Hundred Suns Wine, Willamette Valley Gamay Noir, 2022, 750ml

Description

Hundred Suns is owned by Renee Saint-Amour and Grant Coulter, and between the two of them, they have experience managing vineyards and making wine for some of Oregon's great producers. The two started Hundred Suns in 2015, sourcing grapes from from a few choice growers as well as growing their own.

This year's Gamay was grown in the newly designated Tualatin Hills AVA at Tualatin Estate Vineyard, a site established in 1973 by wine pioneer Bill Fuller. There, in the foothills of the Coast Range, a tiny 1-acre sliver of Gamay was planted in the early 2000s in soils mixed with elements of deep sandstone, broken shale, clay, and basalt.

Low-vigor vines set a modest crop and the fruit was hand-picked on October 17th where it was separated into three fermentations: one fully destemmed and two lots of whole bunch. Treated in a traditional fashion, we let native yeast slowly finish fermentation. Using a combination of pumpovers and punch downs. The wines were pressed and aged for 11 months in a combination of 20% terracotta amphora and 80% neutral barrels. This wine brims with spice, red cranberries, layers of perfumed licorice, and floral notes.