EVENTS

FRIDAY 12/19 × 4-5:30pm

MEET THE WINEMAKERS

Don’t miss this very FREE & very FUN with Deirdre Heekin & Caleb Barber of La Garagista in Vermont.

From the Winemakers: Domaine La Garagista is located in Vermont on Mount Hunger in the Châteauguay Forest and on Lake Champlain in the Champlain Valley. We grow alpine wine, but also ciders and cofermentations, an ancient practice that encourages vibrant conversations between our orchards and vineyards. The lands for which we care are located on the ancestral territory of the Abenaki people, and has been part of small homestead farming for over two hundred years. We practice a whole-farm and diverse agriculture focused on the marriage between soil, plant, and sky where we are not only growing wine, but also vegetables, fruits, and flowers for our pop-up tasting rooms in Barnard and West Addison, as well as our supper club The Wolfe Club.

We farm five parcels: three vineyards in the mountains, and two vineyards in the valley. The work we do at the farm and winery, both in the field and in the cellar, is inspired by the energy of forest edge ecology, and guided by regenerative, permaculture, and biodynamic thought. The flora and fauna that populate the understory of the vines denote the universe of soil, insects, plants, and animals. This universe informs the narrative of a vintage. The word understory is apt. Winemakers are storytellers afterall, collaborating with the vine and the natural world to express the spirit of a place.

Our mission is to care for our land in creative and natural ways with plantings of cold hardy hybrid grape vines, complex cross pollinations between European wine grapes and indigenous grapes that grow here in the northeast. We hope to make way for the honest narrative told by the wines and ciders that express our unique landscape and each vintage year, and share in and support the spirited food and agriculture of our community.

We began planting Domaine La Garagista in 2007, and our first vintage was in 2010.  We continue to plant, experiment, and refine our farming and our cellar work deepening our understanding and relationship with this landscape. Our wines reflect this narrative and are made without additives, only healthy fruit from healthy soils. Our family of wines has grown from 2 cuvées to 35 over the years. Working in a new and dynamic wine region, we believe it is important to investigate how each of the varieties we grow represent the vineyards we farm. Each bottling is a story of place. Each story is an essay on technique as we experiement with different traditional winemaking methods to highlight different expressions of wine from different locales in this vibrant region of Vermont.

The tasting starts at 4pm and we pour until 5:30pm (or wine runs out). We offer 10% off tasting wines during the tasting!