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The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia
Tom Stevenson edited by Orsi Szentkiralyi

Kelley Fox Wines ***V

This is a small-scale producer of wines with heart, soul, and deliciousness.

*** The best wines that money can buy without any allowances made for limitations of local style quality and quality.
V  Wines of exceptional value for money whether they are inexpensive or not.

KEY TO TASTE AND QULAITY SYMBOLS

How good a wine producer is and why a wine tastes the way it does are the twin pillars of this encyclopedia; thus, FACTORS AFFECTING TASTE and QUALITY and the STAR RATING SYSTEM are regular features. The taste guides are found in Appellations, Producers, and Styles. Stars are given for a producer’s general quality and do not necessarily apply to each wine that a producer makes. When a producer listing has no stars this indicates an acceptable but not outstanding standard.

2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Canary Hill Vineyard

Moving over to the Eola-Amity Hills, the 2021 Pinot Noir Canary Hill Vineyard is packed with energetic tension, opening to notes of crushed stone, ripe pomegranate, and rosemary. Focused, with balanced ripeness and even-keeled acidity, it’s seamless and long on the palate, with sweet tannins and a refined feel. It has fantastic energy, with delicate incense on the long finish, and will be an age-worthy wine to enjoy over the coming 10-12 years. 97
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard

From 40-year-old self-rooted vines that are organically farmed, the 2021 Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard is a ripe ruby hue and offers notes of grenadine, candied roses, and cinnamon. Its tannins are ripe and fine, and it fills the palate with ripe red fruit, apricot, and notes of crushed stone along with mouthwatering salinity. Drink 2023-2038. 98
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard

The 2021 Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard is super- expressive and hits on all cylinders, with electric energy throughout. Aromatically, it’s layered with notes of pine needles, wild cherry, and fresh medicinal herbs, and on the palate, it offers ripe, supple tannins and an outstanding finish. It’s going to have a very wide drinking window over the next 10-15 years. 98
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal

A gorgeous perfume lifts from the glass of the 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal revealing notes of rhubarb, rosehip, and raspberry eau di vie. Coming from vines planted in close proximity to walnut trees and pouring a vibrant ruby color with youthful hints of orange, it offers fine tannins, a linear, weightless feel, and a clean, long, perfumed finish. It is very attractive now but will have significant longevity over the coming 6-8 years. 95
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Weber Vineyard

The jeweled ruby 2021 Pinot Noir Weber Vineyard takes on a riper though equally pristine character, with wild raspberry liqueur, pressed roses, forest herbs, and blood orange. On the palate, it has a rounded mouthfeel with more concentration and delivers ripe tannins as well as a pure, long, earth-toned finish with beetroot spice. Drink 2025-2035. 96
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2022 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Mirabai

Vibrant and lifted with poppy fruit, the 2022 Pinot Noir Mirabai is a brilliant ruby hue, with fresh, lifted aromas of wild red cranberry, white pepper, and fresh tangerine. Open and approachable, with medium body and soft elegant fruit as well as a supple texture and fresh acidity, it’s even-keeled and has a hint of spice on the finish. I love this wine for youthful fresh drinking. 92
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2022 Kelley Fox Wines Chardonnay Durant Vineyard

A bright yellow hue with green highlights, the 2022 Chardonnay Durant Vineyard is expressive in its lacy perfume of jasmine, tarragon, salty earth, and bright green apple. Medium-bodied, it offers beautiful, pristine, ripe fruit, a pithy texture, and a delicate arch to its rounded mouthfeel, with no harshness. It’s refined and graceful, with a floral flourish of lemon blossoms lasting long on the finish. Drink 2024-2034. 95
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

2022 Kelley Fox Wines Chardonnay Dux Vineyard

A brilliant silver straw hue, the 2022 Chardonnay Dux Vineyard is pure with aromas of wet stone, green pear, fresh white flowers, and lemongrass. Medium-bodied, it has focused energy and high-toned notes, although it’s not austere and is matched with density and a weightless feel. I usually like to avoid the word “ethereal,” but that’s how this wine feels. It’s pure without being reductive. Drink it over the next 6-8 years. 94
Audrey Frick (9/17/2023)

