La Garagista Vinu Jancu Reserve 2020 La Crescent Estate

La Garagista Vinu Jancu Reserve 2020 La Crescent Estate

La Garagista
$40.00

Grape: La Crescent
Vintage: 2020
Type: Oragne

This skin-contact orange wine is a pure varietal expression of the hybrid La Crescent grape produced at La Garagista in Vermont. Winemaker Deirdre Heekin manages the alpine estate vineyards organically, cultivating vines rooted in complex limestone and slate soils. The hand-harvested fruit undergoes an extended skin maceration inside neutral open tuns, relying on native wild yeasts for spontaneous fermentation. It undergoes a natural reserve maturation process on its fine lees in old wood barrels without filtering.

It pours a hazy amber-gold color, releasing distinctive aromas of dried apricot, orange peel, and fresh mountain wildflowers. A medium-bodied, texturally driven frame pairs stone fruit flavors with a gentle, tea-like tannin structure from skin contact. A fine phenolic grip frames mid-palate cleanly, balanced by a sharp beam of alpine acidity. Subtle notes of raw hazelnut and wild thyme add depth across the textured mouthfeel. It finishes completely bone-dry, leaving a trace of salinity.

La Garagista is Deirdre Heekin's deeply personal Vermont wine project, rooted in biodynamic farming, hybrid grapes and a belief that a marginal climate can have its own fully formed language. Working from hillside vineyards in the Champlain Valley, Heekin and Caleb Barber farm varieties such as La Crescent, Frontenac, Marquette and Brianna without trying to force them into European costumes. The wines are fermented naturally, often with skin contact or sparkling methods, and carry the imprint of orchard, herb, meadow and cold-climate acidity. La Garagista helped make American hybrid-grape wine feel not like compromise, but like discovery.