When a friend (and fellow Berserker, Alan Gottlieb) proposed a dinner to share some wines from producers he’d visited in Oregon, I quickly accepted the invitation. I have some Goodfellow wines but had yet to try any and had heard good things about Kelley Fox, so I was excited for the opportunity to explore some of their wines and my excitement turned out to be justified.
We braved the torrential rains to convene at Canoe, which has become an Atlanta institution but remains fresh and reliably excellent. Canoe lived up to expectations, with delicious food and first-rate service. Our host provided the Goodfellows and the young Kelley Foxes, while another person generously contributed two older Kelley Foxes and I threw in a 2009 Patricia Green. When a fellow guest suggested that he open an off-theme wine at the end of the night, we enthusiastically approved as none of us are foolish enough to look a gift Métras in the mouth.
I’ve long neglected Oregon Pinot Noir, but this tasting and other wines in recent years have confirmed the seriousness of my error. The quality of the wines was uniformly high and a few were absolutely outstanding. The quality of the company (including Berserkers Don Cornutt and Bob Fleming) wasn’t too shabby either. While the weather was dreary, my memories of this evening are anything but and have heightened my excitement to continue my exploration of Oregon wines, particularly those from Marcus Goodfellow, Kelley Fox, and Jim Anderson at Patricia Green.
2015 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Durant Vineyard- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Lovely pure dark cherry and beet root with a touch of spice, great balance, medium weight, plenty of fine tannin supports the fruit and should give it a decent life. (92 pts.)
2015 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Fir Crest- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton
Darker fruit than the Durant with some evergreen, not showing as much complexity and a little tighter as well. Nice, but it needs time. (90 pts.)
2009 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Mysterious- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Incredible depth, cherry and raspberry with savory earthiness, wonderful kaleidoscopic complexity, compelling and outstanding. (94 pts.)
2009 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills
Tangy red cherry and a touch of evergreen, lovely concentration and length with impeccable balance, not quite as complex as the 2009 PG Mysterious but with more crystalline elegance. (94 pts.)
2008 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Momtazi Vineyard- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, McMinnville
Deep dark cherry, brooding, but precise, with a little menthol, very good but it needs time to show more complexity, and all of the raw materials seem to be in place to let it do so. (92 pts.)
2015 Yvon Métras Beaujolais- France, Burgundy, Beaujolais
Showing plenty of natural wine funk, carbonic red fruit with a touch of celery salt and white pepper, quite tasty. (91 pts.)
Great notes as always. I don’t believe I’ve ever read “celery salt” as a descriptor, but it’s very evocative and makes me want to grab a bottle. I’m a fan of Marcus’ wine, a bit less so Kelley. I think her flavors are very pure, but they seem to lack concentration, so I’m intrigued by your note on the 09 Maresh.
Thanks, I thought the 2009s really stole the show and were each outstanding in slightly different ways but with some definite similarities as well.
It is always worth grabbing a bottle of Métras (though not always worth what some vendors seem to want to charge for that opportunity), but if you are looking for celery salt (though more celery seed) in a wine I suggest finding a Loire Pineau d’Aunis, as I find celery seeds and white pepper to be the hallmarks of that variety. Les Granges aux Belles’ Brise d’Aunis tends to be a great example (mostly old vine Pineau d’Aunis with a little Gamay), as are Clos Roche Blanche L’Arpent Rouge and rosé which unfortunately are no longer being produced.
Thought I’d pitch in here. Came to read thoughts on two of my favorite producers (and people) and there’s one of our wines tucked in there as well. If memory serves we only made 4 barrels of that. I used to be able to recall stuff like that off the top of my head but not so much these days. Anyway, the Maresh Vineyard and the “Mysterious” Vineyard are very close to one another so finding similarity within the context of the vintage isn’t surprising. 2009 was certainly a warm vintage although in the context of how things have been lately (now?) I’m not sure it’s much different than the past couple of vintages (with the notable difference of one outrageous heat spike for around 4 days in 2009). Glad the wines are holding strong. That hillside is a special place with great, older vineyards on it capable of producing amazing wines. Given the crazy number of bottlings of Pinot we do I never take my full allocation of wine or even close to it. I grabbed a case of that for sure back in the day!
