A few columns ago, I talked about a class of wines that seem to get no respect, that most light of red wines, rosees. Well, another class of light red wines also receives little attention from consumers and producers alike, Gamays.
Gamay is the grape variety used exclusively in Beaujolais, it was once one of the most popular red wines in the world, long before Cabernet became synonymous to consumers with red wine. (Beaujolais Nouveau has increased in popularity, but this most overrated wine won't be discussed here.) Over the last few decades, tastes have shifted to darker, more potent red wines for everyday drinking, and Beaujolais and Gamay wines have lost some of their appeal.
Gamay wines are simple wines. They ideally are rather one dimensional, in the sense that the are not structured around a tannic core, or layered with tannins and flavors of oak. They are not vinified to extract maximum color and flavors from the skins. They simply must express first and foremost the brilliant fruit flavors and delicate aromas of the grape itself.
Gamay wines should typically exude fresh cherry and strawberry flavors, and soft floral aromas. The ideal in Gamay wines is to be homogeneous and pure, like the coherent light from a ruby laser, rather than opalescence expected from Cabernet wines.
Oak aging, extended fermentations, even low yielding vines are not necessary, or even preferred, to make good wines. The Gamay vine is a prodigious yielder -- wine quality does not suffer with yields up to five tons per acre, its basal buds are extremely fruitful -- which allows for mechanical pruning and harvesting, and it is tolerant of warmer and cooler growing sites, since it is has naturally high acidity, and is an early ripener. For New World wineries situated in moderate climates, Gamay can be a quality wine that can be produced at a very reasonable cost.
Gamays do benefit from a unique kind of fermentation however, called carbonic maceration. This is a different kind of fermentation than ordinary yeast or bacterial fermentation. In carbonic maceration the grapes are left uncrushed under a blanket of carbon dioxide, where enzymes within each grape berry break sugars down into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Delicate volatile flavors and aromas are produced and preserved through this technique, and few tannins are extracted from the skins. By varying the amounts of must fermented through carbonic maceration and ordinary fermentation, the winemaker has a wide spectrum of wine styles from which to choose. Last year I tasted three '91 Willamette Valley, Oregon Gamays. They were some of the finest Northwest wines I've ever had, even though they cost under ten dollars a bottle and were made for immediate consumption.
California tried to break into Beaujolais' monopoly on Gamay wine years back, by making similarly styled wines with the inaptly named varieties of Gamay Beaujolais and Napa Gamay. Both are merely inferior Pinot Noir clones that make light, dull, and tasteless wines. Only the true Gamay grape it seems, known as the Gamay Noir (confusingly) in the Northwest, can pull off the impossible task of becoming delicious, and inexpensive light styled red wine.
I hope Gamays from the New World can achieve the levels of popularity and reputation that Beaujolais has enjoyed of the years, because the potential is enormous for the growing number of consumers interested in quality wine at a reasonable price.
