Laureano Gomez: a True Garage Winemaker
Along with Hipsters, Ray Bans, and coconut water, garage wineries have recently become the hottest trend – that is, at least in the wine world. Winemakers first set up shop in garages several decades ago in France, when big-name oenologists broke away from their big-brand winery employers and began to make wine on their own terms. And what better place to foster artistic innovation than the garage? No, really. HP, Amazon, Disney, even the Mattel toy company all first began in re-purposed garages. So it would seem that Laureano Gomez is in good company every day he goes to work at his Uco Valley winery.
Great company in fact. This artisan operation is a family affair and includes the support of Laureano’s wife and five children. But Laureano didn’t always make wine this way. He began his career at some of Mendoza’s most renowned wineries – Trapiche and Salentine – where he served as winemaker for over two decades. In 2010, Laureano felt that it was time to translate his vast experience into a vision and a brand he could call his own.
Well, he calls it: Bodega Garage, in honor of the space just off the side of his house where the first stainless steel tanks once sat. It isn’t exactly a garage Laureano points out, it is a cochera – an open-air car park that only recently earned its roof. Not traditional winery conditions by most standards, but not a problem considering Laureano’s ability to create premium wines even in humble conditions.
“We’re not interested in growing much more,” says Laureano, “and I wouldn’t want to. The idea is to keep things small so that we can ensure every step of the production.” Laureano certainly respects the roots of his artisan winery, but that doesn’t prevent him from breaking new ground. Just opposite the main house and across the vast lawn that is sprinkled with old barrels, stands the winery itself – a nondescript gray warehouse that is Laureano’s workshop.
This year, Bodega Garage concluded their fifth consecutive harvest, and this little gray warehouse is full of wines that will someday take their place among Laureano’s lineup.
“Todo arranca con la uva,” (everything begins with the grape) says Laureano – as he looks over the barrel fermenters with a vigilance reminiscent of a shepherd and his flock. “If the grape isn´t healthy and mature, and you leave it too long in maceration, you´ll extract things that aren’t pleasant. You need a good grape to get good structure. It all starts with the grape.” That is why Laureano sources his grapes from growers located in Mendoza’s Uco Valley, the premiere vineyard region: Malbec from San Carlos, Merlot and Pinot Noir from Tupungato.
Once his grapes arrive at the Garage, the vision of what they will become is already in place. Laureano strives to always create easy-drinking wines that are elegant, medium to full-bodied, balanced and fruit-forward. And after sampling a few sips straight from the barrel, it’s clear that he’s on the right track. His wines are truly a celebration of the grape. Swirl too fervently and the aromas become almost intoxicating – mature black cherries, sweet raspberries, lush plum, laced with the slightest touch of cinnamon and carried through the palate with medium-body, supple tannins and a finish that makes one bottle feel like it could never be enough.
And the only thing that could possibly pull you away from the barrel samples, is a walk through his sparkling wines. Though the winery itself is steadily being relocated across the yard, the project´s cornerstone – what was once the cochera – is quickly becoming a Laureano Gomez champagne house. His sparkling wines are made in the Champenoise method and a method that Laureano pleasantly refers to as “rural,” roughly translated to ‘country style.’
“In all of our products we try to be a little different, so we´re not the same as the big famous guys. That´s why we make our sparkling wine a la Rural.” As I racked my brain for a reference to “country style champagne,” I looked up at Laureano and said in my most sophisticated wine snob voice… “wait, what?”
So he explained. All sparkling wine goes through two rounds of fermentation – the first to produce alcohol and the second to produce effervescence. Sparkling wine producers separate the two fermentations, pausing in the middle to blend, taste, ponder and adjust. Laureano doesn’t, he connects the two with an ellipsis. The base wine is left with some residual sugar, then immediately bottled and allowed to continue fermenting. As it does so, the carbon dioxide gas released is dissolved into the liquid, and becomes the beloved tiny bubbles that give the wine its sparkle.
My first reaction was that Laureano had invented something entirely new – but he quickly set me straight. Sparkling wine was discovered thanks to a serendipitous mistake by a certain Dom Pérignon who made it ‘country style’ without ever really intending to.
“This method ensures that the wine never loses the fruit because it is always fermenting, and the constant presence of carbon dioxide keeps the wine healthy and fruit-forward,” Laureano said.
When all the wines had been tried, I stepped inside for a peek at the barely existent divide between Laureano’s winery and his house. The back rooms are stacked wall-to-wall with Malbec bottles, the labelling machine stands in the corner next to the dining room table, and the winemaker himself stands in the midst of it all – in the midst of his family home and his wine workshop, which began only a few meters away – in the garage.
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