2021 Hundred Suns, Gamay Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon.
The lighter, wetter and brighter acid vintage of 2021 gave winemaker Grant Coulter of Hundred Suns some concerns I’m sure, but his Gamay Noir, as well as his Pinot Noir and Chardonnay all turned out very nice indeed, very much in an old world style, with this Gamay reminding me of Côte de Brouilly or Moulin à Vent in style. The cool and tangy toned 2021 Gamay Noir shows off a vivid ruby color and a mix of floral and herbal notes on the nose with the zesty medium bodied palate giving plenty of crunchy and juicy red berry, cherry, cranberry and tart plum fruits, along with bitter/minty herbs, racy orange peel, delicate mineral notes and a touch of fennel. The acidity is still plenty firm here, but everything comes together nicely with air and especially with food, and the low natural alcohol makes it wonderfully quaffable, plus it is delightful with a slight chill too. If you’ve not had Hundred Suns before, I suggest you make that a priority, as Grant Coulter and Renée Saint-Amour’s wines are some of the most exciting in Oregon and they are still fantastic values, especially their Willamette Valley series of offerings, but then again you don’t want to miss their outstanding single vineyard wines either.
As per normal in recent vintages, Grant sourced the Gamay from vines growing in the high hills of the Chehalem Mountain AVA on rocky basalt soils that helps keep the acid intact while these grapes hung out a long time, to ensure depth and ripeness. After harvest Coulter sorted the fruit into three separate lots, each seeing individual winemaking and aging vessels. One lot of 100% whole bunch was tightly sealed for a slow carbonic fermentation, while the second portion was half de-stemmed/half whole bunch, and a third that was fully de-stemmed and crushed traditionally. These three pieces of the Hundred Suns Gamay Noir puzzle were aged in a variety of barrels small and large, and with 25% of it uniquely aged in clay amphora. I’ve loved these Hundred Suns wines for the better part of a decade now and really admire what Renée and Grant have accomplished under this label, in particular the single vineyard Willamette Valley Pinots obviously, but also with this Gamay and the Chardonnay, which is a steely gem of a wine that is Chablis like and distinctive than many Oregon versions. as mentioned, you really don’t want to miss these Hundred Suns wines, the latest set now include some new vineyards, like Carson-Phillips and Lone Feather, which look like intriguing sites, joining the established stars, including Breaker, Badnarik and Mike Etzel’s (Beaux Freres) Sequitur Vineyard.
($35 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive