 "... Brick House Gamay...
could teach French Beaujolais producers something about the grape they
claim as their own." -Alan Richman, Gentleman's Quarterly, August
2003 "Former CBS Newsman Doug Tunnell not only produces some of Oregon's
most elegant Pinot Noirs at his Brick House Vineyards but also makes
the greatest Gamay outside of Beaujolais" -Lettie Teague, Food and
Wine Magazine
2002 Brick House Gamay Noir -- Our Gamay Noir vines surprised us with
a record yield of lovely, reliable red wine. And with increased volume
comes a new, lower price. This wine is laden with dark fruit flavors;
cassis and concentrated black currant dominate the palate. There are
abundant molasses and licorice notes, reminiscent of the Black Jack chewing
gum of old. 440 cases made. Enjoy now or over the next two years. 440
cases made --Doug Tunnell
Gamay Who? It’s not "Gamay Beaujolais" and it’s
not "Napa Gamay" It’s Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc!
Burgundy, the tenth century; it is early in Christianity's attempts
to reclaim the Holy Land when a young knight, one Seigneur du May, returns
from doing battle with the infidel in the east. He is rewarded for his
service with lands on the steep southern edge of the Cote D' Or, near
the town of Montrachet. Having brought vines of a particularly fecund
red grape home to Burgundy from his Crusade in Syria, he plants them
on the hillsides around his great, turreted manor in the village of Gamay.
They thrive.
It is noted that the vines of the village
of Gamay seem less subject to disease than those traditional grapes
of the Cote; Pinot noir and
Chardonnay. The Gamay requires less training, less labor. It grows straight
and tall with little care. A single Gamay vine is seen to produce more
fruit than three of its more delicate cousins...and, best of all, a wine
writer of no less repute than Matt Kramer would concede a thousand years
later that the wine from these vines of Gamay "was not half bad."
This was all of some marginal interest to the Lords of Burgundy until
1349 ...the year the Great Plague reached into their homes and fields,
decimating their families, the clerics who tended the sick and the work
force who tended the vines. For fourteen vintages many vineyards went
unpruned and uncultivated. In the wake of a plague which claimed one
of every three Europeans, the allure of Gamay as a highly productive
source of tasty winegrapes was too good to resist.
Gamay emerged as the poor man's Pinot; it was widely planted on the
Haute Cote and on the plains of Burgundy by peasants who rented lesser
vineyard sites from their Lords. It produced nourishment for the masses.
But by the late 1300's Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc ( black Gamay with the
white juice) was seen to be encroaching on the sacred soils of the Grand
Crus...farmed by some of Burgundy's most powerful men.
Philippe the Bold,
who did not like Gamay |
In 1395 Duke Philippe the
Bold ordered his
subjects to tear out " the
very nasty and very disloyal plant named Gaamez." They did not.
In 1441 the Dukes issued a second edict to eradicate Gamay. But Gamay
Noir just wouldn't go away. It survived as a tribute to the working class
of winedom.
By 1855, 87 percent of the Cote d'Or was planted to Gamay Noir a Jus
Blanc. It brought wealth sufficient to transform more than a few pre-revolutionary
peasants into post-revolutionary land barons. But with the reorganization
of French vineyards in the latter half of the 19th century, Gamay was
once again banned from the great sites of Burgundy ...this time by the
new aristocracy, including some of the same families whose Gamay vineyards
had supplied the wherewithal to purchase the world's most pricey sites
planted to Pinot noir.
 Today, Gamay is largely relegated to Beaujolais, a region just south
of the Cote d'Or that Burgundians have on occasion claimed as their own.
It has always grown better there than on the limestone soils of the Cote.
It is the source of the succulent wines of Morgon, Fleurie and Moulin
a Vent.
The soils around these locales in upper Beaujolais are rich in mica
and silica and are far more acidic than those of Burgundy. And most years
Beaujolais, lying slightly south of Beaune, offers a little more warmth
for a later ripening variety whose ancestors hailed from the Middle East.
In these respects, we New World growers in Oregon have much in common
with our colleagues in Beaujolais.
Gamay in Oregon There are probably only a half dozen plantings of Gamay Noir on the
mica rich, acidic soils of the hills surrounding the Willamette river
today. Outside of Beaujolais, the plains of Burgundy, and some acreage
in British Columbia, I am unaware of Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc having taken
root elsewhere.
The variety remains a Black Sheep; an outrider that seems to accompany
Pinot noir and Chardonnay on their travels around the world. When grown
greedily, it will produce a light, less than average wine. But when it
is pruned sparingly and given its due in the winery, Gamay Noir can be
a luscious, dark glass with enough acidity to match a wide array of foods.
Its allure is irresistible...even after a thousand years of turmoil.
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