I recently came across something on the net (I can't remember were) that implied gamay is the one red that does not take to oak well. At least I think that's what I read.
Oops! I've had 40g of dark French oak sitting in 23 litres of gamay for a couple months now. I know I can't lose the oak now. What exactly am I cooking though? Have I ruined it?
Dunno, but we have our Gamay Noir in older French oak barrels, and it's fine.
I think it depends on how you fermented the fruit. Last year we did ours by carbonic maceration (nouveau style), and used no oak. This year we did it in a traditional red wine crush-and-ferment style, and are aging in oak. You need to do what tastes right for the wine.
How does yours taste?
Dave
**************************************************************************** Dave Breeden snipped-for-privacy@lightlink.comThanks for responding Dave. Been away until a couple days ago. Racked the Gamay off its oak this morning. I've since learned that gamay should have an intensely fruity bouquet and flavour. But it's delicate and oak overwhelms it. I.E. oak takes something away rather than adds. My tasting experience this morning would support that I think. The wine taste all right but little fruitiness and little bouquet. More a plywood wine. Guess I'll be drinking my mistakes as usual.
Jim
Gamay is not the only red that can benefit from not oaking. One might be surprised at the fruitiness of other grapes (traditionally used to make the "Big Reds") if one gives them short pulp fermentation time and not use oak.
I often wonder how many potentially great wines are NOT made because people tend to follow "Tradition" instead of experimenting a little.
Perhaps over oaking is one reason some experienced wine tasters can not tell the difference between say a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I wonder if they could tell the difference if the oak and extended fermention on the skins did not mask the fruitiness.
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