Grape variety
Gamaret
Gamaret: the Swiss crossing of Gamay and Reichensteiner, bred at Changins in 1970. Spicy, deeply coloured and at home in Vaud, Geneva and Valais.
- Colour
- Red
- Parentage
- Gamay × Reichensteiner, crossed in 1970 by André Jaquinet at Changins
- Grown in Switzerland
- About 420 hectares, mainly in Vaud, Geneva and Valais
- Typical aromas
- Dark berries, pepper, spice, dark chocolate
- Classic pairing
- Braised beef, grilled meat, game
- Sibling varieties
- Garanoir and Mara, from the same cross
Gamaret is the most successful grape variety ever bred in Switzerland. In 1970 André Jaquinet, at the federal research station of Changins, whose vine-breeding unit then worked at Pully on Lake Geneva, crossed Gamay with Reichensteiner, an early-ripening, rot-resistant white German variety. The same cross produced Garanoir and, later, Mara. Gamaret was selected for French-speaking Switzerland, Garanoir for the German-speaking part. Officially released in 1990, Gamaret became the country’s fourth most planted red grape within three decades.
Today there are about 420 hectares of Gamaret, more than a third of them in Vaud, over a quarter in Geneva and just under a quarter in Valais; smaller plantings exist in German-speaking Switzerland, the Three Lakes region and Ticino. The grape ripens early, reaches good sugar levels even in ordinary years and stays healthy thanks to its loose bunches, which is why growers around Lake Geneva took to it so readily. It is now planted even in Beaujolais and the Aosta Valley.
In the glass Gamaret is deep purple, almost black, with powerful tannins and a spicy nose: dark berries, pepper, spice, often a touch of dark chocolate. It was originally conceived as a blending partner, lending colour and backbone to the paler Gamay and Pinot Noir. It still plays that role, for instance in the many Gamaret-Garanoir cuvées of Vaud and Geneva. More and more estates, however, bottle it on its own, usually after ageing in wood, which softens its tannins and brings out the spice.
Gamaret calls for hearty food. Braised beef, grilled meat, lamb or a venison stew in autumn are classic partners; a dessert of dark chocolate or red berries works too. Serve it at 16 to 18 degrees, and give young, densely built wines an hour of air.
To get to know Gamaret, walk into almost any cellar between Geneva, La Côte, Lavaux and the Chablais, where it appears under its own name or in a blend with Garanoir. In Valais it is often combined with Syrah or Cornalin. Its youth hardly shows in the glass: it tastes of the Rhône valley and Lake Geneva, not of the laboratory.