Fresh mulberries and raspberries on the nose with a hint of French oak in the background. Cranberries lead the palate with fresh acidity, supported by a creamy mouthfeel.
Feature the 2015 Gamay Noir with patés and rillettes alongside creamy cheeses, or with main dishes like duck with plum sauce or chicken tagine with Moroccan spices. At dessert, try a fig and chèvre tart, and you'll enjoy the light fruit and soft tannins of this traditional Beaujolais style wine.
90 Points, Wine Enthusiast Magazine
11.1 tons of Gamay Noir fruit were machine-harvested with 0.12 tons of hand-harvested Syrah fruit on 10/16/15. The Gamay Noir and Syrah were crushed and de-stemmed together. The chemistry for the combined Gamay/Syrah was 20.4 Brix, 8.6 g/L TA and a pH of 3.32.
The must was cold-soaked for 2 days, then fermented on the skins using Laffort FX10 yeast and Rhone 4600 yeast. They were pressed on 10/24/15, after 6 days of fermentation, with fermentation temperatures in the 70-84F range, peaking at 93/94F on the final day.
After 4 days of settling, the wine was racked to 50% 3rd-use or newer French oak barrels and 50% (more than 5 uses) neutral oak French barrels, and finished ML fermentation in all the barrels by late November.
The wine was racked on 04/18/16, after almost 6 months in barrel. 4 of the barrels were kept aside for additional aging to become this reserve blend. Those included 3 of the older and 1 of the newer barrels.
The barrels selected for the Reserve were racked from barrel on 06/02/16 and chilled for 3 weeks for cold stabilization.
The wine was sterile filtered at bottling on 8/16/16. The final chemistry was 12.3% alcohol, a pH of 3.47, a TA of 6.2 g/L, and 0.2 % residual sugar.
Appellation: Finger Lakes
Varietal Composition: 98.7% Gamay Noir, 1.3% Syrah
Alcohol: 12.3%
Residual Sugar: 0.2%
Acid: 6.2 g/L
pH: 3.47
Harvest Date: October 15, 2015
Bottling Date: August 16, 2016
Cases Produced: 98.8
Vegan Friendly: Yes
