Please Note: We are not covering B.C. gamay in this post because so few are available from the 2024 vintage due to the freeze in January that reduced production by 95%. But B.C. is also making excellent gamay, on which we will eagerly report in due course. There is very, very little gamay in Quebec and Nova Scotia but I suspect that will change quickly.
Back in 2012, Canadian wine expert Janet Dorozynski, who plays a huge role for Canada in exporting Canadian wine, and who contributes to this post, famously created a hashtag cheer for her favourite grape: #GoGamayGo. Well, it is going!
I am betting gamay is the fastest growing wine in the country in terms of popularity. And after spending the past three weeks immersed in gamay for this article, I completely get it. As summer dawns, a chilled glass of Niagara gamay will work as well as many whites or roses to slake and satisfy, while adding a bushel of lovely red fruit aromas and flavours. And the best can captivate with layers of elegance and finesse as heady as pinot noir.
There are three reasons gamay is becoming a go-to. First, it is a lead actor in the global trend toward lighter red wines, which is a broad social-cultural taste movement as boomers age and drink lighter and less, and younger generations seem to want freshness with less gravitas in their beverages.
Then there is the fact that gamay is excellent value, being priced well below its cousin pinot noir, partially because its yields are higher and because it historically has not been priced as a premium wine.
And finally, I would argue that the distinctive style it is producing in Ontario is creating genuine interest in gamay as a fine wine.
I don’t want to re-tell the whole gamay story often told elsewhere (see Janet’s 2023 article in Quench magazine https://quench.me/longform/grape-profile-gamay-in-ontario). Nor go into deep viticultural or winemaking detail. But some context is required in order to back the idea that Niagara gamay is different from Beaujolais, and is for real as a fine wine.
Early ripening gamay is the only grape used in the granite-based soils of the Beaujolais region in France. Appended to the southern reaches of Burgundy at 46 degrees latitude, Beaujolais is conceptually and administratively a Burgundy wine. But all the reds to its north are made from pinot noir grown on limestone, which is broadly accepted and priced as being superior.
I will never forget hosting a dinner in a Beaune restaurant when the sommelier chided me for including a Beaujolais from the Fleurie appellation. “Mais, monsieur,” he said, “c’est un vin pour le dejeuner.” A lunch wine.
Another defining feature is that it is a thin-skinned variety that doesn’t impart much tannin, making it enjoyable in its youth and lightly chilled. It is almost a “white red wine.” In Beaujolais, they exploit this further with a fermentation technique called carbonic maceration, where whole destemmed grapes are put into a closed pressurized tank. Fermentation begins slowly within each grape, without extracting much tannin. At some point the grapes burst, releasing tannin, and the rest of the fermentation is more or less traditional, and of shorter duration. The wines are very fruity and low in tannin.
A third important characteristic is that most Beaujolais is not aged in barrel. It’s a wine of lightness and freshness; wood would tend to suppress those qualities. There is no regulation that gamay in Beaujolais must be “unwooded,” but most examples are not.
The Niagara Take on Gamay
So, let’s take those three Beaujolais ideas and translate them to Ontario. Niagara’s latitude is just over 200 kilometres south of Beaujolais, with a similar continental climate, albeit moderated and cooled by massive Lake Ontario. Still, there is very little problem ripening it here. Ontario’s soils are limestone — not granite based — and so the wines are lighter, paler and less fruity, driven by acidity and delivering elegance.
As a result, carbonic maceration is less often used in Ontario. Fruitiness becomes less important. But barrel ageing is employed — normally in neutral, older barrels — to play up the textural elegance. So, in this regard, Ontario gamay is being conceived as a fine wine, more so than a playful wine. A dinner wine, not a lunch wine.
Speaking of status, Ontario producers use both gamay and gamay noir on their labels. They are the same, and interchangeable. Those who add “noir” do so because they feel it conveys an extra layer of gravitas. It is a bit of a pretention, but when you flip the coin and look at the pinot noir comparison; removing “noir” from the label would somehow make pinot sound less serious.
This post highlights the major Ontario gamay players in an expanding field. Some are making more than one gamay, a basic and a reserve level. A handful are doing the deep dive into single-vineyard gamays, which is where it gets very nerdy but intriguing. With each of the reviews below we will expand on the gamay story of the leading wineries.
The Niagara Leaders
Malivoire of the Beamsville Bench made six gamays from different sites in 2024. There is an obvious affection for the style of wine and a willingness to present different expressions. Martin Malivoire first planted gamay in 1998 to make rose, but red gamay has since become an overriding signature.
The launch point is the basic, delicious 2024 Niagara Gamay ($22.95) which is a Vintages Essential at the LCBO in Ontario. Juicy and vibrant, it was poured as the Mystery Wine at the Canadian Culinary Championship in Ottawa in January 2026 and was enjoyed by the competing chefs, culinary judges and wine judges over two hours as the solo pour on the floor. Malivoire’s general manager Shiraz Mottiar attended the event and spoke of gamay’s food versality and charm.
“Niagara gamay resonates with Canadian food culture on so many levels,” he said. “With its light, fruity taste with low tannin and moderate alcohol, this is a red wine that can pair with so many global flavours found in neighbourhoods across Canada. Gamay works in all seasons and is especially nice with a slight chill in summer. And not to mention gamay’s resilience in the vineyard, being less susceptible to weather extremes than other vinifera. With all that, gamay sounds like your typical Canadian, eh!”
Thomas Bachelder is also a gamay guru. Every April he assembles several single vineyard bottlings (eight this year) in a release for Bachelder Niagara that he calls La Violette. As always with Bachelder it is more than an exploration of a grape; it is a sensory mapping of Niagara terroir. And the more I do his horizontal tastings the more I understand. He really is helping define Niagara’s sub regions. And because all the wines are very well made and high quality, the focus shifts to location.
13th Street Winery is another gamay-focused producer. The range is not as broad as Malivoire or Bachelder, but there is a deep history here, with their Sandstone Gamay being a historic bottling from the 1990s. They have released four lovely 2024s. Their 2024 Gamay Vin Gris (rose) took a gold medal at the 2025 National Wine Awards.
And yes, gamay goes beyond red, often employed in rose and sparkling rose in Ontario. I like the acid-driven vitality in wines like Divergence Gamay Noir Rosé 2023, and the precision and liveliness of Cave Spring NV Rosé Brut. A Foreign Affair also took a Silver for their Sparkling Gamay 2024
From here we let you roam among some of the best Ontario gamays on the market. And with summer coming on, encourage you to stock several.
