Beaux Freres Pinot noir Willamette Valley 06
Fragrant and spicy, with a pretty perfumed nose of lovely violets, graham and lush red fruit. Opulent, creamy red cherries and berries fill your mouth. Sweet thyme lingers on the finish, with just a touch of touch of cinnamon, clove, and mingling with vibrant cranberry notes. Much more of a flirty wine than the 2005, the 06 Willamette Valley is immediately impressive. - Avalon
From the winery:
This cuv?e exhibits a deep ruby/purple color, a beautiful nose of sweet cherries, raspberries, spice box and spring flowers. This wine is very rich, hedonistic, and full-bodied, balanced with tremendous amounts of fruit and glycerin. It is smooth, seamless, and altogether a gorgeously plump, fleshy style of Pinot Noir that should drink exceptionally well for at least a decade. The 2006 Willamette Valley is comprised of wine made from the Carabella, Shea, Zena Heights, Ana and Amalie Robert Vineyards. This may well be the finest cuvee of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir we have made. A real crowd pleaser.
MORE INFORMATION
Tasting Notes 2005 Vintage This wine is deep ruby to the rim, with sweet black cherry and cassis fruit. Not quite the same degree of nuance of the Upper Terrace, or the earthy terroir-driven character of the Beaux Freres Vineyard. The Willamette Valley Cuvee is an up-front wine with medium to full body, beautifully pure fruit, supple tannin, and a good vibrant acidity giving the wine a freshness to go along with its fullness and palate-pleasing style. It should be consumed during its first 7-8 years of life. Here are our Belles Soeurs tasting notes, March
15, 2006: The Belles Soeurs is a more forward wine than the Estate
04, with words like "lush" and "sultry" coming to
mind. A tad more decadent than sophisticated, the wine is beautifully
balanced, true to the varietal character in every way, yet so big and
sexy. The "Shea" influence is clear in the spice and violet
qualities... perhaps that silky yet rich, melt in the mouth finish will
remind the taster of the Shea Homer. Here's what Mike had to say about the
wine: Beaux Freres says this about the wine: "This wine
is assembled primarily with fruit from the Shea Vineyard as
well as Medici, Pelos-Sandberg, Weber,
and a bit of Beaux Frères. The deep plum/ruby hued wine exhibits
a nose of sweet, ripe cherry jam intermixed with spice, underbrush and
dried herbs de Provence characteristics. Full bodied, fleshy, and undeniably
appealing, it is a full throttle Pinot with no hard edges. A stunning
premier cru from Beaune meets a gorgeous Pinot Noir from the Willamette
Valley, and viola – 2004 Belles Soeurs."
A tad more restrained nose than the 2004 Estate, focused around scents
of ripe jammy fruit, white pepper, dried herbs, and spice. The explosive
flavors are of sweet, silky raspberry and blackberry, violet perfume,
intense notes of sweet black plum and red cherry, appealing hints of
thyme, sage, and marjoram, spicy cinnamon and clove, and a long finish
with hints of white pepper, forest floor, violets, mint, and more raspberry
fruit.
Belles Soeurs wines feature fruit grown on select vineyard sites in Yamhill
County. The wines benefit from the same integrity in the winemaking process
as Beaux Freres. The sites are non-irrigated and managed to very
low yields. The wines are not manipulated or filtered. Beaux Freres ages
the wines in the same French oak barrels used in their estate bottling,
however the percentage of new oak is intentionally lower.