© 2024 Jeb Dunnuck | Reprinted with Permission

2018 Pinot Noir “Maresh Vineyard” Red Barns Blocks– Kelley Fox Wines (Dundee Hills)

The Red Barn Blocks on the Maresh Vineyard are also one of the original parcels to go in the ground here in 1970, when Jim and Loie Maresh planted their first vines. The 2018 vintage will be the last that Kelley produces from this parcel of vines. At fifty percent, the Red Barn Blocks includes just a bit more whole clusters than the regular Maresh bottling this year. It delivers a magical aromatic constellation of cherries, fraises du bois, mustard seed, turmeric, gentle smokiness, incipient cinnamon, a gorgeous base of soil, cherry blossoms and cedar. On the palate the wine is pure, full, focused and dancing, with a sappy core, stunning transparency and grip, ripe, utterly refined tannins and superb lift and bounce on the very long, complex and perfectly balanced finish. This is a pinot noir of understated magic and mystery. 2026-2065+. 95.  p.160 (Number Eighty-Seven | May-June 2020)

2019 Pinot Noir “Canary Hill Vineyard”- Kelley Fox Wines (Eola-Amity Hills)

This is the first I have seen of a Canary Hill Vineyard bottling of pinot noir from Kelley Fox and it is simply beautiful. The vineyard is owned by Ken Wright, with the parcel that Kelley purchases grapes from having been planted in 1999. The 2019 Canary Hill bottling comes in at a 48 cool 12.5 percent octane and delivers a beautifully refined, black fruity nose of dark berries, cassis, a complex array of gentle herb tones that recall bay leaf, cumin and thyme, coffee bean, dark soil tones and a topnote of currant leaf. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, vibrant and intensely flavored, with a lovely core of fruit, superb transparency and grip, ripe, buried tannins and a long, tangy and complex finish. This is so effortless and light on its feet, while still showing off outstanding depth and backend energy. 2029-2080. 93. (November-December 2020 | Number Ninety)

2019 Pinot Noir “Carter Vineyard”- Kelley Fox Wines (Eola-Amity Hills)

The Carter Vineyard is another new (to me) bottling of pinot noir from Kelley Fox. This vineyard is also owned by Ken Wright, with the first vines having been planted here in 1983, which include the parcel of Wädesnwil clones on francs de pied from which this wine is crafted. The wine is just a touch riper than the Canary Hill, reaching an even thirteen percent and offering up a vibrant bouquet of cherries, red plums, a gorgeous base of soil tones, clove, gamebird, fresh thyme, a touch of sweet stems and a discreet foundation of cedar. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and soil-driven, with a lovely core, fine-grained tannins and beautiful balance and grip on the long, complex and very promising finish. Fine juice. 2030-2080. 93+. (November-December 2020 | Number Ninety)

2019 Pinot Noir “Maresh Vineyard”- Kelley Fox Wines (Dundee Hills)

The vines in the Maresh turned fifty in 2020, so that is at least one good thing that has come out of this ill-fated year. However, they were doing just fine at age forty-nine, to hear this lovely wine tell the story! Kelley Fox’s 2018 Maresh Vineyard bottling is notably light and transparent in color this year (like a liquid ruby in the glass), coming in at the vintage’s evenkeeled 12.5 percent and delivering an equally beautiful red fruity blend of strawberries, cherries, blood orange, a nice youthful touch of sweet stems, a dollop of wild thyme, stunningly complex soil tones, rose petal and a touch of cedar. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and defined by its beautiful soil, with a touch of sappiness to the red fruit at the core, tangy acids, buried tannins and outstanding mineral drive and grip on the long, tangy and very complex finish. This is breathtakingly beautiful young pinot noir. 2030-2080+. 95. (November-December 2020 | Number Ninety)

2019 Pinot Noir “Maresh Vineyard” Royal Ann Block– Kelley Fox Wines (Dundee Hills)

The 2019 Royal Ann Block pinot noir from Maresh Vineyard is just a shade deeper-hued than the Maresh Vineyard bottling this year, but it shares that same fire brilliance to the color in the glass. The bouquet is lovely, wafting from the glass in a refined blend of cherries, cherry blossoms, a hint of red plum, gamebird, a very complex base of soil, gentle notes of cardamom, fresh nutmeg and mustard seed and a very discreet dollop of cedar. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and a tad more reserved in personality than the straight Maresh Vineyard cuvée, with a beautiful core of red fruit, excellent transparency and bounce, fine-grained tannins and a long, tangy and complex finish. This will want just a couple more years in the cellar to fully blossom than the Maresh, but will be dazzling when it is ready to drink. 2032-2080+. 95. (November-December 2020 | Number Ninety)

