The Marquette from the Vergennes (Les Carouges) vineyard continues to inspire. These vines at the top of the western facing slope begin the story of this vineyard like a long family saga full of adventure, heartbreak, heroic feats, and falling in love.

Black Pearl is a new wine from this vineyard. A saignee rose, recalling a basket of fresh woodland fruit and flecked with a crystalline minerality. This wine fairly shimmers in the glass. Darker, like an Italian rosato, it's a rose for autumn and winter. Fresh like a walk in the forest on a hot September day, or like sunlight glinting off the first snow. We made this wine as part of the never-ending experiment that defines Domaine La Garagista, but we like it so well, we hope to be making more of it it for future vintages.

WE LIKE THIS WINE WITH
Smoked fish
Tinned clams
Thinly-sliced prosciutto
Risotto milanese
Sautéed porcini mushrooms
Roasted zucchini and red peppers
Kale caesar

STORING & SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Store me upright.

Red Wine of Vermont

Black Pearl

VARIETY / Marquette
VINEYARD / Les Carouges Vineyard - Vergennes {Champlain Valley, Vermont}
CELLAR / Indigenous yeasts, no filtering or fining. No added sulfites.
ALC/VOL / 12%

LES CAROUGES VINEYARD

Vergennes, Vermont

This vineyard on clay, limestone, and shale, is defined by wide-open space full of the epic romance of a mythic novel, grand gestures, battles of bravery, lost and found love, stories of courage and heart, and is protected by Les Carouges, the red-winged blackbirds who make nests in the vines for the season.

SOIL / clay, limestone and shale
ELEVATION / 252 feet. Valley floor
AGRICULTURE / regenerative, practicing biodynamic, forest edge ecology, rotational grazing
VINEYARD LIFE / clover, wild carrot, dandelion, mugwort, burdock, thistle, elderflower, purple vetch, chicory, nettle, climbing nightshade, foxtail
MICROCLIMATE / intensely hot and humid summers, western facing with sun all day long. Wind in the morning and still evenings. Cold, damp winters with windchills. Some snow.
FRUIT GROWN / Marquette, La Crescent, Front Gris, Brianna
SIZE / 4 acres {1.6 hectares}