2020 Division-Villages 'Les Petits Fers' Gamay Noir, Willamette Village

Our 2020 “Les Petits Fers” leads with true Gamay spirit, featuring aromas of fine white pepper and strawberries with some funky herbal and savoury tones rounding it out. The lighter bodied palate keeps up with the strawberries theme and shows off the distinct spicy and carbonic character. The wine finishes with earth and savoury tones topped with roasted herbs.

---

Viticulture

The 2020 vintage created some unique challenges for the entire West Coast, most notably the wildfires that plagued parts of Oregon and California. Thankfully, much of our Gamay was still very under ripe when the smoke was in the Willamette Valley and we were able to mitigate the effects by waiting to pick and keeping macerations short. Our yields were off as well in 2020 and if it were not for a new block coming online, we would have been significantly down in production for this vintage.

The Eola Amity Hills, AVA in the Willamette Valley has anchored much of our Gamay since we made our first Gamay wine in 2011. The region features a mix of soils that are mostly volcanic clay, mostly Nekia series, with some marine sedimentary soils on the lower slopes. For the first time in 2020, we also made Gamay from a block in Chehalem Mountains AVA, which features sedimentary and soils comprised from run off of the Missoula Floods. The combination of these soil types creates wines with unique character for us to blend our village level wine.

---

Vinification

We began making the “Les Petits Fers” Gamay after falling hard for the carbonic maceration fermentation technique while learning about and making wine in the Beaujolais region.

We utilise the traditional Beaujolais technique of whole bunch carbonic maceration for much of the 'Les Petit Fers Gamay Noir', including fully carbonic ferments (100% whole closed tank), as well as semi-carbonic fermentations (mostly whole cluster in open and closed tank) for some lots. Each of these techniques allows us to create a balance between the fruity carbonic wine with nuanced and vibrant semi-carbonic wine. Macerations times and ferment lengths were quicker in 2020 to avoid extracting smoke compounds in the skins, with the average length this year and about 8-12 days on the skins before the wines being pressed off. The wines were aged for six months (elevage) in a mix of stainless and cement tanks and large format oak barrels before bottling in March 2021.

---

Recommendation

This wine is definitely ready to tingle and mingle with all your favourite friends, so no need to age it long, just grab a bottle or three and open one up!