Garage Wine Co 2017 "Las Higueras Vineyard" Cabernet Franc Lot #92 750ml

The 2017 Las Higueras Vineyard is a Cabernet Franc from Maule and, therefore, is quite different in style from the one from Pirque in Maule, with less herbal and mint notes and more of a fruit-forward, peachy personality, perhaps aided by the warmer year. In any case, they changed the farming of this vineyard as they took over, starting with the pruning and training of the vines, making them look more like the bush vines and letting them grow above the first wire, which lent more shade to the fruit and seemed to result in a slower maturation of the grapes and less alcohol (this is only 12.9%!). They also sold some fruit from this vineyard to other wineries, so in the future, we might get to taste different interpretations of this very same vineyard. They also started working with cover crops and removed the synthetic fertilizers and other stuff, even abandoning irrigation and going back to cultivating it the old way with the aid of vignerons from Sauzal and Puico. They say they really noticed a big difference now that have been working it for three years. The plants are now 116 years old. With time in the glass the wine develops a very specific note of merken, a Chilean paprika-like blend of spices.

Score: 94 points -- Luis Gutierrez, THe Wine Advocate, 2020