2019 Pinot Noir “Maresh Vineyard” Star-of-Bethlehem Flower Block- Kelley Fox Wines. 

The Star-of-Bethlehem Flower Block in the Maresh has become one of my favorite bottlings of pinot noir in all the US, and the 2019 version is everything one would expect in the synthesis of a very special terroir and a great vintage, brought together under the thoughtful trusteeship of Kelley Fox. The nose delivers an elegant and perfumed blend of strawberries, cherries, a hint of sweet beetroot, cloves, mustard seed, turmeric, a refined base of soil tones, wild flowers and cedar. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied and transparent, with great intensity of flavor, a lovely core, buried tannins and a long, bouncy and very complex finish. This seems a touch more like the straight Maresh in structure this year, as compared to the slightly more reticent Royal Ann pinot and will only need about a decade to really blossom into completeness. It is a wine of total, delicate honesty and a rare bird. Tuck it away and watch it take flight. 2030-2080+. 96. (November-December 2020 | Number Ninety)

Anyone looking for Oregon Pinot Noir purity and transparent communication of terroir from the soil ot the vine to the bottle must explore Keley Fox Wines. When thinking about a vineyard, Fox looks beyond the soils, the exposures and the vines. She looks to the trees surrounding the vineyard, flora and fauna to create an honest wine, true ot its source. nI my opinion, the result si one of the most exciting portfolios of wines madeni the United States. The vineyard bottling that first drew me ni was Fox’s work with the legendary Maresh vineyard. As of 2021, the portfolio consists of Maresh Vineyard Liminal, Golden Crowned Sparow Blocks and the Star of Bethlehem Flower Block (which unfortunately wil not eb made after 2021 as Fox lost access ot this parcel). Each of these wines uniquely interprets the vineyard yet three different places. Exploring the range si fantastic for the wine geek ni al of us. Fox also presented me with several 2022s, avintage that played right into her hands. The ethereal fruit and perfume style beautifully matches the lifted and remarkably fresh vintage character. For the truly devoted, look for a bone-dry blueberry wine produced ni tandem with jim Anderson of Patricia Green Celars. There may not be anote for this bottling, but Ican tel you that it’s worth chasing down.

From Siting Pretty: Oregon’s New Release Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Beyond (Jan 2024) by Eric Guido

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Chardonnay Willamette Valley – 91 pts
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2030

The 2022 Chardonnay Willamette Valley is delicate in the glass, with lemon oils and mint complicated by hints of pine. Mineral-tinged orchard fruits and savory spice wash across the palate with a citrus concentration, adding tension toward the close. It finishes long, with a lingering sour tinge, leaving the mouth watering for more. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Chardonnay Durant Vineyard Lark Block – 93 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2025 – 2033

The 2022 Chardonnay Durant Vineyard blossoms in the glass as wildflowers and crushed apples give way to mint and crushed stone suggestions. This opens with a lovely inner sweetness and supple texture contrasted with zesty acids and crisp orchard fruits. It tapers off with amazing tension, grippy and cheek puckering with a citrusy concentration as savory herbs and a sensation of liquid stone fade. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Chardonnay Dux Vineyard – 94 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2025 – 2030

Sweetly floral and impossible to ignore, the 2022 Chardonnay Dux Vineyard entices with honeyed flowers, Asian pear and white smoke. Zesty citrus mixes with crisp orchard fruits and tantalizing minerality as a burst of brilliant acidity adds tremendous freshness. Staining and long, full of zesty tension, the 2022 tapers off with a salty flourish and crunchy feel. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill Vineyard – 93 pts
Eola Amity Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2025

The 2022 Pi not Blanc Freedom Hill Vineyard opens with a rich and spicy blend of crushed stone, dried apricots and mint. Soft, silky textures soothe, filling the palate with masses of mineral-tinged orchard fruits and savory spice. It tapers off with a saline character and dramatically long, leaving lingering hints of lemon oil and raw almond. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Pinot Noir Mirabai – 92 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2034

