Bow & Arrow Gamay 2024
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The Land
Oregon's Willamette Valley is usually sold as America's Burgundy. Bow & Arrow reads the same ground as the Loire: a blue-collar farming valley of relatively simple, clay-dominated soils rather than a grand cru address. The 2024 Gamay draws mostly on the Eola-Amity Hills and the Chehalem Mountains. Eola-Amity sits on ancient uplifted marine basalt, its red Jory soils shallow and fast-draining, and the hills take the full force of the Van Duzer Corridor, the gap in the Coast Range that pulls cold Pacific air inland every afternoon and shuts ripening down at night. The Chehalem Mountains add windblown Laurelwood loess over basalt, a deeper and warmer soil. Basalt supplies the iron-filing grip, loess the fleshier middle.
The Wine
Gamay Noir, vinified the way Beaujolais does it: traditional semi-carbonic maceration, run in concrete rather than steel or wood, which holds fermentation temperature steady and leaves no oak signature at all. Fruit forward, extraction kept low. Scott Frank's own note on this vintage is "hard red candy crunch with a twist of cracked pepper," which is close to exact. Cranberry, pomegranate, crushed raspberry and violet, then black pepper and a ferrous edge on the finish. Tannin is fine and short; acidity carries the structure. 2024 gave Willamette growers the season they had waited for after a run of hot years: a wet winter and spring, rain at bloom that thinned the crop without hand-thinning, brief July and August heat spikes that landed while clusters were still green and sunburn-resistant, then a dry picking window from September 10 to October 16. Sugar accumulated slowly and acid stayed put.
The People
Scott Frank moved from New York to Portland in 2001 and started out buying wine for a grocery store, where local interpretations of Loire grapes got his attention. John Paul of Cameron Winery hired him as assistant winemaker in 2007, and in 2010 an offer of fruit he could not refuse started Bow & Arrow. There is no estate. The winery is subterranean, on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland, and Frank buys from a small group of growers who agreed to graft over or plant Melon de Bourgogne, Gamay, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc for him. His stated principles are drinkability and low intervention. It is the most coherent argument anyone in Oregon has made for the valley's non-Burgundian side.
Food Pairing
Serve it at cellar temperature, around 55 degrees. Smoked pork chops with grainy mustard and braised red cabbage; a farro bowl with roasted mushrooms, thyme and lemon; salmon roasted over green lentils; a smash burger with sharp cheddar and pickles. Gamay's acidity cuts fat cleanly, and its light tannin never collides with oily fish the way a bigger red would. This is the bottle you open on a Tuesday without deciding it is a special occasion.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
The Willamette Valley, nestled in Oregon, is a region renowned for its cool-climate wines, particularly its Pinot Noir. While Pinot Noir is its most celebrated variety, the valley is also home to other cool climate varieties like Chardonnay and Riesling. The region's unique terroir, characterized by rolling hills, volcanic and sedimentary soils, and a maritime climate influence, contributes to the elegance and complexity of its wines. The wines of the Willamette Valley offer a delicate balance between fruit, acidity, and earthiness. Its increasingly growing reputation places it among the world’s top regions for Pinot Noir.
Oregon - Willamette Valley
A red wine grape most associated with Beaujolais, Gamay makes fresh, fruity red wines with berry and violet aromas. It is grown around the world outside of France where it is often a darker and less tannic cousin to Pinot Noir in cool climate regions such as Oregon and Victoria.
