Gamay
Thanks to the
exceptional quality of the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 vintages in Beaujolais,
this is an excellent time to take a new look at the Gamay grape whose most
famous product by far comes from the rolling blue granite-based hills of the
Beaujolais region north-west of Lyons. Beaujolais depends entirely on the Gamay
grape.
In the 1970s and 1980s life was too easy
for producers of Beaujolais. The world seemed to have an insatiable thirst for
the thin, precocious, tart, light crimson liquid sold as Beaujolais Nouveau
straight from the fermentation vat and rushed around the globe on release day
in November. Growers and producers alike enjoyed being paid so rapidly for
their annual produce and the temptation was to put most of their effort into
this ephemeral, evanescent wine. But fashions change. Today only very
unsophisticated wine markets (and some French cities) seem at all interested in
Beaujolais Nouveau and the producers of the Beaujolais region have had to
re-design their objectives and policies. Today, after a period of being the pariahs
of the wine world, they are once again worthy objects of interest for serious
wine lovers. This is all due to the magic combination of the Gamay grape and
the particular characteristics of the best villages in the region, including
the famous ‘crus’ Beaujolais. These prettily-named appellations are, roughly
north to south, St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles,
Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly (but, arguably confusingly, you
will rarely see the word Beaujolais on a label of these, the region’s most
articulate ambassadors).
According to DNA analysis Gamay is a member of the vast family of
Burgundian grapes spawned by Pinot Noir and obscure white grape
variety Gouais Blanc, doubtless centuries ago. (It is
therefore also related to all the other Pinots, Chardonnay and Melon de Bourgogne, the Muscadet grape.) True Gamay, known
as Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc to distinguish it from a
host of red-fleshed grapes often called Gamay Teinturier once grown to add to
colour to red wines that were also called Gamay, has been grown in Burgundy at
least from the 14th century when its supplanting of some Pinot Noir territory
was regarded as scandalous by some. It certainly yields more generously than
Pinot Noir, is much easier to grow, and if it overproduces it tends to make
light, thin, very acidic wine. Like the famous Nouveau or Primeur wines it
produces, the Gamay vine itself is notably precocious, budding and ripening
early, so it can flourish in relatively cool regions such as Anjou-Saumur and
Touraine in the Loire Valley.
The wines produced are naturally
relatively high in acidity and can be light in both colour and tannin, which
makes simple Gamays good drinks in their youth, and flattered by being served
relatively cool.
Gamay’s stronghold is Beaujolais but it
is also grown widely just to the north in the Mâconnais – indeed red Mâcon is
usually based on Gamay – although in southern Burgundy, as in Switzerland where
quite a bit of Gamay is grown, there is a tradition of blending Pinot Noir and
Gamay, specifically in the ubiquitous Dôle. The official Burgundian name for
this is Bourgogne Passetoutgrains, a wine of declining interest that is
supposed to taste more and more like Pinot with time.
Some Beaujolais on the other hand,
notably Morgon and Moulin à Vent, are supposed to taste more and more like
Pinot as they age, even though they are made exclusively from Gamay grapes. The
proportion of Beaujolais that is made ‘seriously’ nowadays continues to rise.
Beaujolais for early consumption is vinified fast in sealed vats using
so-called carbonic maceration whereby the grapes are the bottom of the vat are
crushed by those at the top which may never been crushed but ferment in the
heady atmosphere of carbon dioxide. The simplest sort of Gamays, fermented like
this in a hurry, can smell of rubber, bananas or boiled sweets.
But more and more growers, particularly those in the Beaujolais crus,
are once again, like their grandfathers, making their wines much more in the
way of traditional red burgundy, fermenting the grape in open wooden vats and
ageing them in small barrels, so that the overall effect is a much
deeper-coloured, more tannic, long-lived wine that may not be ready to drink
until four or more years after the harvest. These wines still have Gamay’s
trademark refreshing acidity but they also have many attributes that make them
more like red burgundy. See Bojo with mojo for some of the evidence.
The result in a way is confusion. The
Gamay grape no longer has a single image but on the international marketplace
there are now examples all along the spectrum from thin and vapid to pretty and
refreshing to deep-flavoured and rewarding.
Gamay is grown in a wide area around
Beaujolais (including on flat land to the south of the famous crus which in the
main producers much less interesting wine). Coteaux du Lyonnais, Côtes du
Forez, Côte Roannaise, Côtes d’Auvergne as well as St-Pourçain, Châteaumeillant
and Coteaux du Giennois in the upper reaches of the river Loire all produce
Gamay-based light reds – some with real vivaciousness and good depth of fruit.
