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Sis & Mae Wine Co. 2020 Gamay Noir
She flies with her own wings
As I travel Oregon, it’s always surprising how many different paths there are to the vino life. I’ve met winemakers who came to winemaking as chefs, scientists, journalists, sales professionals, engineers, and more.
Scott Wadlow combines two of those back stories. He’s a software engineer who spent all his free time blogging about wine and his adventures in wine tasting. The now-defunct blog, The Vino File, became so popular he soon became what we recognize today as an “influencer”. Of course, as an engineer, he dug deep on teaching himself the wine biz – working as a buyer for restaurants and in a winery during harvest.
And then, family. When he and his partner had a child, they wanted to return home to Oregon, closer to the family and land they loved.
Scott’s grandmother and her sister-in-law, Sis and Mae, were a pair of cantankerous Oregon feminists in a time and place when that wasn’t very well accepted. They truly exemplified Oregon’s state motto – She flies with her own wings – and Scott honors them and celebrates their heritage through Sis & Mae Wine Company.
Cellar 503 Tasting Notes
Sis & Mae Wine Co., St. Paul, Oregon
2020 Gamay Noir
This is the seventh time that we’ve featured a Gamay Noir for Thanksgiving, but you’re to be forgiven if you’re still new to the Gamay revolution. After all, there’s precious little of it grown outside France, where it is produced almost exclusively in Beaujolais, and where — in the French style — the wine is known as Beaujolais.
What little is grown in North America is almost entirely in Oregon, and yet there’s so little that the Oregon Wine Board’s annual stats roundup tosses Gamay Noir in with “other”.
But Gamay Noir is a perfect wine for Thanksgiving. Like Pinot Noir, it’s a light-bodied red with modest tannins. Its rounded fruit and brighter acid profile makes it a perfect complement to the rich flavors of the holiday. Your wine snob cousin will be impressed, while Aunt Mabel happily enjoys it with her turkey and gravy.
This Gamay Noir from Sis & Mae has the typical pop of fruit we expect, but it also includes earthy notes and some good tannins that bode well for aging if you’re so inclined. This is a fall-inspired wine with lovely spice notes and a hint of green leaves to remind you of Oregon’s forests.
A Cellar 503 selection in November 2022, Thanksgiving Wines Willamette Valley | Gamay Noir
