2023 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir The Beaux Frères Vineyard Ribbon Ridge Willamette Valley 750 ml

In the 1980s, a rising wine critic and his brother-in-law fell in love with an Oregon pig farm, seeing vast potential for world-class Pinot Noir. The critic: Robert M. Parker, Jr. The brother-in-law was now-legendary vintner Mike Etzel—and the pig farm became Beaux Frères, one of the Willamette Valley's most revered and influential wineries.

From the beginning, the Beaux Frères philosophy was terroir above all else. Etzel committed to biodynamic farming and minimal-intervention winemaking from the start, and the first vintage, released in 1991, was a revelation. Beaux Frères soon found itself at the forefront of Oregon's wine scene—with Parker's Wine Advocate, of course, famously recusing itself from rating the wines.

But in 2023, something significant happened: Artémis Domaines—the fine wine group behind Château Latour, Clos de Tart, and Eisele Vineyard—acquired Beaux Frères, confirming the estate's status in the eyes of the wine world. Today, led by winemaker Mike D. Etzel (Michael's son), Beaux Frères remains one of the most sought-after addresses in the New World. The Beaux Frères Vineyard bottling is their most celebrated wine—grown entirely on the original estate vineyard that Michael Etzel first planted on Ribbon Ridge in the 1980s.

Ribbon Ridge rises like an island 600 feet above the Chehalem Valley floor, a strip of land just three-and-a-half miles long and less than two miles wide, topographically set apart from its surroundings. Hillside sites soak up the sun while fog settles on the valley floor below. The ancient marine sedimentary soils here impart a distinctive spice, tension, and mineral depth that are the hallmarks of the appellation's finest wines—and a fingerprint you can find in every bottle of the Beaux Frères Vineyard Pinot.

The 2023 growing season in the Willamette Valley began with a cool, restrained spring, steadied through a stable July and August, and delivered fruit of extraordinary quality at harvest. Critics and winemakers alike have drawn comparisons to some of Oregon's finest-ever vintages, with the Pinots in particular showing a grace and aromatic refinement that only the best years produce.