Doug Tunnell says in the last few years there have been more producers of Gamay in the Willamette cropping up, although there are currently only about 30-35 acres planted. "We have almost five acres of Gamay now, and that makes us one of the biggest growers of the variety in the state," he says. "There are some things about our soils, principally low pHs around 5 to 5.5, that are very similar to Beaujolais and opposite of a Burgundian Pinot Noir vineyard where the pH is closer to 7." The pale ruby-purple colored 2017 Gamay Noir offers up strawberry and red cherry candy, crushed raspberries, orange peel, blueberries, cinnamon and boysenberry with earthy nuances. Light-bodied, it offers great intensity of earth-laced fruits with a soft, grainy frame and juicy freshness to lift the berry-laced finish. 640 cases produced.

Medium ruby with a tinge of purple, the 2016 Gamay Noir has a nose of black cherry and black berry with nuances of floral perfume, warm baking spice and dusty earth. Medium-bodied, it’s peppery in the mouth with good concentration of dark fruits accented by spice/earth notes, framed by fine-grained tannins and juicy acidity, finishing on an earthy note. 650 cases produced.

Pale ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Gamay Noir offers a very pretty nose of violets, red roses and Bing cherries with hints of cranberry juice and garrigue. Light to medium-bodied, the palate reveals tons of fruit and savory layers with a chewy frame and great length.

The 2014 Gamay Noir was picked on September 20 after the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and matured in neutral oak for ten months. It is bursting with raspberry jam and blueberry on the nose, although there is a subtle tinny scent that needs to be subsumed by the fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with juicy ripe raspberry and red cherries, crisp tannin and a touch of blueberry on the finish that just needs a little more length. Still, this is very good value.

Tunnell’s 2011 Gamay Noir is redolent of ripe, juicy boysenberry and blueberry with tartness of berry skin, seed crunchiness, and slight granularity of tannin combining for an invigorating finish. Faintly stony suggestions as well as the wine’s tartness lend a certain sense of austerity unexpected considering the vivid evocations of ripe berries in the nose; but this is quite precise in its flavor delineation and its firmness allied to energetic stimulation. I expect it to be fascinating to follow through at least 2017, during which time it may well take on a patina that encompasses greater complexity as well as some sense of palate richness. Willamette biodynamic pioneer Doug Tunnell – for much more about whom and about whose property and portfolio consult my Issue 202 introduction – brought in all of his 2011s in the last days of October and first days of November at close to 12.5% natural alcohol, and they were then chaptalized (in part simply to extend fermentation), but remain just under 13%. With the exception of his “Moe’s” bottling from Momtazi Vineyard in McMinnville, Tunnell utilized a higher share of whole clusters and stems in 2011 than he had in 2010. He claims that it’s critical to combine the use of stems with extended maceration even after reaching dryness, which supports a hypothesis I’ve developed since last year that the many vintners who refer to Ribbon Ridge Pinot as inherently tough are probably pulling their young wine off of the skins as it takes on obvious tannins rather than, as it were, letting it get over a hump. “It took me time to understand this,” says Tunnell. “You watch those tannins climb, and climb, and climb. But don’t pull the trigger; restrain yourself! Then they start coming together.” The chance to taste additional older wines with Tunnell on this recent occasion has enhanced my respect and admiration for his work as well as encouraged my belief that the wines he is crafting from recent vintages are going to number among those Ribbon Ridge Pinots that serve as future benchmarks for what is possible with this grape in the Willamette Valley. (Incidentally, Tunnel could not locate even a single bottle of his “basic” 2011 Pinot Noir Select for me to taste in July and I failed to subsequently connect with one.) Tel. (503) 538-5136