Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
With a delicate and open texture, this shows lanolin and rose petal undertones to the red berry flavors. Gains depth with each sip.—Non-blind Beaux Frères vertical (October 2015). Drink now through 2025.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The striking 2013 Beaux Frères The Beaux Frère Vineyard Pinot Noir is nothing short of pure. Not made to follow trendy New World tendencies, this one boasts of focused varietal nuances and Old World traditions. Medium to deep garnet color, with some brick edges; very savory in the aroma, alluring and compelling, black fruits, excellent depth; medium bodied, finely structured on the palate, a delicate steak in the background; dry, medium acidity, well balanced; flavors of sweet earth and anise to go along with the red to black fruit flavors, a note of rusticity, excellent concentration; long finish, savory in the aftertaste. (Tasted: August 25, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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!