynt on

The answer to that riddle is...drum roll...a Garagiste. 

What is a Garagiste? The term has roots in a group of Bordeaux winemakers, who in the mid-1990's, decided to go against the grain of traditional wine production and create a more consistent style which would be viewed as more "palatable" for the growing international market.

In another sense, a garagiste is an independent winemaker. A person, who does not own acres of grapes, but purchases grapes from others to create a wine in their own image. Like say, in a garage. 

They're like the garage bands of the wine industry. And they have their own festival, too.

The Los Angeles Times profiled a success story of the independent winemaker movement. Jeff Fischer, and his label Habit, were started out of his home six years ago. 

Fischer began producing 50 cases of Sauvignon Blanc in 2009, but last year increased his output to nearly 1,300 cases in five varietals.

His wines are highly sought after, as most "vins de garage" tends to become.

Is it a bad thing for the industry? Not necessarily. I do believe that its competition which should benefit everyone involved to continue to not just evolve their wines, but for the public to expand their horizons and try different interpretations of the same grape.

Comments