I realize that the more I go around shooting my mouth off about great places and great companies, the harder it will be for me to get into those great places or get wines from those great companies, but I can’t spend all my time bitching, can I? The truth is that, even though this blog is about the “angels and demons of food & wine”, often times the ones I consider angels have more than a little demon in them in order to get them where they are. If you enjoy drinking wines that truly have unique personalities, then you’re either already a fan of Garagiste Wine or you’ll soon be. However, if you prefer the enological equivalent of “safe, conventional, predictable and cookie cutter” (think Donny Osmond) go away…or I shall taunt you a second time.
Garagiste Wine’s Jon was unquestionably a maverick when he started the business of trying to bridge together small winemakers and thirsty consumers. There’s no awning and pretty storefront, just a daily email from some remote corner of the globe, telling you about what small parcels of wine he has secured for you and why should be forking over a few bones for them. He’ll put aside your order for as long as need be, store it in optimal conditions for free, and ship only when perfect provenance is possible. The wines he hunts down are quite the antithesis of what lines our retail shelves today, and for that I am eternally grateful, because it saves me a lot of legwork and airfare!
I’ll let them speak for themselves because they are quite an eloquent bunch…this is why I love Garagiste: “Garagiste is a small, independently operated purveyor of wine, wisdom and esoteric tidbits of travel and culture. Our passion is for small growers/producers around the world with an artisanal and often organic approach to farming. Most of our wines are not yet available in the US and few have heard of them – if you are looking for Parker scores this is not the place. If you are looking for the best wine and underground foodstuffs in the world, this is the place.”
