Division Wine Co. Gamay Noir Nouveau Nouveau (Mais Oui!) Columbia Valley 2025 750ml

 

The Columbia Valley, a wide swath of land that reaches from the northern border of Oregon to well into the northeastern parts of Washington State. Within this region is the Yakima Valley, which is home to our nearly 6-acre block of Gamay Noir at Carousel Vineyard, which we have worked since 2013. The vineyard transitioned to organic farming beginning in 2019 and is now as healthy and productive as it has ever been. We love this particular site for its mineral intense soils formed from volcanic Miocene uplift against basalt bedrock that is layered with a primary topsoil being made up of sandstone, pulverized quartz and lime- silica, overlaid with the mixed glacial runoff of Missoula floods that makes the region so dynamic, unique, and in this case, perfect for making our crunchy and fruity 'Nouveau Nouveau'. The 2025 vintage continued the 2024 pattern and was pleasantly seasonal for most of the growing season until late August, when the Pacific Northwest experienced our first prolonged hot stretch of the year. We definitely had some pause about whether this would cause premature sugar ripeness and/or sun damage in the vines, but thankfully this did not come to pass and while maturation did come about a week earlier than expected, the flavors, quality and chemistry of the grapes were all very ideal.

 

We utilize a mix of fully carbonic maceration (all whole cluster in carbon dioxide enriched environment) and semi-carbonic approaches (some destemming and use of traditional ferment management techniques like pumpovers) for the Nouveau Nouveau. As with almost all of our ferments, we use either a pied du cuve approach or the resident “house” yeasts to ferment our wines, including this year’s Nouveau Nouveau Gamay. Each lot was on the skins for 10-12 days before the grapes were pressed and finished primary & secondary fermentation in stainless tanks. As this is a nouveau wine, there was no extended aging regime to make the tight bottling turnaround to make it to everyone’s glasses by November 20th, 2025 - the traditional Beaujolais Nouveau day for this year!

 

Our 14th Nouveau Nouveau Gamay is something behold given the short time it took to make - delish strawberry compote, chalky mineral notes and plenty of juiciness.