Beaux Freres Willamette Valley Pinot noir 05: The most approachable and ready to drink of the three Beaux Freres wines, the Willamette Valley is succulent and juicy. The nose has a decadent creme brulee quality, with red raspberry and blackberry as well. Hints of sweet toast and pumpkin pie spice add to the mix, with a soft creaminess underlying all. Flavors reiterate the scents, with a sweet, juicy quality to the red cherry and red berry flavors. Sweet cherry hard candy is hinted at in the midpalate. We found the wine uplifting, lithe, and refreshing. The juicy fresh blackberry and raspberry flavors are transmogrified to sweet red cherry with a touch of uplifting sour cherry in the finish. A really wonderful food wine, ready to drink and drink within five years.
Winery Tasting Notes
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 Fr?res 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.
Not currently available to order.
May be out of stock or sold out. Inquire at 541-752-7418 or store@avalonwine.com
Detailed Info, Previous Vintage Notes, Reviews:
Previous, 2004 Vintage Tasting Notes (Called Belles Soeurs)Tanzer 90 points: "Bright red. Exotic, spicy and floral on the nose, with notes of strawberry, raspberry and sexy oak. At once plump and juicy, with a silky, round texture and flavors of red fruits. Finishes with good energy, the tangy red berry flavors remaining focused and bright. This is the suavest version of Belles Soeurs I've had to date."
Here are our Belles Soeurs tasting notes, March
15, 2006:
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.
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:
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 Frères. 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.
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."
