La Garagista Farm & Winery

There’s real wine being made in Vermont, and Deirdre Heekin is perhaps its most important pioneer.

A writer, designer, and restaurateur, winemaking is amongst her newest endeavors. Founded in 2011, her winery La Garagista caught fire in New York making it onto the list of celebrated wine centric establishments including Rouge Tomate. Since then the wines have spread across the country and can be found on some of the most talked about restaurant wine lists as well as a handful of retailers.

Early and sustained success like this is the wine business is rather improbable, but for a Vermont winery it’s nearly inconceivable. The first Vermont vineyard was planted only in 1996, and there are still just a few dozen licensed wineries in the state. That’s because the state's harsh winter climate makes it almost impossible to grow quality grapes from the usual varieties.

So when Deirdre and her husband, Caleb Barber, planted a small vineyard on their own land in Barnard in 2008, they chose European-American hybrids, suited for Vermont's frigid winters. Planted to such varieties as La Crescent, Marquette, and Frontenac Gris, Deirdre and Caleb farm their vineyards biodynamically. They are no stranger to this type of agriculture having run an extremely diverse biodynamic farm and orchard for over a decade that supplied their highly regarded restaurant, Osteria Pane e Salute.

It takes a few years for vineyards to start producing quality fruit so for the first two vintages Dierdre experimented with these varieties that she purchased from a neighboring biodynamic vineyard. It didn't take long for her to master her craft since it was her second release from, the 2012 vintage that garnered her that initial attention. By 2013 a substantial portion of her grapes were coming from her young estate vineyard and ever since then the profile and reputation of Dierdre and La Gagarista have continued to climb. She has helped shine a spotlight on the growing natural wine movement in Vermont now populated with folks who have come up working at La Garagista.

Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, there wasn't a lot of local inspiration that Dierdre could tap into. While these varieties evince some of the aromatic aspects of their European progenitors, the wines are leaner, and at the time most of the wine being made from them lacked structure and developed fruit flavors. Most Vermont winemakers were tuning the sweetness and body of their wine to please consumer palates.

Not Deirdre. For inspiration, she looks to cold-climate regions like Austria, Germany, and Northern Italy, and angles for a style that’s light-bodied, savory, and supremely food-friendly. Her winemaking approach is as old-fangled as possible. All wild yeast, no de-acidification, no chaptalization, no funny business of any kind.

Fruit is hand-harvested and foot-tread, and fermentation starts naturally with ambient yeasts. Wines are raised in glass demijohn or old french oak to preserve their elegance and freshness, with occasional bâtonnage to enhance savoriness. Sparkling wines a s well as apple ciders and grape/apple cofermets are made in a pétillant naturel style. All wines are bottled unfiltered, with no sulfur addition.