Winemaker Notes
The 2023 Brick House Gamay Noir’s cranberry, red currant and pomegranate fruit is balanced by a fresh acidity that makes this wine suitable for a wide variety of foods.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Matured in used oak, the 2023 Gamay Noir has intoxicating scents of raspberry, strawberry, orange peel, rosewater, pepper and tea leaves. Medium-bodied, it floods the mouth with layer after layer of expressive red fruit. It’s structured by silky tannins and bright acidity and has a long, nuanced finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Displaying a bright transparent red hue, the 2023 Gamay Noir is fresh with notes of ripe cherries, cinnamon, bright spice, and crushed stones. Offering more complexity, it’s a medium-bodied, spicy, bright wine, with chalky, fine tannins and a clean, zesty lift through the finish.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.