When it comes to savory, high-toned Pinot Noir with bottle age, the Willamette Valley is chock-full of artisan-crafted options. But for $25? Give me paper and pencil, lock me in a room for the day, and I’ll only emerge with a single name: Freja. And yet, I wouldn’t have even known to write it down this time last year! That’s when an Oregon wine veteran, loaded with four decades of experience, introduced me to Freja and uncorked a five-vintage vertical of their lithe and mesmerizing Pinot Noirs.

When the tasting concluded, he then revealed a piece of information that had our jaws hanging dangerously close to the tabletop: Every wine was comfortably below $30. Given that Freja’s estate vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains was planted 35 years ago—practically ancient history in the Willamette Valley—it’s amazing these gems have remained so well hidden. Today’s 2017 was one of the wines in that vertical tasting, and, after trying it again weeks ago, I’m thrilled to say it still beams with gorgeously bright aromas and terroir-infused elegance. It seems Freja has done the impossible for $25. Only available here!!

After earning his Master’s in Chemical Engineering and thoroughly exploring Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, Willy Gianopulos, fueled by his passion for Pinot Noir and his family’s long winemaking history in Greece’s Peloponnese, secured his own piece of land in faraway Oregon. He chose the Chehalem Mountains and began planting vines here in 1988, a full 18 years before it received its coveted AVA status. After letting the vines mature for a decade, Willy opened up shop in 1998 and began quietly crafting elegant, long-lived, Burgundian Pinots. “Quietly” is the operating word here. We had no idea these gorgeous gems existed until last year!

Willy’s vines sit on a steep slope and are rooted in Chehalem’s special “Laurelwood series” soil—a deep, well-drained clayey loam that sits above fragmented basalt. Today’s cuvée matured in a combination of oak barrels (10% new) from Hungary, Oregon, and Burgundy. After one year, it was bottled unfined and unfiltered. 

If you tasted the 2015 on offer last year, today’s 2017 promises to be a different, albeit joyful, experience. It is a high-toned Pinot Noir, full of delicate Oregon ripeness but with impressive palate-popping acidity that keeps everything balanced and bright. Expect heaps of ripe Bing cherry, wild strawberry, black raspberry, spicy plum, and softer notes of turned earth, forest floor, clove, red tea, and iron. This is medium-bodied and delightfully smooth, with a full and vivid character to the fruit that belies its age. Enjoy now and over the next few years. Cheers!