In the lower Loire Valley, Gamay’s
stronghold is Touraine where it is responsible for lively, sometimes
aggressively tart, wines labelled with the likes of Cheverny, Coteaux du
Vendômois and Vin de Pays or IGP Val de Loire.
The Swiss grow Gamay in quantity but
have tended to chaptalise it a bit too heavily for its natural qualities and
refreshment value to shine. The variety is widely grown between Burgundy and
Switzerland in Savoie in the French Alps, particularly around the village of
Chautagne. Wines here tend to be relatively but not disappointingly light.
Because so many of the world’s wine lovers have been taught to revere
alcohol and deep colours in their red wines, Gamay has not had many fans
outside Europe. (It is grown in eastern Europe but not especially gloriously
and is often confused withBlaufränkisch/Lemberger.) There is one now-famous exception to
this however. In the late 1970s a young American businessman called Charles F
Shaw decided to invest his small fortune in a Napa Valley winery. Because he
loved Beaujolais, he decided to concentrate on Gamay (not the variety once
known as Napa Gamay which is the south-west French variety Valdiguié). The enterprise failed but the name
was acquired by one of California’s biggest bottlers who more recently applied
it to the runaway success that is Two Buck Chuck (Chuck being the American
nickname for Charles) selling by the million bottles at $1.99.
And then there is the remarkable Sorrenberg of Beechworth in north-east Victoria, Australia
which make one of the most exciting Gamays I have ever tasted.
Some favourite Gamays include Jean-Marc
Burgaud, Morgon Côte du Py; DomJean-Marc Despres, Fleurie La Madone; Ch de
Thivin, Brouilly ; Dom du Vissoux, St Vérand; Jean-Paul Brun, Dom des Terres
Dorées, Charnay; and Sorrenberg Gamay, Beechworth.
Common wine aromas
Common wine aromas
I've put these common tasting terms for aromas into
groups, but their real use, I hope, is to help you when blind tasting. (If a
mature red wine smells strongly of strawberries, for example, chances are it’s
a traditional rioja.) This is also a personal guide to developing a wine
vocabulary of your own. None of us tastes in exactly the same way, so your
impressions and most obvious expressions are likely to be subtly different from
mine.
| Animal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processed | Bacon fat | Ripe Alsace | |||||||
| Leather | Wood-aged reds, especially Australian | ||||||||
| Raw | Cat's pee | Sauvignon Blanc | |||||||
| Game | Mature red Burgundy, Rhône | ||||||||
| Meaty | Pomerol | ||||||||
| Mousey | Brettanomyces | ||||||||
| Burnt | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burning rubber | Syrah | ||||||||
| Burnt toast | Old Hunter Valley Semillon | ||||||||
| Coffee | Madeira, Banyuls, old reds | ||||||||
| Smoky | Alsace whites | ||||||||
| Toasted bread | Fine oaked Chardonnay | ||||||||
| Earthy | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirty dishcloth | Dirty glasses | ||||||||
| Mould | TCA, 'corkiness' or other taint | ||||||||
| Undergrowth | Mature, full reds | ||||||||
| Floral | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elderflower | Young, cool climate whites | ||||||||
| Orange blossom | Muscat | ||||||||
| Rose | Nebbiolo, Muscat | ||||||||
| Vaguely floral | Riesling and crosses | ||||||||
| Violet | Top quality mature reds | ||||||||
| Nutty | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Almondy | Almond | Soave | |||||||
| Marzipan | Marsanne | ||||||||
| Other | Chestnut | Some Portuguese reds | |||||||
| Coconut | American oak | ||||||||
| Hazelnuts | White burgundy | ||||||||
| Spicy | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black pepper | Syrah | ||||||||
| Liquorice | Dense red wines, especially Syrah | ||||||||
| Spicy | Alsace whites, Southern Rhône reds | ||||||||
| Vanilla | American oak | ||||||||
| Sweet | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barley sugar | Sauternes | ||||||||
| Biscuit | Old champagne | ||||||||
| Caramel | Ripe reds | ||||||||
| Chocolate | Shiraz | ||||||||
| Honey | Chenin Blanc, Riesling | ||||||||
| Molasses | Piemonte reds | ||||||||
