Winemaker Notes
The Beaux Freres Vineyard Pinot Noir 2019 delivers with generosity and sophistication. A deep potpourri of candied cherry, Asian spices and incense lift gracefully from the glass. Silky, with notions of blue and red fruits, fresh fennel, and juicy cranberry, the wine is supported with a depth of composed tannins that deliver a remarkably grand, mouthwatering finish. There is a level of tension at its core, indicating nearly timeless potential for cellaring.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir The Beaux Frères Vineyard is super expressive this vintage, with scents of brambly fruit, rose petals, forest floor, sweet balsamic and blood orange. The palate has a weightless quality, its silty tannins and bright acidity highlighting an array of earthy accents, and it finishes very long.
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James Suckling
A perfumed nose of cherry, wild strawberry, forest floor, dried flower, smoke and spice box. It’s medium-bodied with fine, creamy tannins and lively acidity. Round and balanced with a velvety texture. Layered with a long, savory finish. Unfiltered. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Taut with tension, this slowly unwinds with complex cherry and guava flavors that are laced with notes of fresh tarragon and hints of river stone, building richness toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2030.
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!