Beaux Frères, The Beaux Frères Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021

RSP$1,048                      Special Offer $880/btl - Buy 6@$800

Oregon's Grand Cru

The estate's flagship wine is drawn from its oldest vines, a 10.1-hectare vineyard planted in 1988 on its own roots. Occupying a southwest-facing hillside, it delivers both ripeness and acid retention, and has come to define the house's dark-fruited Ribbon Ridge style. Biodynamically farmed and Demeter-certified, it is the closest thing North America has to a true grand cru monopole.

A fantastic vintage

A timely June rain built a soil-moisture reserve that carried the vines through three bouts of extreme heat. Yields were moderate, the fruit irresistible. Fermented predominantly with whole clusters and raised gently in French oak, the wine opens slowly to a deeply pigmented core of wild blackberry, blueberry and macerated plum, lifted by forest floor, liquorice, bitters and floral potpourri.

On the palate, the grand cru analogy earns its keep. At once silky and tensile, the surprisingly concentrated mid-palate is framed by fine-grained tannins and a vein of graphite-laced minerality that runs the length of a long, floral finish. This is density in service of nuance—elegant, expressive and decidedly vinous. The estate's flagship single-vineyard cuvée, it is just entering its prime now, with a further decade or more to come.

“Medium ruby-purple, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Beaux Frères Vineyard opens slowly on the nose to a core of wild blackberry and blueberry, revealing tones of forest floor, licorice, bitters and floral potpourri as it spends time in the glass. The light-bodied palate is soft and juicy with surprisingly concentrated flavors for its delicate frame, and it has a long, floral finish. This is elegant, expressive and easy to drink!” — The Wine Advocate 95+

Drinking window: Now–2038

About Beaux Frères

Few estates come to define a place; Beaux Frères is one of them. Founded in 1986 by Michael G. Etzel and his brother-in-law, the critic Robert M. Parker Jr.—hence the name, French for "brothers-in-law"—the property has become the reference point against which Oregon Pinot Noir is measured. In 2022, François Pinault acquired a majority stake, bringing the estate into the prestigious Artémis Domaines portfolio alongside Château Latour, Champagne Jacquesson and Clos de Tart.
 

The 35-hectare farm sits atop Ribbon Ridge, the first and smallest of the Willamette Valley's nested sub-AVAs, with 14 hectares under vine and the balance given to farm and forest. Here the iron-rich Willakenzie soils—ancient, uplifted seabed—drain aggressively, stressing the vines into concentration without weight. The result is a distinctly dark-fruited, structural signature, all firm tannin and graphite minerality, set apart from the red-cherry charm of the neighbouring Dundee Hills.