2004 Beaux Frères, Pinot Noir, The Beaux Frères Vineyard, Ribbon Ridge AVA, Willamette Valley, Oregon.
In a classic flashback, the 2004 Beaux Frères BFV Pinot Noir was an amazing treat recently showing beautiful maturity and tertiary elements, and while at the edge of life, it delivered a lovely performance with delicate palate of dried cherry fruit, porporri, porcini, bay leaf, tea spices and cedar wood. This silky brick/ruby colored Pinot adds lingering strawberry in the glass, it really came around with air, gaining depth and complexity, making it a joy for lovers of finely aged Pinot or Burgundy with subtle earthy tones and a savory edge. That all said, I have had 20 year old Beaux Frères bottles less evolved, so I suspect this might not have been stored perfectly, but I would recommend drinking tis vintage if you have it. Thank you to my Oregon born friend Josh Rose who found the bottle and shared it with a small group of wine enthusiasts. I remember having this 2004 when young and it was brilliantly structured, deep in ripe fruits, with smoky sweet oak notes, all of which have integrated nicely. One of Oregon’s most coveted and prized wineries, Beaux Frères, founded by Mike Etzel, on an old pig farm in the Ribbon Ridge appellation back in the late eighties, it’s an area that has ancient marine sediment Willakenzie soils and picturesque hillside vineyards, perfect for deep, vivid and expressive Pinot Noir. The original Beaux Frères vineyard, at close to 400 feet of elevation, is a mixture of own-rooted Pommard and Wädenswil clones, along with a selection younger Dijon clones which were planted later on phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.
As mentioned in my prior reviews, Beaux Freres, established back in 1986, though their estate first bottling was released in 1991, is one of the Willamette Valley’s most admired wineries that is focused mainly on terroir driven Pinot Noirs, which have become legendary efforts. The Pinots here are made in traditional Burgundian methods and, like Brick House Vineyard just down the road here in Ribbon Ridge, is committed to following biodynamic principles in the vines and in the cellar. The fermentation is allowed to occur spontaneously, relying on “wild” indigenous yeast, and as the winery notes, the must is tended to the old-fashioned way with punch downs and pump overs by hand throughout the day and night in small lots with lengthy maceration(s) before being pressed to barrel. Every vintage dictates the oak regime here at Beaux Freres and the wines see a percentage of new oak depending on the strength and concentration of the year with most of the Pinots getting a good dose of neutral wood and get 30% to 50% new in the best selections. The wines, which are matured in classic barriques, see no racking and Beaux Freres believes in reductive winemaking throughout the process to save freshness and purity of aromatics. The wines see, typically, 12 months in toasty French oak with secondary fermentation happening naturally and the Pinots are bottled without fining or filtering. This distinctive Beaux Frères Vineyard bottling and the Upper Terrace Pinot, from vines planted in 2000 and exclusively to Dijon clones, are the top wines here and should be bucket list Pinots, which age well, as proven here. The 2004 Beaux Frères Pinot Noir was crafted by Etzel, along with a young Grant Coulter, who now is making the exciting wines at Hundred Suns, who I saw when I was visiting the estate in 2008.
($115 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive