Don't normally like red? This is the wine for you

[Celerity]

Gamay is bursting with vibrant, delicate red berry fruit. Our critic picks the best bottles

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-normally-like-red-this-is-the-wine-for-you-z8p0mrql7

https://archive.ph/lWvKQ

What’s not to like about the gloriously light, fruity, lower-alcohol gamay grape? The better gamays, most notably beaujolais, make wonderfully refreshing in-between weather reds, as handy on cooler days with summer spreads as they are on hot ones. Good gamay is what the French call gouleyant, or gulpable — bursting with vibrant, floral, delicate red berry fruit, high in acidity but usually low on body, tannin and alcohol.

The gamay grape’s original home was Burgundy and there’s a hamlet called Gamay in the southern Cote d’Or near St Aubin, a tiny village behind Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault. Noticeably lighter than Burgundy’s dominant and greatly revered red grape pinot noir, it does share some of its gamey, summer pudding flavours, just in a much more muted form. About three quarters of the globe’s gamay comes from Beaujolais but there are odd pockets elsewhere in France, in the Loire where gamay has a distinctly herbaceous spin and in the south where it’s a tad darker and more alcoholic. One climate change-induced worry in Beaujolais is just how alcoholic sunny vintages like 2022 become, weighing in with wines that reach 14 per cent plus, too much for such a light-bodied grape.

Outside France, there are odd pockets of gamay in Germany, England and Switzerland, plus a few winemakers brave enough to challenge Beaujolais further afield in the Antipodes, South Africa and the US. Check out the Te Mata star buy, a consistently good New Zealand gamay. Given gamay’s effortlessly seductive, crowd-pleasing fruit, it’s a brilliant bottle to serve to drinkers who maintain that they dislike red wine. Indeed, beaujolais producers are fond of declaring that beaujolais is the only white wine that happens to be red in colour. Judge for yourself with my favourite high street beaujolais that’s on sale everywhere, the dusky, Victoria plum-fruited 2023 Louis Jadot Beaujolais, Combes aux Jacques. It’s £11 at Tesco now, but wait until Thursday and it’s yours for a tenner at Asda.

Another Louis Jadot bottle worth buying now is the 2021 Bourgogne Gamay crammed with soft, floral, silky raspberry fruit, at Sainsbury’s for £14 down from £16. Superior cru beaujolais, from one of the ten single-village, granite soil-enhanced sites, has extra oomph and elegance that is worth paying for. My present sub-£15 fave is the rich, rustic, faintly truffle-scented 2023 Domaine Pardon Régnié, Cuvée Tim — Waitrose, £14.99 — grown on granite and sandy soil. Or trade up to the pinot noir-aping, layered, complex, savoury, loganberry mouthful that is the 2022 Château des Tours Brouilly — tivoliwines.co.uk, £20.99 — a star turn from the largest beaujolais cru.

From left: 2022 Specially Selected Bourgogne Gamay; 2023 H&B Domaine Moulin Camus Gamay; 2022 Morgon, Cote du Py, Laurent Guillet; 2023 Te Mata Gamay Noir

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[elleng]

1. ' soft, floral, silky raspberry fruit' sounds good to me.

I saw a similar sounding description recently, a rose, may try to pick it up nearby Maryland.

Angelini Prosecco Rosé Brut.

The bouquet is freshly sliced strawberry fruit with bread crust undertones. On the palate you will experience round notes of cherry fruit with raspberry coating the palate. It is great as an aperitif or with light appetizers and a variety of fish dishes.

[mitch96]

2. Funny you should mention this. I recently picked up a Burgundy Gamy at my local shop.

On sale too!! $13. I have been looking for wines with the AOC and statement of what kind of grape is in the bottle. A very nice wine that has all the attributes the article mentions.
I like it and I'm not a wine guy... Skol!
m

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. I'm hopelessly addicted to Cabernet Sauvignon.

It's a dryer, red wine that pleases my palate. Might get this a shot next time I am in the wine aisle.

[Aristus]

4. Cab is my favorite, too.

But I love a good Beaujolais. And the sparkling red Lambrusco is a guilty pleasure.