Thanks for the notes - two of my favorite OR Pinot producers. Always interested in notes on Marcus’ wines in the early years as I never open any until 7-8 years post-vintage.
That’s a very nice set of wines you enjoyed. I am sure I am not telling you anything you don’t already know, but the Goodfellow wines, especially the Whistling Ridge pinot, seem to age at a glacial pace. I am glad you found them enjoyable now, as the 2015s are a rare exception of a year that’s somewhat accessible early, but I find most vintages start to show more of their stuff after at least 5 years (10 preferably). If you don’t believe me, and want to have a good chuckle, go read the drinking window recommendations on his website (don’t drink this one, don’t drink that one…).
I also really enjoyed that '15 Maresh Vineyard Kelley Fox. Interesting that Jim notes that that vineyard and his Mysterious are close together; gets me even more interested in popping one of those Mysterious bottles sometime soon.
The two sites are close. They’re quite different in nature however. We have to be cagey about what we call the site as we sign an NDA as part of the fruit purchase agreement. Happy to have it nonetheless.
It was such a fun night. Thanks for putting up the notes Mike.
The young Goodfellow and Kelley Fox wines were extremely nice. More on the finesse side than power and gobs of fruit.
On the young side, I especially loved the Goodfellow Durant (light colored and intense red fruit), Goodfellow Heritage 7 Whistling Ridge (more complex with a bigger mid palate) and the Kelley Fox 2016 Maresh Red Barn (beautiful finesse driven wine with a gorgeous nose. sparkling red fruit) .
The 2009 Kelley Fox Maresh had the nose of a Dujac. Extremely perfumed with gorgeous complex bright red fruit and spice. A finesse driven palate that showed fabulous intensity of fruit despite being lighter colored. The Mysterious was so gorgeous. It was darker and complex. More palate complexity and length here. This was really a stunning wine. Fabulous. The 2008 Kelley Fox was really nice but showed very one dimensional and just never opened. A wine for the long haul. Metras is always a treat. These wines are pure joy as my buddy Bob would say.
The acid fruit balance on the young wines really floored me. Really nice.
curious if Alan got these back vintage wines AT the wineries or if he already had them and pulled from his cellar? I’m hoping to visit all three of these WV producers in April and want to plan appropriately!
Mike
Tx for posting these notes. These wines from Kelly and Marcus are the real deal.
The older vintages of Kelly’s wines were brought by another guest who has been purchasing her wines starting when she was at Scott Paul as the winemaker there
My 1st exposure to her wines was when my wife and I went to Oregon for the 1st time this past summer and met with her. She was a blast to taste with and a super nice person. Also tasted with Marcus and really liked his wines especially Whistling Ridge. I believe the Heritage #7 comes from selective barrels of the Whistling Ridge the rest going into the regular bottling. He also makes some very nice Chardonnays
They both seem to me making wines that show the purity of the fruit, and are just so well balanced.
Jim, from the letter you sent with the “six favorite wines” BD auction set, the 2009 Mysterious was 3 barrels and 72 cases, so your memory is pretty close. The lot has more than met expectations based on the exceptional quality of the two I’ve had so far (the 2008 Nefarious and last night’s 2009 Mysterious) and I look forward to the remaining four bottles.
Ah! Man, I honestly have no recollection of that. Had to of come from my cellar I imagine as I don’t think we have any library on that 2009 Mysterious. I couldn’t possibly name the other 4 bottles! Aging. It’s lovely.
Jim, the other four were 2010 and 2012 Notorious and 2014 Mysterious and Perspicacious, which you included in the lot before it was released. Thus far I’ve been drinking them at the 10 year mark, does that sound like a good strategy for the remaining wines?
I believe we were visiting Kelley together this past summer–if so, that was a lovely morning. And we felt the same way about Kelley. She is a fabulous person, so kind and open. Her Maresh Red Barn Blocks wines are the image of Oregon Pinot I have in my mind’s eye. We bought a few bottles of the 17 after our meeting, and have stuck them very, very far out of reach.
Think we followed largely the same path (except I probably bothered Marcus another time or two for extra bottles). His wines have so much power in reserve, even as I think of his and Kelley’s as both extremely pure. They are both outstanding, so this tasting must’ve been great.
Two young couples from Chicago we met that day that we still talk about. We had such a good time I still laugh about my answer to your question how my wife and I stayed together for 30 yrs