A 96 Point Beaux Freres Pinot
this year? -- Looking good!
There are only twelve 95 point Oregon Pinots fromWine Spectator - three are Beaux Freres', for the 2002, 2003, and 2004 vintages. Oregon Pinots are better than ever. We've long expected at least one Oregon Pinot noir to break through and garner 96 points.
We bet that elusive 96 point score
will go to Beaux Freres.
And this might be the year.
A remarkably approachable vintage, the Beaux Freres 2006's are ready to drink and immediately impressive. The winery calls them "hedonistic". Yes, they're hedonistic and appealing as heck -- and, even better than the passionately remembered 1994 vintage sexpots, they have classic structure for aging and the potential to become profound with time in the cellar.
Beaux Freres
is an small, extremely highly regarded
winery in Oregon's Northern Willamette
Valley. The Estate Vineyard, a mere 24
acres, produces some of the highlest rated
North American Pinot noirs, year after
year. Mike Etzel, co-owner of the winery
with Robert Parker, the famous wine critic,
is both winemaker and careful overseer
of his Estate and Upper Terrace Vineyards.
It was the winter of 1992 that I first pulled up Mike Etzel's steep and scrabbly driveway. He'd released his first Beaux Freres Pinot noirs and I wanted them for my wine shop. The web was yet to come, Oregon was considered an obscure wine region producing more duds than winners, and not a B&B, restaurant, or tour van was to be seen. Ribbon Ridge was a road, not an appellation, and the chicken farmer down the road thought Mike was crazy to grow grapes.
I've sold every vintage of Mike's wines since that first fateful visit. Put them in our wine club, tasted each vintage numerous times, followed their development in the cellar. Admired Mike's commitment to a longterm vision of what his winery could become, allowing the vines to mature, the wines to age, his knowledge of winemaking to grow.
The 2006 Beaux Freres Pinots represent a new benchmark in quality for Mike's winemaking.
If the fleshy, lush sexpot Pinots of 1994 are fondly remembered as Beaux Freres' first nationally recognized, highly rated vintage, and the 2002's as the start of a series of 95 point ratings, the 2006's (co-owner Parker calls them "hedonistic") will be remembered as the vintage when it all came together and Beaux Freres took a giant leap up to international status.
If at least one of Beaux Freres' three 2006 wines does not break the 95 point level, I'll be shocked.
Parker helped write the 2006 Beaux Freres tasting notes, and he says the 2006 Estate Pinot is"the sexiest, most hedonistic wine from this vineyard site to date. For that reason, we think it is among the finest wines we have ever produced."
Yes, they're hedonistic and appealing as heck -- and, even better than the passionately remembered 1994 vintage sexpots, they have classic structure for aging and the potential to become profound with time in the cellar.
6- "The Beaux Freres Vineyard" 06 $80
4- Willamette Valley 06 $50
2- "The Upper Terrace" 06 $90
...read more >>
Avalon Tasting Notes
The most seductive, mouthfilling Beaux Freres Pinot noir to date. Let the fanfare begin!
It's an orchestra of mixed fruits, all delivered in a superbly
...read more
Beaux Freres Pinot noir Ribbon Ridge The Upper Terrace 06
Wine Spectator 94 Points and Wine Spectator "HOT" Wine in Wine Spectator "Insider" for May 7, 2008:
Elegant and refin
...read more
Avalon's tasting notes:
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
...read more
Collectible large format bottle of one of Oregon finest Pinot noirs!
The most seductive, mouthfilling Beaux Freres Pinot noir to date.
It's an orchestra of mixed fruits, all delivered in a
...read more
Collectible magnum!
Avalon's tasting notes:
Fragrant and spicy, with a pretty perfumed nose of lovely violets, graham and lush red fruit. Opulent, creamy red cherries and berries fi
...read more
Wine Spectator 93 points "Although 2005 was a difficult vintage, Beaux Fr?res made a beauty out of its own vineyard. Firm at first, it then blossoms into a panorama of flavors, fanning out its ...read more >>
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 ...read more >>
