2014 Brick House, Gamay Noir, Ribbon Ridge, Willamette Valley, Oregon.
The latest Gamay from Brick House rocks! Without question one of the most beautiful and complex Gamay wines in America, and it really comes close to Foillard and Lapierre level of enjoyment, this is a blockbuster vintage for this wine. The Willamette Valley with it’s maritime and volcanic soils create a special terroir for Gamay and this Brick House 2014 drinks wonderfully with silky Pinot Noir like texture and detail with delicate perfume, mineral spice and a mix of cool blue fruit and bright red fruit all coming together in a gorgeous example of this varietal. Doug Tunnell’s estate Gamay now includes a secret new Cru Beaujolais clone in the mix along with his heritage Gamay Noir old vines, which they say is giving added layers, but regardless this is sleek and stylish stuff with just enough earth tones and savory notes to balance the ripe fruit core, this is a class act from start to finish. The start is a bit flamboyant, as you’d expect from a near perfect vintage, with sweet florals and vivid fruit and a sexy ruby hue glittering in the glass leading to a lengthy and refined palate with satiny tannins, poised acidity and deep flavors including black cherry, strawberry, dusty plum and blueberry along with a hint of porcini, flinty pepper, walnut/cedar and zesty anise/fennel. This will not be an easy find, but worth the search and every penny, this is lovely and highly seductive wine, Gamay has well and truly lost any stigma and has been complete released from it’s chains of perception to take it’s place as one of the great grapes of the world, free at last, drink this gorgeous Brick House 2014 over the next 3 to 10 years!
($32 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive
