Australia’s roll call for Aligoté makes for pretty short reading. There are small parcels in the Whitfield area and Margaret River (at Blind Corner), and then there’s the mother vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula, which supplied the cuttings for those two.

The wine is cropped from three north-facing rows of 35+-year-old vines rooted in the sandy grey loams of Tuerong and a handful of more recently planted rows from a site across the road. Barney’s Aligoté vines have large, soft leaves and a matte appearance, contrasting with the glossy shine often found on his Chardonnay leaves. The bunches are tight, the berries are round and plump, and there’s always a distinctive aniseed character to complement the saline and mineral highlights.

The grapes are harvested by hand and pressed as whole bunches to a single old 500-litre puncheon for fermentation, followed by nine months on the large, soft lees. What a wine! It’s beautifully balanced, buzzing with energy and tension, with a lovely nippy grip on the finish As always, it is here for a good time, not a long time.

In Barney Flanders's hands, Pinot Gris can be a wonderful thing. Time after time, you can expect a mouthwatering pure Gris with texture, structure and balance, and the 2025 is right in the zone. The fruit is sourced from 28-year-old, northeast-facing vines rooted in the signature grey loam and red ferrosols soils of Merricks. The majority of the fruit is pressed as bunches to old puncheons with full solids and kept on lees, while a small portion of the blend (10%) ferments carbonically for three weeks. 

Planted in the late ‘80s, Tuerong is the oldest site Barney works with. The Chardonnay here is always picked first, providing a barometer for the progression of the rest of the vintage. The opportunity to work with the site came up in 2012, and immediately “had a good feel to it”. It’s his aspirational site, providing high-quality fruit that gets better every year. The fruit is hand-harvested from 34-year-old, dry-grown, north-facing vines in grey-black sandy soils over brown sandy loam.

The fruit was picked by hand and pressed as bunches for fermentation in second- and third-fill 500-litre puncheons. A small portion went through natural malolactic fermentation, and the wine rested on full gross lees with no bâtonnage for nine months before bottling. Enticing struck match reduction makes way for a glade of summer citrus, spring florals, salt flecks and a lovely doughy/leesy character. It’s vibrant and pure, with plenty of fleshy weight stitched by mouthwatering acidity and sinewy phenolics. Great length and drive, too: it’s got it all.

The Terre Maritime is drawn from several rows of Chardonnay in the top corner of Merricks Grove. Barney Flanders has always felt this parcel results in a superb and unique Chardonnay. Here, the 28-year-old vines are rooted in cool grey loam with pockets of crumbly red clay. The plot sits at 90 metres and faces slightly east, offering the vines a cooler, more sheltered aspect. There’s less vigour here than in the rest of the vineyard and the bunches are a touch smaller. As a result, the fruit from this parcel makes the intense yet finessed wines we associate with Garagiste Chardonnay.

After rigorous sorting, the fruit was whole-bunch pressed into 500- litre puncheons where it wild-fermented before resting on gross lees for nine months. The cool ’24 vintage has left its mark. The wine is salt-licked and clean, living up to its namesake. It opens with zaps of acidity and a lightning-strike of flint followed by a budding glow from white stone fruit and anise spice. It’s a gorgeous, don’t miss Mornington Chardonnay that will reward patient and impatient drinkers alike.

The Pinot vines at Merricks are 28 years old and sit on grey loams and red ferrosols, but with a north-facing aspect. Yields were slightly higher than in 2023, and the fruit’s integrity meant it retained balance with Barney’s preferred inclusion of 33% bunches. The winemaking is, as always, pretty hands-off: natural fermentation as bunches and whole berries, with gentle extraction and 10 months in 20% new oak.

Barney’s touch with whole bunches is notable and, as usual, it’s seamlessly integrated, providing savoury balance to the trademark power and intensity of the Merricks fruit. It’s very deep and layered, full of berries, spice, flowers and licks of minerality. This is serious (and seriously brilliant) Pinot, combining grippy structure with fresh lift, gliding weight and lingering length. This will get even better with air and—why not?—roast duck.

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.

This year’s Stagiaire blend draws on fruit from Merricks (35%), Balnarring (25%), Merricks North (30%) and Tuerong (10%). The Merricks North parcel is drawn from the latest addition to Garagiste’s bench of great Mornington sites. Planted in 1996, the vines lie in similar brown loamy soils to those at the flagship Merricks Grove site located close by.

Sorted in the vineyard and winery before being pressed as whole bunches to 500-litre puncheons, this wine is wild fermented with no temperature control, followed by seven months on lees to slowly enrich the texture. A couple of barrels went through malolactic, and the nicely integrated new oak component stands at 10%.

Garagiste’s new Merricks North ‘fermage’, home to 30-year Dijon clones, plays a starring role in this year’s Stagiaire blend, accounting for 42%. The balance comprises fruit from Barney’s Balnarring (40%), Red Hill (10%) and Merricks Grove (8%) sites. Balnarring, Red Hill and Merricks Grove are all MV6 clone, whereas Merricks North brings Dijon 114 and 115 into the mix, lending pretty plushness and perfumed nuance to the MV6’s natural structure and power. 

After sorting in the vineyard and winery, spontaneous fermentations took place in concrete and stainless steel with whole berries complemented by a 5% bunch component. The fruit spent 24 days on skins, with gentle pumpovers and a small amount of plunging towards the end. The wine matured on its lees in 300-litre hogsheads for seven months, with just 5% new oak. Bottled without fining or filtration, this is quintessential grower Mornington Pinot, bright and perfumed, with red berries, spice and some earthy depth allied to juicy weight, a powerful core and a subtle but refreshing mineral line. Simply outstanding personality.

In good years, Garagiste’s small parcel of 30-year-old vines in Tuerong yields bunch sizes averaging 20-30 grams! In 2025, there was just enough for a single 500-litre barrel. It's a shame more people won’t get to taste such a lovely wine. Half the fruit ferments as whole bunches for three weeks, where Barney looks to build mouthfeel rather than relying on high levels of ripeness on the vine: “The carbonic element ramps up the perfume and the texture.” The remaining half is pressed as bunches for fermentation in seasoned wood, and the whole matured for seven months in a single puncheon on its lees. 

This is textbook Gewürz, immediately giving off scents of rose petals and water, meadow florals, some spice and beautifully ripe, pure fruit. The texture is succulent, with flecks of phenolics and a detailed line of livening acidity keeping everything tight and compact. This belongs on a degustation menu (or get this in front of some meltingly ripe Munster). 

A stint at Ogier in Côte-Rôtie left Barney Flanders with a lasting affinity for Rhône Valley wines and, importantly, a thirst for Grenache in all its guises. After years of polite nagging, in 2024, Barney succeeded in securing a small parcel of Grenache Blanc from the Rathjen family in Colbinabbin, Heathcote. Ian and Lynne Rathjen are fourth-generation farmers and vignerons who have farmed their ancient Cambrian soils since the 1850s. 

The vines face southeast and are now 10 years old, rooted in red dirt soils that lie over a layer of limestone. The Rathjens keep yields low across the board, so Barney’s parcel was just a couple of tonnes. As with all the Garagiste wines, the goal is to balance fine mouthfeel with freshness. To that end, the fruit was picked at 12-12.5% potential alcohol and pressed as bunches to seasoned 500-litre puncheons. 

Though new to the variety, Barney has taken to Grenache Blanc like a duck to water. “I was constantly checking it to see how it was developing,” he told us, “It’s really delicate and perfumed with lovely texture and salinity. It’s pretty cool.”