2022 Garagiste Merricks Rosé, Mornington Peninsula

The man grows and makes a mean Pinot Noir, so it’s no surprise Barney uses the same grape to make his slinky and fleshy Mornington rosé. The fruit hails from a south-facing Pinot Noir block in Merricks. It was hand-picked, sorted and whole-bunch pressed on a slow, gentle cycle and then sent to old puncheons to ferment naturally, with no temperature control on full solids. The blend spent seven months on lees before bottling. 

Anyone with a passing interest in cool-climate Australia will already know that Garagiste is one of Victoria’s brightest stars. Barnaby Flanders created this label in 2006 following his amicable split with Allies co-founder David Chapman and today focuses on a range of small-batch Mornington Peninsula wines with the emphasis on single-site, sub-regional expressions of his region.

Flanders’ goal is to work with high-quality, respectably farmed parcels from Tuerong and Moorooduc, in the North (sandy soils), to the more central Merricks and Merricks North (brown loam/red volcanic soils) and finally the more elevated and southern sub zones of Red Hill and Main Ridge (vibrant red volcanic soils). Tuerong is the oldest site that Barney works (planted in the late ‘80s). The Chardonnay here is always picked first, providing a barometer for the progression of the rest of the vintage. The opportunity to work with the Balnarring site came up in 2012 and immediately “had a good feel to it”. It’s his ‘aspirational’ site, providing high-quality fruit that is elevated year upon year. 

Garagiste premium Mornington Peninsula wines truly express a sense of the place where they were grown. Focusing on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir we intend to highlight the subtleties of the Peninsula's different sub-regions with small batches of very limited wines.