The woodland-inspired 2022 Pinot Noir Mirabai blossoms in the glass with hints of cedar and pine complementing dried strawberries. It is fleshy in feel yet expertly balanced with masses of tart raspberry and exotic spice under an air of violets and lavender. The finish is long with a raspberry tinge and repleting florals. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal- 92 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2030

A mix of blackberries, pine, dusty dried roses and exotic spice wafts up from the 2022 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal. This is deeply textural with silken waves of tart wild berries, taking on a sour tinge toward the close. It renders the palate completely refreshed, leaving a hint of mint and tart wild berries. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal – 94 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2030

Exotic spices, cloves and a dusting of confectionary spice embellish black cherries as the 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal blossoms in the glass. This is finessed and pure yet still quite potent, flooding the palate with soft textures and tart wild berries energized by a core of zingy citrus. It leaves a pleasantly sour concentration with refined tannins and a lingering crunchy sensation. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Golden Crowned Sparrow Blocks – 94 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2032

The 2022 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Golden Crowned Sparrow Blocks is darkly alluring with crushed woodland berries complicated by blood orange and pine hints. Silky textures and stimulating acidity soothe, washing tart red fruits across the palate guided by zesty acidity. This finishes wonderfully fresh and long with a staining of red and black fruit and crunchy tannins. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Weber Vineyard – 95 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2025 – 2034

Spicy with a pleasantly herbal tinge, the 2021 Pinot Noir Weber Vineyard entices with dark florals and black raspberries. This is plush in feel, like biting into a ripe piece of fruit with succulent wild berries motivated by zesty acidity. Long and dramatic yet wonderfully fresh, the 2021 finishes with a fine tannin coating and lingering hints of licorice. The energy here is unreal. What a beauty. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard – 93 pts
Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2025 – 2034

Magenta in color, the 2021 Pinot Noir CarterVineyard is spicy with dusty dried cherries and strawberries complemented by hints of lavender and clove. Seductively round yet full of energy, the 2021 rushes the palate with masses of tart wild berry fruit and mineral tones guided by juicy acidity. This finishes with remarkable freshness, only lightly tanriic, with a pleasant tannic crunch framing the experience beautifully. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard – 92 pts
Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2025 – 2034

Youthfully coy, the 2021 Pi not Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard opens with a spicy blend of peppery herbs and rose tones, giving way to sour cherry. Silky-smooth with cooling acidity and crisp mineral tones, this saturates the palate with tart wild berry fruits. It finishes long and staining with a saline tinge, tapering off youthful and chewy with a lick of licorice. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Royal Ann Block – 96 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2032

The 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Royal Ann Block is wonderfully spicy and expressive, with hints of blood orange and mint complementing dried strawberries. Silky and round with juicy acidity and vividly ripe wild berries, this takes on a tactile mineral tinge toward the close. It finishes long yet energetic, forcing the mouth to water as hints of raspberry and inner rose fade. Purity exemplified. What a gorgeous interpretation of Royal Ann Block. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Star of Bethelehem Flower Block – 93 pts
Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2032

Translucent ruby, lifted and soulful, the 2021 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Star of Vineyard Star of Bethlehem Flower Block wafts up with an airy split pine and rosemary complementing wild strawberries. This is a model Block of purity, perfumed within with lifted acidity and crisp red fruits flowing beneath rosy inner florals. It tapers off long yet finessed, leaving a staining of tart raspberry and tart citrus nuances. Unfortunately, the 2021 is the last bottling of the Star of Bethlehem Flower Block. Eric Guido, January 2024

Kelley Fox Wines 2022 Nerthus – 93 pts
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Drinking window: 2024 – 2032

The 2022 Nerthus from Kelley Fox is a blend of 34% Early Muscat, 34% Pinot gris, 18% Riesling, and 14% Pinot blanc. Exotic and beautifully perfumed, with striking depth, Nerthus is brimming with character. Jasmine, kirsch, dried rose petals, passionfruit and spices soar out of the glass. It is so refreshing to taste a Rosé with real depth and personality. Nerthus is not for everyone. The strong tropical profile will come as a shock to the unsuspecting taster, and yet everything speaks of total class. Superb. Antonio Galloni, May 2023