“The quality of the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs on offer here are exceptional,” wrote Campbell Mattinson in Halliday’s Top 100 Wineries published last month. “Garagiste is a seriously good wine producer and, even better, deems value to be of high importance too.” Hear, hear. Barney doesn’t seek critical acclaim, nor is he comfortable in the limelight, yet a producer of this calibre can’t hide! “What a lovely compliment,” was his typically modest response. “It’s a very proud moment for us. It’s nice to have the hard work recognised.” We often say that exceptional growers never stop progressing, and in 2022, Barney Flanders added a ‘new’ mature vineyard to his portfolio of Mornington sites. The 30-acre Merricks North vineyard, planted in 1996 to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, lies just up the road from Garagiste’s flagship Merricks Grove site and sits on similar brown loamy soils. Barney shares this 30-acre site with two other Mornington alumni, and they have more than 70 years of peninsula viticulture experience between them. Now in its second year farmed by this Mornington dream team, the fruit’s potential is already evident to the growers. This year, it takes a starring role in the 2023 Stagiaire wines. Sitting a touch higher than the Merricks Grove vineyard at 140 metres, Merricks North was the last vineyard picked in 2023. The site brings freshness and vitality to complement the juicy, bright, savoury, structured fruit from the Merricks Grove, Balnarring, Tuerong and Red Hill sites. From a long, slow, low-yielding year, this year’s Stagiaire wines are delightfully compact and complete, encapsulating the cool freshness of the season with pitch-perfect ripeness and moreish charm. Like some others on the peninsula, Barney has a winner on his hands with his 2023 Pinot Gris, too. Barney does good things with Pinot Gris, and the beautifully flighted new release is as good as we’ve seen from this grower.