Winemaker Notes
Sage, cedar, blueberry scone and strawberry compote.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A jeweled, youthful ruby hue, the 2022 Pinot Noir The Beaux Freres Vineyard is fantastically layered with bright red fruit, preserved cranberries, lifted spice, and crushed stones, and the palate is elegant and refined, with fine tannins and a great harmonious and tapered finish. It’s very well-detailed, with a chiseled structure that makes itself known, and it’s only going to improve with time in the bottle. Drink 2026-2046.
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Decanter
A gorgeous Pinot Noir, the plantings from 1988 are being replanted as the phyloxerated vines are being removed. This wine shows elegance and grace while maintaining depth and concentration, but make no mistake, it's built to age. The Beaux Frères Vineyard is clonally diverse with a massale selection of Pommard and Wadenswil and 115. Red fruited aromas and beautiful interplay between bright berries mixed with fresh mint and savoury herbs. The palate remains fresh and elegant, with red-fruited generosity and savoury depth of spearmint and wild anise.
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James Suckling
Attractive and fresh pinot with red cherries, cranberries, minty pine-needle freshness and hints of citrus peel. Medium-bodied, bright and blooming, with delicious red-berry character. Very polished and refined. Flavorful and vivid. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
Darkly floral, the 2022 Pinot Noir The Beaux Frères Vineyard wafts up with an earthy bouquet as flowery underbrush and crushed ashen stones complicate dried black cherries and a flourish of lavender. This is cool-toned and racy, with a cascade of sweet spice and ripe red and blue fruits that flow across a stream of vibrant acidity. The 2022 finishes structured, long and beautifully balanced, leaving a classically dry sensation as rosy inner florals gradually recede. In 2022, Mikey Metzel pushed the new oak up to 35% from 25% due to the quality of the tannins and freshness of the fruit.
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Wine Spectator
With detail and dimension, this compelling red laces rich raspberry and guava flavors with spiced tea, sandalwood and rose petal tones while building tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2034.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir The Beaux Frères Vineyard has dynamic aromas that segue from charcuterie and flint to roasted cranberries, forest floor and spice. The medium-bodied palate has pleasantly broody, meaty flavors structured by chalky tannins and vibrant acidity, and it has a long, spicy finish. It will benefit from 2-3 years in bottle.
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!