Gamay

Gamay is the primary black grape of France's Beaujolais region, where the granite soil of this southern sub-region of Burgundy brings out its best qualities. Generally light in colour with a blue-purple hue, wines made from Gamay can be very refreshing, full of candy-like cherry and raspberry flavours and fresh, floral esters, perfect for drinking lightly chilled on hot summer days. It is almost always a grape to drink young to appreciate its fresh, fruity qualities, with more tang than tannin.

This refreshing fruitiness lends itself well to carbonic maceration (fermentation in the complete absence of oxygen), as this process protects the delicate fruit components and readies the wine for early release. The resulting wine has a lighter, brighter colour, a banana, candy or bubblegum quality in the fruity aroma, often accompanied by a slight "tickle" (petillance) to the texture.

Gamay tends to easily lose its aroma and flavour identity when blended with another grape variety, and so both red wines and rosés are typically produced from unblended Gamay.

Beaujolais Nouveau, the first release of the wine, reaches the market on the third Thursday in November, immediately following the harvest, along with the proclamation "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé" ("the Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived").

However, Nouveau is the lowest wine in the Beaujolais hierarchy; the Gamay grape reaches its summit of quality in the 'cru Beaujolais' wines. These are red wines produced from Gamay grapes grown within the ten townships regarded as superior to the rest of the subregion: Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, Regnie and St-Amour. Unlike other wines from Beaujolais, 'cru Beaujolais' wines can benefit from two or three years of ageing.