エレガントでバランスのとれたワインは、産地、インスピレーション、芸術性が交わるところにその本質を見出すことができます。ワインはブドウが育った畑なりの良さにはなりますが、それだけでなく自然の叡智が育まれ、おだやかに際立っていきます。フリーマンでは、すべてのワイン丹念な手作業で少量生産しています。各ヴィンテージ、50ものクローン別の発酵を行い、わずか6アイテムのピノ・ノワールが造られます。冷涼気候のピノ・ノワールとシャルドネのみにフォーカス、全生産量を5,000ケース以下に抑え、すべてのボトリングがこれに値する愛情と注意が注ぎ込まれるようにしています。
Elegant, balanced wines find their essence at the intersection of provenance, inspiration and artistry. Though a wine will only ever be as good as the vineyards it comes from, the wisdom of nature can be nurtured and gently accentuated. At Freeman, every wine is intimately made by hand in small lots. As many as 50 individual clonal fermentations are managed each vintage to make just six Pinot Noirs. The focus is exclusively on cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and total production is kept below 5,000 cases to ensure that every bottling receives the love and attention it deserves.
While these acclaimed, limited-production wines are available in some of the finest restaurants around the world, and in select wine shops across the country, the only other way to acquire them is by becoming a mailing list member.
2022 Akiko’s Cuvée Pinot Noir
The 2022 Akiko’s Cuvée is a complex blend of our best barrels from the vintage. Typically, Akiko’s is the most subtle wine in our lineup and takes the longest to develop in the cellar. The ’22 falls right in line with this tradition. On the nose, there are fragrant notes of rose petals, spicy berries, loamy earth and just a hint of toast. The palate is full-bodied and evolves beautifully with aeration. The tart fruit flavors are framed by ripe tannin
and lead to a very long finish. Enjoy this wine with fine cuisine from 2025 through 2039.
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2022 West Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
The 2022 vintage marked the final year in a four-year run of less-thanaverage rainfall. Fortunately, it was our second consecutive year in the West Sonoma Coast region without wildfire threats. The growing season was typical for us, with lots of foggy mornings and nights, and brilliant sunshine in the afternoons. Heatwaves were few and far between until September—just in time for Freeman’s harvest. We brought in all of the West Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir during that month.
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2022 Yu-ki Estate Pinot Noir
As the Yu-ki Estate matures as a vineyard, the resulting wines get more complex and interesting each vintage. The 2022 Yu-ki has an intriguing nose which shows off something unique each time you pick up the glass. From subtle huckleberries, wet stones, rhubarb, to cranberries, plums and French oak, this wine has so much to offer. All of these aromas are exhibited on the palate which is framed by firm tannins and moderately high acidity. The finish goes on for several minutes, and this predicts a very long life in the cellar. Enjoy this from 2025 through 2038.
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2023 Ko-fu Riesling
The 2023 Ko-fu Riesling has a classic nose of fresh peach, rose blossom, Meyer lemon, lychee and ripe fig. The palate is much rounder than our inaugural Riesling, due to the malolactic fermentation, and feels similar to an Alsatian Riesling. Although the fruity aromas and flavors lead you to think this is going to be an off-dry wine, it is absolutely dry with no residual sugar. The wonderful acidity allows many types of cuisine to pair with this beautiful wine. Try it with Japanese, German and French dishes. It should be at its best from 2024 through 2028.
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2023 Hawk Hill Chardonnay
This is Freeman’s sixth vintage of Hawk Hill Chardonnay. When we first visited Hawk Hill in the early 2000s, we admired the vineyard’s proximity to Freestone and the cool influence of the nearby coast. The rolling hills where the vineyard lies are blanketed by morning fog and cooling afternoon winds, which allow the grapes to benefit from some of the longest hang times in California. Aside from the challenges of higher humidity due to the fog, the site is ideal for growing perfectly balanced Chardonnay.
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2022 Gloria Estate Pinot Noir
Gloria is Freeman’s estate vineyard, planted adjacent to the winery and just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Ken and Akiko acquired this site— previously a Gravenstein apple orchard—from a neighbor in 2005 and planted it the following year. They named the vineyard for the orchard’s owner, Gloria, and especially for the fortuitous event that brought Ken and Akiko together in 1985. Ken had been on a sailboat heading south in the Atlantic when Hurricane Gloria forced him to spend the night in port. That evening he attended a friend’s party where he met Akiko, who was the best-dressed and most beautiful woman in the room. The rest, of course, is history.
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2022 KR Ranch Pinot Noir
From 2004 through 2015, Freeman made a vineyard-designated Pinot Noir from Keefer Ranch in the Russian River Valley. When the Dutton family took over the management of this famous block in 2016, we came up with a new name for it: KR Ranch. The property sits in the center of the Green Valley, located in the southern and western parts of the Russian River Valley. This area is much cooler than those at the appellation’s northern end, so it is ideally suited to growing Pinot Noir.
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2022 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
We experienced another smoke-free vintage in 2022, which was our second in a row. Winter and early spring rainfall levels were just slightly below average, capping off a four-year stretch of drought conditions for most of California. Flowering during May ran into some cool and foggy weather, which resulted in a considerably smaller Pinot Noir crop for our Gloria Estate vineyard than we’ve seen in recent vintages. Summer brought a typical Russian River Valley pattern of sun, fog and wind, and the small crop ripened quickly. Harvest began on August 19, which was one of our earliest years to date for Gloria. A major heat wave occurred over Labor Day weekend, but fortunately, we had already picked most of our Pinot Noir before temperatures peaked at 110 degrees.
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2022 Ryo-fu Chardonnay
The 2022 Freeman Ryo-fu Chardonnay has a pale, straw color and appears youthful in the glass. The complex aroma combines stone fruits, fresh hay, apples and lemon custard. On the palate, the wine displays a balancing act of high, refreshing acidity with a mouthful of wonderfully ripe Chardonnay fruit. A flavorful and refreshing finish predicts a long evolution for the ’22 Ryo-fu, which will drink well from 2024 through 2030.
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2020 Yu-ki Estate Blanc de Blancs
The wine’s refreshing profile inspired Akiko—a huge lover of Champagne and sparkling wine—to suggest that we make a sparkler from Yu-ki Chardonnay and release it to celebrate the winery’s 20th anniversary in 2021. We loved the idea! With the help of Craig Roemer, a former winemaker at Schramsberg Vineyards in the Napa Valley, we made our first sparkling wine at Freeman. Using the traditional Champagne method, we produced the wine in the “Brut Nature” style, adding no sugar at the time of disgorging. We took a minimalist approach to winemaking, so that our sparkling wine would be representative of this special vineyard and Freeman’s elegant house style. The Yu-ki Blanc de Blancs’ fruitfulness is truly exemplary of the site.
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