La Garagista: Wines From The Other Piedmont
photo by Emma Criswell
There is wine being made in Vermont. Really extraordinary wine. La Garagista is a winery located within the Piedmont* hills of Barnard, Vermont, and is blowing away those who try it.
Wines from La Garigista are favorites among sommeliers and citizen drinkers alike. Founded in 1999 by Deirdre Heekin and her husband Caleb Barber, the first vintages were released in 2010 and immediately won praise and accolades. Acclaimed natural wine proponent Alice Feiring has praised the wines and even used them to stump Italian winemakers during a blind tasting: “Nebbiolo from Mars!” She exclaimed as she removed the sock that was hiding the bottle.
Because of the Alpine climate in the vineyards, Deirdre utilizes European hybrid grapes such as Brianna, Frontenac Gris, Marquette and St. Croix in her wines. These hybrids are hearty and stand up to blistering winters. They make wines that are lean and strong, and luckily, Deirdre doesn’t toy with chaptalization, or de-acidification. These wines are pure and sincere. Rather than using California as a model, Heekin looks to other cool climate growing areas such as Germany, Austria, and Northern Italy for inspiration. She also believes that, due to their high acidity, her wines are best consumed with food; gastronomic wines.
I recently tasted through three La Garagista pétillant naturel wines. Pétillant naturel is also known as méthode ancestrale, and refers to the winemaking method, not the region, or the grape; as pet nats can range dramatically in flavor. These wines are vinified without using sugar, or yeast to start secondary fermentation. The wines are typically bottled under a crown cap, and before the carbon dioxide byproduct of fermentation has dissipated. This typically results in a lightly fizzy wine with slight residual sugar.
2013 Ci Confonde Rose Pétillant Naturel
The most sour of all three, Ci Confonde Rosé smells of crushed Flintsones Vitamins, popcorn, and vanilla. It’s a gorgeous, cloudy, blood orange color, with a slight hint of fizziness. This wine is very tart, especially attacking the side palate, with notes of pink grapefruit zest and vanilla. Made from 100% Frontenac Gris, this is the wine of all the three that I feel I would most need to pair with food; if only to tone down the acid.
2013 Ci Confonde White Pétillant Naturel
Made from indigenous hybrid grape Brianna, this wine changed remarkably between the first and second time I tasted it. On the first, the wine smelled of Trappist ale, sour beer and banana peel. On the palate there were still notes of the ale, which gave way to tropical fruits - more papaya, than banana. Overall, very smooth and approachable with great balance. The second time I tried this pet nat, a friend said it smelled of peanut butter with grape jelly on whole wheat toast, and Belgian Whit. It absolutely did. While the palate was very similar, it was amazing to see the change in the nose.
Photo by Emma Criswell
2013 Grace & Favour Pétillant Naturel (Not yet available)
Grace & Favour is a very complex, cloudy wine with fresh lemon juice, lemon balm eucalyptus and lychee on the nose. On the palate, one fine bright acid, vanilla, lychee, white meat and musk. One of the newest in La Garagista’s lineup, G&F isn’t yet available to the public, but will likely sell out just as quickly as the rest once it is out for purchase.
All wines are made in the most natural way possible. Grapes are hand picked, piegage is completed by foot, soapy water and beneficial nematodes are used to combat bugs. La Garagista is currently the only winery to take such an interest in creating organic and unprocessed wine the way that the rising Vermont food scene takes an interest with cuisine.
*While the Piedmont hills of Vermont may not be the most well known of the two Piedmont wine regions, Deirdre certainly draws inspiration from the Italian Alpine region. The topography is similar, with Piedmont, Italy located at the foot of the Alps, and Piedmont hills Vermont located at the foot of the Green mountains. The weather is similar in both places - sunny with rough winters and, in some areas, like eastern Piemonte, the sedimentary soil is similar to its US counterpart. While we may not actually see Nebbiolo coming out of Vermont anytime soon, the varietal options available are nothing less than stellar.