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Garagiste

“A Rare Combination”: 2025 Spring Releases
Garagiste

There were many happy faces in Mornington as the 2025 vintage drew to a close. The quality of the fruit was one thing: perhaps even more importantly, after a string of cooler, low yielding years, yields were heading in the right direction. 


It should come as no surprise that Barney Flanders has knocked it out the park. His whites are fleshy and delicious, yet not without the elegance, tension and lucidity typical of this Mornington star. Drawing on the backbone of his new Merricks North vineyard, the Le Stagiaire Pinot, young as it is, is superbly chiselled and refined. What’s more, Barney’s sleek, nuanced Merricks Rosé is back and better than ever. 

The Wines

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2025

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2025

This year’s Stagiaire blend draws on fruit from Merricks (35%), Balnarring (25%), Merricks North (30%) and Tuerong (10%). The Merricks North parcel is drawn from the latest addition to Garagiste’s bench of great Mornington sites. Planted in 1996, the vines lie in similar brown loamy soils to those at the flagship Merricks Grove site located close by.

Sorted in the vineyard and winery before being pressed as whole bunches to 500-litre puncheons, this wine is wild fermented with no temperature control, followed by seven months on lees to slowly enrich the texture. A couple of barrels went through malolactic, and the nicely integrated new oak component stands at 10%. 

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2025
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2025

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2025

In good years, Garagiste’s small parcel of 30-year-old vines in Tuerong yields bunch sizes averaging 20-30 grams! In 2025, there was just enough for a single 500-litre barrel. It's a shame more people won’t get to taste such a lovely wine. Half the fruit ferments as whole bunches for three weeks, where Barney looks to build mouthfeel rather than relying on high levels of ripeness on the vine: “The carbonic element ramps up the perfume and the texture.” The remaining half is pressed as bunches for fermentation in seasoned wood, and the whole matured for seven months in a single puncheon on its lees. 

This is textbook Gewürz, immediately giving off scents of rose petals and water, meadow florals, some spice and beautifully ripe, pure fruit. The texture is succulent, with flecks of phenolics and a detailed line of livening acidity keeping everything tight and compact. This belongs on a degustation menu (or get this in front of some meltingly ripe Munster). 

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Gewürztraminer 2025
Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2025

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2025

Garagiste’s new Merricks North ‘fermage’, home to 30-year Dijon clones, plays a starring role in this year’s Stagiaire blend, accounting for 42%. The balance comprises fruit from Barney’s Balnarring (40%), Red Hill (10%) and Merricks Grove (8%) sites. Balnarring, Red Hill and Merricks Grove are all MV6 clone, whereas Merricks North brings Dijon 114 and 115 into the mix, lending pretty plushness and perfumed nuance to the MV6’s natural structure and power. 

After sorting in the vineyard and winery, spontaneous fermentations took place in concrete and stainless steel with whole berries complemented by a 5% bunch component. The fruit spent 24 days on skins, with gentle pumpovers and a small amount of plunging towards the end. The wine matured on its lees in 300-litre hogsheads for seven months, with just 5% new oak. Bottled without fining or filtration, this is quintessential grower Mornington Pinot, bright and perfumed, with red berries, spice and some earthy depth allied to juicy weight, a powerful core and a subtle but refreshing mineral line. Simply outstanding personality.

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir 2025
Garagiste Merricks Rosé 2025

Garagiste Merricks Rosé 2025

Barney Flanders grows and makes a mean Pinot Noir, so it’s no surprise he uses this 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.

Garagiste Merricks Rosé 2025
Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2025

Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2025

In Barney Flanders's hands, Pinot Gris can be a wonderful thing. Time after time, you can expect a mouthwatering pure Gris with texture, structure and balance, and the 2025 is right in the zone. The fruit is sourced from 28-year-old, northeast-facing vines rooted in the signature grey loam and red ferrosols soils of Merricks. The majority of the fruit is pressed as bunches to old puncheons with full solids and kept on lees, while a small portion of the blend (10%) ferments carbonically for three weeks. 


Garagiste Merricks Pinot Gris 2025

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