Beaux Freres
by Cole Danehower, first published September 2001
Beautiful Beaux Barrels: Tasting the 2001 Vintage at Beaux Frères
It is almost a month before the 2002 harvest will begin, the weather in Yamhill County is sunny and still, and Michael Etzel, winemaker and partner in the prestigious Beaux Frères winery is sitting out in the late summer warmth peacefully sipping a glass of his 1995 Beaux Frères Pinot noir.
For the moment Michael's mind is not on his vineyard grapes rapidly turning their beautiful red-black Pinot noir color on their way to completing the 2002 vintage. Instead, he is thinking about his last vintage, the one quietly sleeping in his barrels below in the cellar, awaiting future bottling. We have just finished tasting through these 2001 Pinot noirs, block by block, to get a sense of what the vintage is like for Beaux Frères.
My verdict: these are "Beautiful Beauxs!"
An Elegant Vintage
"To me the wines are more typical of a European style," says Michael. "They seem very elegant and balanced, more driven by the subtleties in the wine. It's not a big fruit-driven vintage, not darkly colored, but really charming and with good complexity. They remind me of the 1995 vintage."
Acting on his conviction, Michael opens a bottle of the 1995 Beaux Frères so we can get a sense of where the 2001 vintage may be going. "When we bottled the 1995 it was a lightly colored wine too," he says as he pours, "lighter than it is now-it got darker and weightier in the bottle."
If, indeed, the 2001 vintage turns out to taste like the 1995 vintage, consumers will be amply rewarded for saving some of their 2001 Beaux Frères. In my glass I tasted rich black cherry and licorice with a little basil-like spice. The wine had a richly soft texture, plenty of structure, and a Pinot noir sweetness that was wonderful. And though it may have once been lighter colored, no one could mistake the wine in this glass for anything but a full-flavored Pinot.
"I think perhaps the 2001s will be like this," Michael proposes as he looks into his glass of 1995 wine, "because the wines in barrel have a certain lushness right now, even though the colors are lighter. They have big red fruit and they are maturing faster. Kind of like this wine was."
Mary Davis, marketing director for Beaux Frères is a bit more effusive. "I think this is a lush, forward vintage," she says, "that is fast evolving. I think the wines will be ready to drink earlier than in the past few vintages."
Stephen Goff, assistant winemaker, concurs. "This is a good vintage for Beaux Frères. The wines have lots of charm, lots of red fruit... not as big as 1999, but I think they'll put on weight. I think they're similar to the 1993 vintage."
No Single-Vineyard Wines
Though the final blend of blocks from the Beaux Frères vineyard has yet to be done, a few tentative decisions have already been made. Perhaps the most surprising is the lack of any single vineyard releases.
"Our goal has always been to make the best wine we can," explains Michael, "and this vintage is very much a blender's vintage. On their own we just didn't think the wines were distinctive enough and compelling enough to warrant a single vineyard designation. In 2001 I felt we could make a better wine by blending."
This is a change from the 2000 vintage when Beaux Frères released a Temperance Hill Belles Soeurs in addition to their usual Shea Vineyard Belles Soeurs. Also that year, a new third Belles Souers-a Willamette Valley blend called "The Wild Thing," was released along with the flagship Beaux Frères Vineyard wine.
"The key thing is to always focus on quality," reiterates Mary. "For 2001, by blending we can get more complex and robust Beaux Frères wines. I think this is a great year for the consumer. They are sexy wines, forward, and should make a splash!"
The Best of the Blocks
But blending will be a challenge! After tasting the various blocks from both the Beaux Frères and Shea Vineyards, it is clear that there are a lot of juicy and tasty wines to work with. I liked most all of the lots I tasted, and thought that Michael's overall description of what he has top work with for 2001 was right on the money: "I think the wines are snappy and racy, rather than heavy and dark."
For instance, I tasted three different Shea Vineyard barrels that each offered a different flavor slant. The Shea Vineyard Pinot noir from Block 29 possessed big aromas and flavors of black fruit and pepper. The same wine ageing in a new oak barrel with medium-plus toast delivered a softer set of aromas with stronger black raspberry and earth notes along with a whiff of dusty vanilla. And then, the wine from Shea Block 26 showed bright, sharper red fruit characteristics. Overall, the Shea wines had an appealing brightness and seemed to offer prospects of early maturity.
Similarly, each different Beaux Frères block contained an individual personality. The Old Block (from Wädenswil fruit) showed light color and a juicy red fruit style, while the Jackie Block (named for Michael's wife) had heavier black fruit with a flowery and herby character. The North End, Old Block (Pommard fruit) had gorgeous bright color and a crisp complexity, while the No Name Block (Dijon 115 fruit) seemed rounder and thicker than the others.
My personal favorites, the Tenderloin Block and the Swale Block, each had bright forward fruit, with the Tenderloin showing a wonderfully smooth texture while the Swale had a fresh and tart cherry fruit foundation.
How these blocks eventually get blended is at this point anyone's guess. Later in the fall Michael and his brother-in-law Robert M. Parker, Jr. will together formulate the final blends. As always, the 2001 Beaux Frères wine will contain the best blocks from the estate vineyard. For the 2001 vintage the Belles Soeurs release will be a blend of blocks from Shea Vineyard and Beaux Frères Vineyard.
And as for the 2001 vintage as a whole, Mary Davis for one is excited. "I think this is a great year for the consumer. These are sexy and forward wines, and should make a splash!"
