Gamay

Gamay is a black grape with colourless juice. The full name refers to that: gamay noir à jus blanc, black gamay with white juice. The German grape register VIVC lists the grape under the main name Gamay Noir, with France as country of origin.

According to that register, DNA markers have confirmed that gamay descends from Heunisch Weiss, called gouais blanc in France, and pinot noir. Inter Beaujolais also describes gamay as a natural cross of those two. The grape has been grown in the region since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Before the vine louse (phylloxera), gamay was, according to Inter Beaujolais, planted across large parts of France.

Because almost all vineyards in the Beaujolais are planted with gamay. According to Inter Beaujolais about half of all gamay in the world is in this region, and in the twelve Beaujolais appellations about 97 percent of the vineyards are planted with gamay. The rest is mainly chardonnay for white wine.

The vineyard runs about 55 kilometres from north to south, less than half an hour from Lyon. In the south there are clayey, sometimes limestone-rich hills; in the north sandy, semi-granite soils predominate. Gamay yields mainly red wine there, and in the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations also rosé.

The difference lies in the place on the label. Beaujolais has twelve AOCs: two regional and ten communal.

• Beaujolais: the regional appellation, mainly in the southern part of the region.
• Beaujolais-Villages: the second regional appellation, also in the southern part.
• The ten crus: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour. They lie in the north, on sandy, semi-granitic soils.

A bottle from a cru often shows only the name of the cru, such as Morgon or Fleurie, and not the word Beaujolais. Anyone who knows this will immediately recognise a gamay from the Beaujolais on the shelf.

Macération carbonique is a way of fermenting with whole, uncrushed bunches. Decanter describes it as a form of whole-bunch fermentation, most often associated with gamay and Beaujolais, though not exclusively.

In the Beaujolais it is often the semi-carbonic variant. Inter Beaujolais describes how the hand-picked bunches of gamay noir à jus blanc go into the vat uncrushed and with stems. At the top of the vat, carbon dioxide slowly displaces the oxygen. As a result a fermentation starts in the berries themselves, the intracellular fermentation, which forms small amounts of alcohol. In the fully carbonic method the vat is, according to Decanter, closed and filled with CO2.

Beaujolais Nouveau is released every year on the third Thursday of November, according to Inter Beaujolais. That way the new harvest is tasted worldwide.

Outside Beaujolais, gamay is also found in the Loire. According to Vins de Loire, the grape is strongly represented there in Touraine and the Nantais, and is a main grape in Coteaux d'Ancenis. Primeurs are also made with Anjou Gamay and Touraine Gamay.

In Switzerland, according to Swiss Wine, gamay is the third most planted red grape, with more than 1,000 hectares, mainly in the cantons of Valais, Vaud and Geneva. In the Swiss Dôle, gamay is blended with pinot noir.

At ’t Bockje the gamay is mainly from the crus of Beaujolais, from several producers. That way you can put Morgon, Fleurie, Juliénas and Moulin-à-Vent side by side.

• Morgon: Domaine des Nugues Morgon, Dominique Piron Morgon 'La Chanaise' and Laurent Perrachon Morgon Corcelette.
• Fleurie: Dominique Piron Fleurie and Fleurie La Roilette from Domaine Bernard Métrat.
• Moulin-à-Vent: Domaine du Granit Moulin-à-Vent Beaujolais and Laurent Perrachon Moulin-à-Vent Terres Roses.
• Juliénas: Laurent Perrachon Juliénas Roche Bleue.

Would you like to know which cru suits your plans? Drop by Brink 2 in Bathmen or call us on 0570 541 278.

The shop is at Brink 2 in Bathmen. Open Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 18.00 and Saturday from 09.00 to 17.00. For advice, call 0570 541 278 or email info@bockje.nl.