In March 2013, we visited this winery but managed to hold onto the bottle until a special birthday happened in 2015.  Read here for details and pictures from the morning spent tasting Beaux Frères wines in Newberg with wine guide, Anna and winemaker, Michael Etzel.

This is the bottle of their 2007 vintage we purchased.  A dark horse of a year, it had high acidity to help with ageing.

Upon opening it in August 2015, it showed medium minus garnet, a hint of ruby and evenly spaced legs.

The aromas are deep and layered with ripe bing cherry, red plum and forest floor, soft green moss and cedar.

The palate is dry with medium plus – almost high – acidity.  The tannins are scraped thin and absolutely gorgeous as they literally float over the tongue.  Alcohol is unobtrusive and the body is an elegant medium at the most.

Flavours show deep complexity with dried and ripe cherries, red and purple plum, truffle oil, cedar frond and nutmeg.  The finish is extended on this WSET Outstanding wine.

Unfined and unfiltered, this wine is produced from grapes grown on several different biodynamically farmed vineyards – Beaux Frères (30), Shea (20, Upper Terrace (16), Zena Crown (15), Amalie Robert (14) and the remainder from Carabella (5).  The fruit is still fresh and the acidity high which suggest it could age for 2-3 more years yet.

As Anna told us when we visited, ‘There are no insipid wines here’.