Garagiste Terre De Feu Pinot Noir 2024

Cropped from a half-acre of the Merricks Grove vineyard, Terre de Feu (the Land of Fire) takes its name from a jagged pocket of red clay which darts through this plot. Many years ago, Barney noticed that the vines were producing slightly smaller bunches, yielding wines of greater depth and concentration. In 2013 he decided to create this micro-cuvée. The fruit’s intensity and power allows him to 100% whole-bunch ferment every year, and Terre de Feu remains Garagiste’s only Pinot to be made this way.

This is arguably Barney Flander’s most iconic and divisive wine. He carefully sorts in the vineyard and winery to ensure the most pristine fruit. The wine then sees 100% whole-bunches and a splash of carbonic in the winery. This year, Barney gently foot-trod the grapes letting them ferment naturally on skins for nearly a month. Twenty-five percent went into new oak barrels, and it stayed on gross lees for 10 months. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered. The resulting wine is intensely floral and earthy showing rose, black tea, wet moss and smouldering pinecones.