Winemaker Notes
It is somewhat of a paradox that such an intense wine could also be light on its feet, but that is the style of this vintage. Beaux Freres believe that this season's unique growing conditions leading up to harvest gave them the ideal grapes to produce a wine with impeccable balance in acidity, alcohol, tannin, and depth of fruit.
This wine should be relatively approachable in its youth, but because of its balance evolve for 10-12 more years.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Firm in texture at first, but then blossoms into a panorama of flavors, fanning out its raspberry cream flavors and hinting at floral, mineral, green tea and Asian spice notes as the finish picks up steam. Not a big wine, but has many layers to explore.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!