A
s you read these words, I shall be gorging
on andouillette in a bouchon in Lyon,
chasing that parcel of pungent porky bits
with a glass or two of vivid-purple young
Beaujolais, the local red wine grown in the hills to
the north of the ancient city.
I love Beaujolais, and the gamay grape from which
it’s made. I love how it sits so perfectly, stylistically,
between the lighter-bodied, more ethereal pinot noirs
of Burgundy (further to the north again), and the
fuller-bodied, darker, more structural syrahs of the
Rhône Valley to the south of Lyon. I love how its
medium-weight-but-gutsy character makes gamay such
a versatile wine on the table, matching everything
from the lightest fish dishes and salads to the richest,
stinkiest sausages.
You don’t need to travel to Lyon to enjoy good
gamay, of course. There has been a surge of interest
in this gorgeous grape since I last wrote about it four
years ago; Australian bottle-shop shelves and restaurant
lists are now littered with excellent examples.
The number of superb Beaujolais wines from the
region’s top gamay growers available here continues to
grow: look for the wines of Marcel Lapierre, Daniel
Bouland, Château Thivin and Domaine du Vissoux,
among others. These wines are hugely popular with
sommeliers (see: food-friendliness, above), and
our restaurant lists are particularly happy hunting
grounds, not least because most of the currently
available wines are from two very good vintages –
unusually ripe, fruit-intense 2015s and more classical,
finer, juicier 2016s.
More excitingly, perhaps, the number of Australian-
grown gamays has more than doubled recently, with
many new wines made for the first time during the
2017 vintage. From being an underappreciated variety
made by just a handful of stalwart producers (mostlyAustralian winemakers are adding
new character to the Beaujolais
signature, writes MAX ALLEN.
in Victoria: Sorrenberg in Beechworth, Bass Phillip in
Gippsland, Pfeiffer in Rutherglen, and Eldridge Estate
on the Mornington Peninsula), gamay is now cropping
up all over the place.
The rejuvenated Meadowbank vineyard in
Tasmania’s Derwent Valley produces a bright purple,
lithe 2017 gamay, with leading local winemaker Peter
Dredge bringing his gentle touch with pinot noir to
bear on the classic bistro grape. Up in the Canberra
District, chef turned winemaker Bryan Martin brings
a gastronomic sensibility to the juicy, vibrant gamay
he’s been making under his Ravensworth label for
the last couple of years, using grapes grown in the
high-country vineyards of Tumbarumba.
And over in the Adelaide Hills, gamay appeared in
a number of new guises out of the 2017 vintage: as a
fine, frothy pet-nat from BK Wines; blended with pinot
noir to make a pretty fragrant red at Brackenwood
(reviewed here earlier this year); and as a tangy, edgy
medium-bodied red called The Price of Silence at
Ochota Barrels.
Victoria, though, stakes its claim as the gamay state,
with most of the new examples of the grape emerging
from the cooler regions around Melbourne.
In the high-altitude Macedon Ranges to the north of
the city, long-established winery Granite Hills produced
a deliciously juicy wine from its first crop of gamay in
2017, while over near Lancefield, new winery Lyons
Will Estate also harvested its inaugural crop, producing
an elegant and pretty expression of the grape.
Down in the Geelong region, south-west of
Melbourne, Nick Farr grafted some gamay vines onto
a block of old cabernet sauvignon plants a few years2015 Querceto Di
Castellina L’Aura,
Chianti Classico, $29
One sip of this bright,
cherry-juicy, medium-
bodied Chianti and
I’m transported back to
Castellina, tucking into
a char-grilled bistecca
alla Fiorentina.
vinobambino.com.au2007 Charles de
Cazanove Tradition,
Reims, $61
Gorgeous, mature
Champagne; layers of
nutty, creamy flavour.
Great value at $61, but
Vintage Cellars have
also had it on special for
$55 each if you buy six.
vintagecellars.com.auGamay on
ABGRIA
NBUBBLESNSPA
PYCHIANTITop drops of the month PHOTOGRAPHY SCOTT HAWKINS (TOP DROPS) & ROB SHAW. STYLING AIMEE JONES. ILLUSTRATION LAUREN HAIRE50 GOURMET TRAVELLER