On 2019-04-08 11:10 a.m., Mark Lipton wrote:
> Over the weekend, Jean and I decided to do a comparative tasting of two
> of our favorite domestic Gamays, Edmmunds St. John Bone-Jolly from the
> Sierra Foothills of CA and Chateau Grand Traverse Gamay from the Old
> Mission Peninsula of MI.
>
> 2017 Edmunds St. John Gamay Noir Bone-Jolly (El Dorado County) started
> out with a bouquet of strawberries and a light mouthfeel that I would
> have judged to be from a rose had I tasted it blind. With some time in
> the air, however, the wine took on weight and the fruit darkened to more
> of dark cherry character. Throughout, it had enough acidity for a sense
> of freshness and it has the balance to develop (under screwcap) for a
> few years.
>
> 2017 Chateau Grand Traverse Gamay Noir "Limited Release" (Old Mission
> Peninsula) is bottled under cork and started out of the gates as a
> darker and heavier wine than the Bone Jolly, but still is light on its
> feet and of medium-light body. Not quite as acidic as the Bone-Jolly,
> it still was in no danger of being considered soft. Plenty of dark
> cherryish fruit promises at least a couple more years of life to this wine.
>
> In the end, the similarities of the two wines far outweighed any
> differences. The Bone-Jolly is lighter in color and a bit lighter on
> the palate and may also outlive the Grand Traverse. Both were utterly
> delicious and a nice accompaniment to roast d'Artagnan pheasant with
> risotto and asparagus (I had water with the asparagus).
>
> Mark Lipton
>
If you can get BC wines from the Okanagan Valley, you should look out
for Blue Mountain Gamay, which Stephen Spurrier, in Decanter, declared
was the best one he'd tried outside the Beaujolais region.
Their PN is also excellent.