Derek Mossman found both wine and love in Chile. The Canadian-born winemaker came to South America to ski and explore, then met his wife, Pilar, and founded Garage Wine Co alongside oenologist Dr. Alvaro Peña. Now, Mossman (and his wines) will make their way from the Chilean mountains to the Alleghenies to share quality Chilean wine at the newly opened Solera Wine Co in Pittsburgh. Mossman will be in the shop on January 21 from 5PM to 8PM pouring a selection of his wines, also for sale by the bottle in the shop.
Derek Mossman Comes to Pittsburgh’s Solera Wine Co
Pittsburgh is, as Solera Wine Co owner Tyler Borne delicately put it, “not the sexiest wine city.” Pennsylvania as a whole has to contend with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), the single largest buyer of wine and spirits in the world. Essentially, the state owns and controls the purchase of liquor. Non-state stores can only sell spirits made in Pennsylvania, hence the reason stores like Pennsylvania Libations exist. Independent wine shops like Solera can operate, but they have to wrangle through a complex bureaucracy: Prohibition era governor Gifford Pinchot laid it all on the table when he said that he wanted to “discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible.”
Prohibition only ended in 1933—less than a hundred years ago—and it still has its claws in Pennsylvania. Wine shops like Solera and western Pennsylvania importers like Alyssa McGrath of Skurnik Wines (which represents Garage Wine Co) are working to change that, particularly in the western side of the state.
McGrath is a seasoned beverage director who’s gone to battle with PLCB many times. She wanted to “spread the good word for Garage Wine Co” and plan a day of work together with Mossman in the city. Solera seemed like a good fit for a collaborator. “The city needed another great, comfortable little wine bar and bottle shop where you can get value wines from underrepresented regions,” she said. “Regions like Chile, Turkey, Lebanon, Croatia, and Albania are not on the map like France, Italy, and Spain, so these wines have more value and winemakers can do more experimentation.”
Good Wine, Good People, Good Stories
For Tyler Borne, Mossman’s arrival was a match as good as a glass of País with a plate of tapas. Borne loves Chilean wine and felt Mossman perfectly aligned with Solera’s mission of “good wine, good people, and good stories.” Borne said that “Our shop is really focused on wines made the right way. Not necessarily ‘natural’ wine—I don’t like that term, because it’s more of a style than a clear definition—but for us, if you’re spraying or adding fertilizer, it needs to be for a good reason. And those reasons shouldn’t be bigger yields and lower costs.”
Garage Wine Co lined up with this mission. It has quality grapes, a friendly and approachable winemaker at its helm, and a great story. As the name suggest, Mossman literally founded it in a garage. He’s also made his property a refuge for stray dogs in Chile, McGrath said. Skurnik Wines representatives got to see how Mossman’s interest in giving back and doing good extends beyond winemaking when they visited and played with the many dogs he and Pilar take care of.
Meet Semillón and País
So, what will Mossman actually be pouring at Solera? One of the highlights is their skin-contact Isidore Vineyard Semillón. “Semillón is a grape usually known in blends, never the star of the show,” Borne explained. “But it seems to have really found a home in Chile. The whole gist of our wine list is to take familiar varietals or flavors and introduce people to something new. Most people have had Semillón at some point but might not realize it.”
Borne tentatively named País, which Garage Wine Co also grows, as “his favorite grape in the world.” País, also called the Mission grape, came to Chile with the conquistadors in the fifteenth century and now grows all over the world. “I absolutely adore País. It does such a good job of showcasing terroir. It can be something completely different depending on the vineyard. I think everyone should drink it,” Borne said.
Wine Beyond Gatekeeping
Mossman will have more than País and Semillón, but those are the ones Borne is most excited for Pittsburghers to try. Part of why he and business partner Aaron Gottesman started Solera in November 2024 was because they couldn’t find things at Fine Wines & Good Spirits that suited their more eclectic palates. If your only exposure to Chilean wine is Frontera, you should run, not walk, to Mossman’s evening at Solera.
McGrath hopes Mossman’s visit to Pittsburgh as part of his “Northeast Tour” will inspire people to think more about smaller, family-run wineries like the ones Skurnik represents. “Generally, when you’re dealing family-run wineries, everything leans on the success of the vintage. As it’s going into vinification and aging from start to finish, it’s their baby,” she said. To put it in a Pittsburgher context, McGrath compared it to getting a pastry from La Gourmandine or Madeleine’s versus a name-brand cookie at the grocery store.
Borne and Gottman hope to do more events like Mossman’s evening of tasting in the future. “Wine as a community can at times be very gatekept,” Borne said. “We don’t like that. We don’t want to gatekeep anything. Not wine, not winemakers, not knowledge.”
Story by Emma Riva
Photo courtesy of Garage Wine Co
Subscribe to TABLE Magazine‘s print edition
