Derek Mossman Knapp

Derek Mossman Knapp's Story

"Garage Wine co. is a husband and wife team Pilar (Chilean) the Winemaker and me, Derek (Canadian) the Managing Director & Cellar Rat who physically makes the wines. There is also our business partner Dr. Alvaro Peña anti-oxidant scholar-researcher and “Proff” of winemakers at the University of Chile. He keeps a lower profile.

After seven vintages in the “garage” itself we have finally set up shop next to our favourite mountain fruit, high in the Maipo Valley. Today, as always, our wines are made in small lots using open-top fermenters, caps are punched down by hand and pressing is strictly manual. Wines are aged in neutral oak of 2-3 uses and bottled the following year. All wines are bottled in recycled glass.

Pilar worked at many of the popular BIG Chileans until fate tempted her with a job designing cocktails for a flavour company part-time— leaving Pilar with time for motherhood and the independent Garage Wine Co. My favourite things about being involved in winemaking... No committees, no memos— if something looks like it needs doing, then rollup your sleeves and do it. The physicality of making wine amidst the hustle and bustle of today’s world is positively therapeutic.

We think our wines are special because we look at purity of fruit without manipulation. We do not make wine with formulas that might homogenize them. We do not grow the company any faster than we can maintain our style. Case in point the Cabernet Franc has bigger shoulders more power than normal because the softer barrels of the wine were lost in Chile’s earthquake in 2010.

Back when Garage was a hobby amongst friends and selling only to friends (and friends of friends) there appeared in the Mercurio (national newspaper) a long account about the ways and wines of a “coveted urban myth” called Garage Wine Company. We left the underground after that. We both hope you enjoy our wines. We would love to hear what you think so please come back and tell us!

Cheers,

Derek and Pilar"