On Monday, April 8, 2019 at 1:10:35 PM UTC-4, 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).
>
Thanks for notes, both (and the pheasant sound great). WSearcher actually shows the MI wine at a shop across the river from me, I may stop in when I'm in Rockland in couple weeks. The ESJ I alreafy have!