Description
Garagiste is definitely one of Mornington Peninsula’s brightest stars! Named in honour of the ‘Garagiste’ – ‘garage’ vintners of Bordeaux who thumbed their nose at the rigid traditions of chateaux, winemaker Barney Flanders makes succulent, finely tuned and elegantly crafted cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris,highlighting the subtleties of the Peninsula’s different sub-regions with small batches of very limited and high quality wines. Fruit is sourced predominantly from highly prized Merricks Grove vineyard, Silverwood vineyard (Balnarring) and Hugh Robinson vineyard in Moorooduc. Since their first release in 2006 their wines are highly sought after, highly regarded and like their labels, very cool!
“Consistency of quality, and of price. It’s a rare combination. That aside, Barnaby Flanders is making some of Mornington Peninsula’s finest wines…”
Halliday Top 100 Winery of 2025
The Merricks Chardonnay, from 29-year-old vines on soils of grey loams and red ferrosols on south- and southeast-facing slopes, was harvested and sorted by hand before being pressed as bunches. Fermentation was spontaneous with high levels of solids in 500-litre François Frères puncheons. A small portion went through natural malolactic fermentation, and the wine rested in large-format barrels on full gross lees for 10 months before bottling. Barney seeks long, slow lees interaction, choosing extended, gentle contact over stirring, a process writ large in the supple, integrated texture of his recent releases.
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 of the park. Perennially one of Victoria’s benchmark Chardonnays, the 2025 is no different. Expect something fleshy and delicious, yet not without the elegance, tension and lucidity typical of this Mornington star.
RRP $59 Our Special Price $46.50 when you buy 6 or more of this wine.
