Freja Cellars is dedicated to the pursuit of producing only artisian Pinot Noir wines of the highest quality made from our own estate vineyards. Our wines are made in the classic Burgundian style.
The wines are all about the terroir of this Chehalem mountain hillside consisting of the Laurelwood soil type. The wines tend to be complex, fragrant and have tremendous finesse. They are medium bodied and are typically garnet/brick colored.
It has been stated many times before but especially with Pinot Noir, ninety percent of the wine characteristics are produced out in the vineyard, not in the winery. With this philosophy in mind, the fruit receives minimal handling in the winery and gravity is used to move the wine in most of the processing. The crop is hand picked when the flavors have fully developed and hand sorted, removing any unripe or rotted clusters.
This labor-intensive process assures that only the highest quality fruit goes into wine production. The German crusher used at the winery gently destems the clusters resulting in 60-80% whole berries that are gravity fed to the single lot fermentors. Fermenting whole berries brings out the purity of fruit and emphasizes the varietal character of Pinot Noir.
Depending on the vintage, three different yeast strains are used to give different characteristics in the finished wine. The yeast employed are chosen for the ability to produce good color, mouth feel, spiciness and fruit flavors.
Filtration and fining are avoided. The wines are aged for 12-18 months in 60 gallon French/Oregon/Hungarian oak barriques. A variety of barrel makers, forest (Oregon, Hungary, Allier, Bourgogne, Vosges and Troncais) and barrel ages are used to add complexity to the finished wine. Care is taken not to over-oak our Willamette Valley Estate bottling by limiting the amount of new oak used (25-35%) and the time the wine spends in the barrel. Post maceration skin contact time is limited to prevent overextraction of the fruit keeping the tannis on the soft side. Our Wimakers Reserve bottling generally is a meatier wine and does receive between (75-100%) new Freanch oak and is aged in the barrel for 18 months.
Freja wines exhibit distinctly Oregon characteristics but best resemble the Cote de Beaune Burgundies, Volnay serving as our benchmark. Freja Pinots tend to be elegant wines with good color, medium body and a silky-smooth,long finish. At times, our wines have been compared to the famed Burgundian producer, Jacky Truchot. Great Pinot Noir wines historically come from very small producers.
