Martin Woods Gamay 2018
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Robert
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2018 Gamay has delicate and very pretty aromas of powdered sugar, rose petals, cracked pepper and loads of sweet red berry fruit with gentle earthy accents. The medium-bodied palate offers intense spice and earth-laced fruits supported by a grainy, super fresh frame, and it finishes long and perfumed. What a gorgeous expression that illustrates the potential for Gamay in the Willamette Valley.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fermented partially by carbonic (whole berry) maceration, this spicy wine is loaded with red fruits and marked with sharp acidity. It's full bodied and fresh, and should be consumed over the next couple of years. It finishes with a spot of lemon tea as it fades.
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2019-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Martin Woods is owned and operated by husband and wife, Evan and Sarah Martin. Our winery and home is nestled in the wooded foothills of Oregon's Coast Range, within the McMinnville AVA. We farm and partner with exceptional vineyards in the Willamette Valley to produce artisan Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay, Cabernet Franc, Riesling, and Rosé. We are constant students and stewards of our vineyards and we aim to produce wine with textural elegance, expressive aromas and long-aging potential. Above all, we are dedicated to producing single-vineyard wines that distinctly express a sense-of-place, authentic Oregon terroir. In keeping with this goal, we age much of our wine in Oregon oak barrels (Quercus garryana) – harvested locally, open air-dried on our property, and coopered in McMinnville.
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.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.