Winemaker Notes
Generous profile of red tea, baking spices, black raspberry, and candied cherry.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Eight vineyards comprise the Beaux Frères Willamette Valley bottling, with 8% coming from the estate vineyards. It was a vintage that started cool and then finished quickly. The Beaux Frères estate was very impacted by the frost, so much of the fruit is coming from secondary buds. The Willamette Valley bottling shows such freshness and bright fruit with tart cranberry aromatics balanced by a squeeze of blood orange and dusty red brambles. The finish is tart and fresh, with mint framing the delicate red berries, violet florals and tart Montmorency cherries. Delightful.
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James Suckling
This shows spicy and walnuty character to its red fruit, with dried citrus peel and crushed stone. Medium-bodied, juicy, racy, vivid and electrifying. Minerally and agile. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Graceful and detailed, with lilting raspberry and cherry flavors that unfurl to reveal fresh violet, cinnamon and orange peel accents as this builds richness and complexity toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2032.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A bright red color, the 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley comes from wight different vineyards and is fresh and lifted with floral, spicy aromas of cinnamon, roses, crystalline red cherries, thyme, and salty earth. Medium-bodied, with a pretty and refined, linear feel, it offers fine tannins, ripe acidity, and a refreshing, mouthwatering finish with a light iron note. A total charmer now, it should age gracefully over the coming 6-8 years.
Rating: 93+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley has layered aromas of pomegranate, cranberry and blackberry with nuances of cardamom, mushrooms and earth. The medium-bodied palate is silky and seamless. It has a concentrated core of spice- and earth-laced fruit and a long, nuanced finish. It's dangerously easy to drink without sacrificing nuance.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.