Frey Vineyards

"Do you know the Frey story?"

Isabelle Frey was chatting with us while she opened a number of wines for us to taste. Frey doesn't have a tasting room, but instead offers a long, pine table and benches in the midst of the winery's buildings and gardens. Houses, offices, fermenting tanks, bottling operation, vineyards, everything you would need for a family-run winery.

And it's a big family. Frey's founders had 12 children. They've grown up and married and added another 30 grand-kids and 2 great grand-kids. Isabelle, who came from Ecuador to study sustainable farming practices, ended up marrying the youngest Frey son and now works in the winery with everybody else in the Frey Army.

"Frey Vineyards was the first certified organic winery in the United States," continued Isabelle. "That doesn't just mean how we grow our grapes, but also how we make our wine. We do not use any sulphites, and that's stated on every label."

Sulphites play multiple roles in wine-making. They kill the wild yeasts that are on all grapes, and they help stabilize and preserve the wine. However, many people have a sensitivity to sulphites, leading to allergic reactions or headaches. And some wineries over-use them, which affects the aromas.

Not using sulphites opens a new, if niche, market to Frey. But avoiding sulphites also means certain compromises.

Isabelle told me that Frey's reds will last only 6-8 years in the bottle. They whites will last only 4-6 years (though they've had wines last longer than these averages). Appropriately, Frey's wines are produced to be consumed soon after bottling.

As well, sulphite-free wines can't be aged in barrels, which contain too many possible contaminants. Isabelle said that they use oak chips to a limited extent in some wines.

But there's no compromise on flavour. Almost all of the wines we sampled were full-flavoured and complex.

All Frey Vineyard wines are vegan, too.

Frey Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2007
With a very complex nose (green pepper, asparagus, and citrus), it offers more of the asparagus and only a medium acidity on the tongue. A slightly bitter, but very long and dry finish.

Frey Vineyards Chardonnay 2007
This has a beautiful golden honey colour. The aromas of honey, vanilla, orange and cinnamon follow through in the flavours. But it's surprisingly, happily very dry, with only a light toasty orange flavour in the finish. This wine is steel barrel fermented, but with a limited inclusion of oak chips.

Frey Vineyards Pinot Noir 2006
In your face notes of strawberry jam, leather and black pepper clash a bit with the highly acidic sour cherry flavours and medium tannins. It has a long tart finish.

Frey Vineyards Zinfandel 2007
Good now, this will really round out in the bottle in a year or two. It has raspberry, plum and cassis aromas, and is very high in tannins, but with medium acidity and lots of plummy flavour leading into the finish.

Frey Vineyards Merlot 2007
Bottled only a few days before we opened it, I suggested this wine might be suffering some bottle shock, a fairly common condition where a wine loses much of it's aroma for a month or so after it's bottled. Giving it a bit of time will allow it to open up.
For now, I just noted a lot of jammy alcohol aroma, with high tannins and a rough mouthfeel. I regret not buying a bottle to try again in a month's time.

Frey Vineyards Sangiovese 2005
This offers lots of ripe red fruit and light leather on the nose, extending into the highly tannic mouthfeel. The taste is complex, cigar box meets ripe raspberries.

Frey Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
I liked this one a lot, with blackberries, cassis and leather aromas. In the mouth it offers tobacco, lots of tannins, coffee and chocolate.