Huevos con Vino - Winery Profile of Beaux Fréres
Beaux Fréres is one of those wineries that you’ve either heard of because of Robert Parker’s attachment to the winery, or because you’re into Oregon Pinot Noir and you know about Robert Parker’s attachment to the winery. It is hard to disassociate Parker’s name from this winery, although when you visit there are no obvious, direct connections to his legacy as one of the most influential wine reviewers and critics in history.
Exterior, rear view of the Beaux Fréres winery
All mention of Robert Parker aside, Beaux Fréres has built a reputation on its well-regarded Pinot Noir. They make three different wines for general release, not including the Belle Soeurs and other random seasonal releases (such as the Grenache they were touting the day after Thanksgiving):
- Willamette Valley - their entry-level Pinot Noir, named the same as many other wineries’ entry-level Pinots
- The Vineyard - their mid-range Pinot Noir; the 2005 is particularly good
- The Upper Terrace - top-end Pinot Noir; they are already sold out of their 2005 futures only a few weeks after they went on sale
Exterior, front view of parking at the Beaux Fréres winery
The Beaux Frères winery is only open to the public for a few days each year. Like many other high-end Oregon wineries, the Memorial Day weekend and the Thanksgiving holiday weekend are the only times when most average wine connoisseurs gain access to Beaux Frères. I happened to pay a visit on the day after Thanksgiving in 2006.
Walking into Beaux Fréres on the day after Thanksgiving, 2006
The general vibe at Beaux Frères is odd. On the one hand, the winery clearly isn’t set up to accomodate more than about 15 visitors at once. When we arrived, I saw one of those wine limo tours pull up. That put me off right away, although you can’t do much about it I suppose. Why did it annoy me to see this huge limousine arrive? Well, as soon as it stopped, it disgorged at least 8 mostly-drunk yuppie scum, one of whom insisted on skipping into the winery. Seriously.
Now, a bit of a digression here: I think it’s wonderful to see people get excited about wine, particularly when it comes to visiting the winery whose wines are among your favorites. I know I got weak in the knees when I first visited Domaine Drouhin. But I also knew when to stop tasting, or at least cut back a bit on how much I was tasting. Just because you paid for the limo doesn’t mean you’ve got an excuse to get totally sloshed, or act like it’s a bachelorette party everywhere you go. I recognize that I sound like a crotchety old wine snob here, but really I’m just embarrassed to be in my 30s and watch other fellow youngsters behave like idiots and reinforce the opinions about us in the minds of the actual crotchety old wine snobs, who as a result of this sort of scene tend to treat me with as much disdain as they treat the bachelorette party-goers.
Back to the review. I was interested to see what this winery had to offer, particularly with such limited visitation availability. As we walked in, we each paid the $15 for a nice Ravenscroft glass and the right to taste 2005 futures of all three Pinot Noirs, plus their 2004 Belle Soeurs Pinot Noir and two Ana Vineyards bottlings as well, the 2004 and 2005. At the time, I didn’t know yet how much I would come to love the Ana Vineyards’ wines, so I tried these at the end of the tasting. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any home.
The main tasting area at Beaux Fréres on the day after Thanksgiving, 2006
The main room (pictured above) of the winery is small, with huge doors leading…somewhere else (they were closed), and an upstairs where food could be prepared. There was a small entry hall where they were selling futures and whatnot, and this room led into the main room.
The rest of the main tasting area at Beaux Fréres on the day after Thanksgiving, 2006
This photo shows the rest of the room; my back is against the huge doors at the rear of the room. The Ana Vineyards tasting table is barely visible here (in front of the guy with the light sabre thing shining on his back from my flash).
So, how did the futures taste? Well, as my mom and wife both pointed out later, the average wine drinker won’t like them. The Willamette and Upper Terrace both tasted like acid and tannins with some wine thrown in for good measure, which is pretty much what you’d expect from wines like these at such a young age and before bottling. Interestingly, the Vineyard Pinot Noir was pretty darn good already. It was the only Beaux Fréres wine future I considered buying, but at $60/bottle it wasn’t really worth it yet. This sentiment was well justified once I tried some other 2005 Pinots at other wineries that were actually ready to drink and were no longer considered “futures.”
As I said earlier, the vibe was odd. On the one hand, the winery tried hard to be friendly and accomodate everyone by including water, cheese, bread, and some artwork for browsing/sale. The people pouring the wines were mostly quite nice, even the ones who seemed to work for the winery (rather than just buddies of the winemakers).
On the other hand, the focus at this winery was very much on the exclusivity of the wines and their provenance, so to speak, rather than on the enjoyment of the wines themselves. I guess when you can sell out much of your stock before it really hits the market, you get a little lazy about trying to showcase the flavors compared to previous vintages, for example. None of us were particularly impressed with this winery because it seemed primarily like a place where rich people would go to mingle with other rich people, be seen, and pretend to enjoy expensive wine that isn’t ready to drink yet but that costs a lot so it must be good now, right?
I actually liked the winery and their wines, but I just felt a little put off by the idea of being limited to 2 bottles of Upper Terrace at $75/bottle direct from the winery. Why even make the trip for 2 bottles? If I had the money and I really liked the wine, I’d want to try and buy a case or two for the rest of the year. That seems to be the point of opening your doors the day after Thanksgiving, right?
Bah, I’m just a crotchety old wine snob, even though I know next to nothing about wine. But I do know what makes a good business and Beaux Fréres definitely have a good business going. Now they just need to make the effort to personalize it a little bit. And add some parking.