Our Story
Humble Beginnings
Being the first in his family to go to college, James Frey met Andrea Lassa at university. With limited resources and much debt, they began their life together with the hope to one day own a piece of land on which they could farm and raise a family.
In 2003, the opportunity presented itself, and James and Andrea purchased a steep and rocky site five miles outside the town of McMinnville. They moved their young children to Oregon, planted a vineyard, and founded Trisaetum (tris-say-tum) in one of the few places where climate, soil, and entrepreneurial spirit combine to produce some very special wines.
Two years later, they found another piece of land twenty minutes away on Ribbon Ridge, cleared the site, planted a second vineyard, and eventually built the winery where the wines are made today.
An Artist’s Wine
James Frey was an abstract expressionist painter before he was a winemaker, and as he began to craft wine, he realized the influence that painting would have on his winemaking style. Just as his painting was a natural expression of his emotions and experiences, his winemaking would become a natural expression of each estate vineyard and the Willamette Valley. The Frey family would farm to preserve the natural habitat surrounding each vineyard and employ minimal intervention winemaking to ensure each bottle distinctly conveyed both site and vintage.
Not having gone to school for wine, James was also mentored on his winemaking journey by legends like Oregon’s Josh Bergström and Burgundy’s Jacques Lardiere.
With his unique approach and lessons from some of the best winemakers in the world, James has gone on to achieve global acclaim for his red, white, and sparkling wines, all while finding time to sell 600 of his original paintings.
Two Generations Together
James has never been able to linger in one place creatively, and today, our family business encompasses the Trisaetum (Willamette Valley), 18401 Cellars (Walla Walla), and Pashey (Sparkling) labels; all produced by James at the winery on Ribbon Ridge.
The name Trisaetum is an amalgam of James and Andrea’s two children—Tristen and Tatum.
In 2020, when we launched our in-house distillery brand, Brixeur Spirits, this served as the perfect opportunity for Tatum to join the family business as lead distiller with her husband, Jackson, along with an enologist role on the wine side. The other half of the Trisaetum name, Tristen, returned from a stint in Manhattan shortly after to become our general manager, with both Frey generations now driving Trisaetum and Brixeur Spirits into the next chapter.
MEET THE FAMILY
JAMES FREY
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
ANDREA FREY
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
TRISTEN FREY
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
TATUM FREY
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
