Trisaetum Winery & Art Gallery

James and Andrea Frey fell in love with winemaking on their Napa honeymoon. In 2003 they bought a steep, rocky site five miles outside McMinnville, moved their young children to Oregon, and planted a vineyard. Two years later they found a second piece of land twenty minutes away on Ribbon Ridge, cleared it, planted again, and eventually built the winery where all the wine is made today. James’s parents retired at the same time and moved in to help, which is how three generations ended up side by side on the sorting line.

The name is an amalgam of their children’s names, Tristen and Tatum. It’s pronounced tris-SAY-tum.

James was an abstract expressionist painter before he was a winemaker, and he’ll tell you the two are the same act. His painting was a natural expression of emotion and experience, and his winemaking became the same thing. A 1,500-square-foot gallery adjoins the tasting room, showing his paintings and photography — some incorporating vineyard dirt and vine cuttings directly into the work.

Three estate vineyards across different AVAs, soils, and elevations feed the program. James vinifies six Rieslings, ten Pinot Noirs, and several Chardonnays each vintage, at around 7,500 cases. The Riesling program is the deepest in Oregon: four separate blocks, harvested at different ripeness levels through the season, producing wines from bone dry to lusciously sweet. Multiple Wine Enthusiast Top 100 placements and Editors’ Choice designations have followed.

The winery is gravity-flow with a cold room for incoming fruit and an unusually thorough sorting process. From 2013, Jacques Lardière of Louis Jadot vinified Résonance’s Oregon wines here.

Frey Family Wines now includes Trisaetum, 18401 Cellars in Walla Walla, and Pashey sparkling. In 2020 they launched Brixeur Spirits, which brought Tatum home as lead distiller alongside her husband Jackson. Tristen returned from Manhattan to become general manager. Both generations now run it.