Garage wine

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A term created in the 1990s, particularly in Saint-Émilion (Bordeaux) in France, for special wines (French vin de garage or vin de salon) that are produced in very small quantities, often just a few hundred cases or a few thousand bottles. These wineries are also referred to here as "garagiste" or "micro-château", although not all of them are necessarily small. The term "garage wine" is not to be understood literally. It is derived from the computer industry, where small companies (such as Apple, Microsoft, INTEL, Cisco, Google) manufactured high-quality, innovative products in simply equipped premises and even in garages from the 1970s onwards.

These were therefore referred to as "garage companies" and founded the boom of many IT companies in California's "Silicon Valley". Garage wines are characterised by very low yields from often very old vineyards, strict manual selection of the highly ripe grapes, ageing in 100% new barrique barrels and no or only gentle filtration. As a rule, these are full-bodied and alcohol-rich red wines of the highest quality, whereby the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grape varieties are often used and preferably vinified as single varietals.

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Garage wine

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