Beaux Freres’ Sons – Second Generation’s Own Winery
Jared and Mikey Etzel, two of the three sons of Beaux Freres‘ Mike Etzel, have their own winery, Coattails Winery. The second generation of the Beaux Freres family has released Horsetails Pinot noir 07 $25.95/$23.36. Youngest brother Nathan is still in college at Oregon State University.
Below, left to right, Nathan, Jared, and Mikey Etzel
The Horsetail Pinot noir 07 has fragrant aromas of lilac, cinnamon, and pretty red fruit perfume with a background of dried herbs. Fresh yet rich flavors caress your tongue – purple flower-accented sweet cherry, sarsaparilla, brambly raspberry, and a creamy earth note. The finish resonates with pure Pinot noir character. – Marcus’s tasting note
The Horsetails 07 is made from fruit sourced at Broadley Vineyard and Wahl Vineyard. Jared said, “the Horsetail Pinot noir gets its elegance from the Wahl fruit and the power from Broadley. The wine is about 50/50 from the two vineyards.”
Jared explains the choice of the wine’s name – “We’ve learned a lot about biodynamic preparations from Dad. The “Horsetail” name comes from the Equisetum hyemale ‘Horsetail Fern’, a plant that is used in biodynamic vineyards. The plant is made into a silica spray that enhances light absorption.”
The two brothers have an amazing amount of experience in all aspects of vineyards and wine making. They worked with their Dad since they were about nine years old, starting out doing simple tasks. Jared and Mikey gradually participated in every part of the process.
The vineyard also provided a great atmosphere for the young boys to play. Mikey remembers slinging mud around the vine rows and riding his dirt bike around the property. Jared remembers riding through the vineyards on tractors. “We were always out there,” Mikey said. Before very long, the boys began working in the vineyards, earning a small allowance. While other kids might do the dishes or sweep the floor, these two spent a season “suckering,” or thinning excess shoots from grapevines, in order to save up for their first Nintendo.
Below, Beaux Freres Winery, October 2009
Read “Beaux Freres: Introducing the Second Generation” by Alison Ruch for more information about Beaux Freres’s future and the Beaux Freres sons.
Jared and Mikey talk about how even though they were steeped in wine work as children, they never felt pressure to choose winemaking as a career. What tipped the scales, according to Jared and Mikey, was spending time working for nearby Ribbon Ridge wineries (Cristom, Brick House, Adea) and eventually traveling to assist at wineries in Spain and France.
Both Jared and Mikey completed their degrees at Oregon State University, studying viticulture, winemaking, business and Spanish. After graduating, both have had a series of jobs at wineries in Oregon, California, and Spain.
While abroad, Jared and Mikey were able to taste wines they never would have tasted in the U.S. and to get a more concrete sense of how the land and all aspects of it – the terroir – inform the flavor of wine.
“I think it’s really important in winemaking to know all the different varietals and styles of wine and how people are making them because it’s such a subjective thing,” Jared said. “There are so many takes on it. Some people think it’s more of an art, some people think it’s more of a science. Some people think it’s divine.”
Below, Jared Etzel
When Mikey went to Spain, he began in the south, in Valencia, and worked his way up to Rioja. The experience allowed him to see some of the large wine operations going on in the south as well as some of the small winery practices taking place in Rioja. He found it interesting how, similar to certain areas in the U.S., a competitive atmosphere for small, boutique wineries tends to breed more and more of the same until you have a place like Rioja, which he said feels like the Spanish “epicenter” of low production, fine quality wineries.
Jared has worked for two vintages as assistant winemaker at Napa Valley’s Fisher Vineyard. “In California, winemaking seems to be all about tannin structure, density, layered tannins. The winemaking is quite different from what we do at Beaux Freres. I’ve tried to extract different things to do with Pinot noir from the experience.”
Jared and Mikey’s next wine will be a Coattails Winery Pinot noir 08. The Coattails Pinot noir will only be made in the best years and will be their flagship wine. The Coattails 08 is undergoing extended aging. It is still in barrel and will probably stay for 16 months. The barrels are 60% new oak, all Francois Freres. It is a full, dense wine, a benefit of extended aging.
“We break out the two wines in each vintage. There is no difference in winemaking style between the Horsetail and Coattails Pinots. The difference is in the blending and tasting. The very best barrels go into Coattails.”
While Jared, Mikey, and Nathan will, no doubt, continue their travels and take jobs with other wineries, it’s a good chance that Beaux Freres will continue on for many decades with a second generation of exceptionally talented family winemakers.
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