‘Blue Eyes’

Gamay | Adelaide Hills - Australia

Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

Gamay has found its place in Australia, particularly in the Adelaide Hills, and rivaling anything outside of the best crus of Beaujolais. The fruit comes from Sam’s ‘Eureka Vineyard’ in Woodside, an old gold mine with lots of quartz. After extensive work in the vineyard with a focus on reducing yields, Louis and Hannah were able to make a wine that shows tremendous concentration and complexity in a medium bodied frame. ‘Blue Eyes’ refers to Louis and Hannah’s daughter, Zoe, who was born in 2020 with blue eyes, despite neither of her parents having them. They have an electric brightness that lights up your mood just like this ethereally beautiful Gamay. This became the first Gamay to ever win the title of ‘best red wine’ at the Adelaide Hills Wine Show.

From vines planted in the early 2000s and re-grafted in 2018, the Gamay is brought into the cellar to ferment spontaneously open-top fermenters. Keeping what worked well in 2023, Louis has again made this wine entirely whole-cluster in open-top fermenters. The wine spent nearly two weeks on skins before being pressed off to neutral French 300L barrels on gross lees where it aged for 8 months. The lots were then racked to tank and it settled naturally without fining. It was bottled with a coarse pad filter and with a small sulfur addition.

Stats

Grapes: 100% Gamay
Vineyard: Eureka Vineyard
Vine Age: 7-years-old (Planted early 2001 - grafted in 2018)
Soil Type: Ironstone and quartz over clay
Viticulture: Sustainable - practicing organic
Fermentation: Native — open-top fermenter (100% whole-cluster)
Skin Contact: 12 days
Aging: 8 months in neutral French 300L oak
Alcohol: 13.9%
pH: 3.32
Total Acidity: 6.6 g/L
Total SO2: 54 ppm
Total Production: 225 cases
SRP: $39.99

Tasting Note

This is Pinot Noir with a pulse. Sweet black raspberry, brooding plum, and crushed black cherries collide with stemmy spice notes, dried thyme, fresh soil, and a faint mineral edge, creating the kind of delicious friction that keeps the glass in motion. There’s a wildness beneath the polish — a sappy tree on wet pavement quality tempering the fruit just enough to make every sip feel a touch unexpected, and a bit addictive.

Select a wine

Select another wine

2025

‘Blue Eyes’

About

Stats

Tasting Note

Past Vintages

Producer

Region

Country

Have a question or want to drop a line?