Thank you for the tip!
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What a small world. Kane raves about White Walnut. Even texted me today about it. I go to a tiny artisanal restaurant tonight that has killer food but a really crappy natural wine menu. I normally bring my own wine. For whatever reason tonight I didn’t. I really wasn’t thinking very clearly. And then of all things, they just put this wine on the menu. Serendipity, had to get it. They had the Pinot as well.
It comes with its own tasting note…
I picked up more melon than anything else.
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Your poor wife. 
Try as she might, she needed just one more second. 
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Please use marcus@goodfellowfamilycellars.com
Megan handles all the shipping and some do email her directly, but I generally manage inventory so it’s helpful to put the initial order in to me or, best of all, to both of us. We’ll definitely get you taken care of.
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She’s no dummy, she knows odds are it may get posted or sent to buddies!
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@Anton_D should be informed that White Walnut has put us mere seconds away from his idea/prediction of emoji tasting notes. Close enough for royalty fees? Not for me to say.
Part 4 - Kelley Fox, PGC, Pinch
Breakfast - Hotel Oregon
We had a pretty good idea that our last day of tasting was going to be a barn burner and so wanted to start with a good base. McMenamins Hotel Oregon is a bit of an institution in McMinnville and is famous for its rooftop terrace, unique vibe, and great location. Breakfast was hearty and well executed. I had prime rib hash with a couple of fried eggs on top. I would have preferred that they trimmed some of the fat off the prime rib, but overall the dish was tasty and the coffee was refilled promptly. My male newbie pal decided he wanted something a little smaller, and so ordered a breakfast sandwich on a biscuit thinking it would be a like a bacon egg and cheese biscuit from McDonalds. It was not. Instead, it was about the size of his head and probably weighed over a pound. So he finished it, and we were all proud of him. My wife was working, so I snagged her a cinnamon roll and side of bacon to go and she enjoyed both.
Kelley Fox
@ToddFrench is a big fan of @kelleyfox and implored me to spend some time with her if I got the chance. He’s been so complimentary of her character, personality, intelligence, and openness, all things I value. After a bit of wrangling, Kelley and I were able to settle on a date and time for the tasting. I’ve struggled with how I wanted to convey our tasting here on this forum because it was unique. I’ll summarize it like this: Kelley is one of the most enchanting people I’ve met. I love people who are willing to engage with others, invite and consider opposing views, and all the while make people feel welcome and that it’s okay to share and be vulnerable. Kelley was the embodiment of a gracious and generous host, and I will forever cherish the immensely rewarding hours we were able to enjoy together. And it was a blast to see my wife and her hit it off. Different but similar independent and strong spirits. We had more fun, wines aside, than should ever have been allowed. It may sound corny, but I truly felt like my life was enriched having spent time with Kelley.
The wines, by the way, were spectacular. We tasted through an impressive lineup of pinot noirs, chardonnays, pinot blancs, gruner, and a new special project involving black raspberries that was absolutely fascinating and new for me. I found literally every wine to be of exceptionally high quality, but will hit on a few of my favorites here.
The 2022 Maresh Vineyard Golden Crowned Sparrow Block and Durant Vineyard wines were spectacular, intensely aromatic, and just about perfectly balanced with sweet but almost ethereal fruit and gorgeous acids. Just wonderful, complete wines. The 2022 Freedom Hill Vineyard had my favorite nose of the first set of wines we tasted with such beautiful, rich fruit and a monster baking spice nose that shouted whole cluster. Kelley confirmed the Freedom Hill is a whole cluster wine and if there was ever an advertisement for the aromatic benefits, it’s this wine. The palate shows a slightly more astringent structure though, and it was very fun to see that trade off. I preferred the palate of the Maresh and Durant to the Freedom Hill, but wonder if, in 20 years, the Freedom Hill will be one of those wines you can’t stop sniffing and can’t quit drinking. Weber was also outstanding, and I feel like I’m giving it short shrift but not bragging on it more here. It’s excellent.
The 2023 pinots are very serious wines but were harder for me to judge simply because they are just so young. That said, the 2023 Maresh Liminal is an outstanding wine that you really shouldn’t miss. I also really loved Carter Vineyard, which showed a different fruit and aromatic profile but was a standout for me given it’s impressive complexity.
I know that @Rohit_B argued that Eola Amity Hills is the best section of Oregon terroir, but I’m not convinced. I repeatedly found myself gravitating towards wines from the Dundee Hills, especially for pinot noir.
To the whites. Kelley’s whites present tremendous value to the point where I’m genuinely confused. Her Willamette Valley chardonnay is really lovely, and is $26. I can honestly say that I cannot recall drinking a better wine for the money, maybe ever. As an aside, the labels on Kelley’s non-single vineyard wines are made by her daughter (they’re incredible and fun) or mother on her Barbie pinot blanc, and they’re really special. Speaking of Pinot Blanc, Kelley’s 2024 Freedom Hill Pinot Blanc was a gorgeous and substantial white that triggered a strong memory in my mind of a Cedric Bouchard BdN. It had that same cool fruit, white plum, floral note. The Barbie was similarly lovely. Kelley’s Gruner was also delightful and again, incredible value. These wines are all sub $40 or so but they’re dead serious wines of exceptional quality. A tribute to extraordinary winemaking.
Finally, Kelley is working on a special project that includes black raspberries and I’ll leave it at that. It’s unique, and fascinating, and pushing boundaries in Oregon and for winemaking which, having met Kelley even for just a bit, is not really surprising.
General Takeaways
Kelley’s wines have serious soul and the 2022s are sensational wines that balance just-right fruit with soaring aromatics. The 2023s are young, but substantive with great structure and bright fruit that look to have a long life ahead of them. Kelley’s white wine program is criminally underpriced. The wines are approachable and delicious, and just a little secret intel…make sure you pick up her 2024 single vineyards when bottled and released. Oh and Kelley is incredible. My wife and I love her. My Newbie crew love her. We could have happily burdened Kelley all day with our company and were having so much fun it was tough to leave. I so hope there is a “next time.” Like my time with Marcus, the wines are great, but it’s the people who make these moments that much more special.
Lunch - The One Horse Tavern - Gaston, Or
We were running a bit behind schedule and faced a tasting with Jim Anderson at PGC moments later. We’d been warned by Marcus and Kelley that things might get heavy, and so had our driver take us some place we could reset our base with something substantive. He popped us into The One Horse Tavern, a little dive in Gaston. I’m partial to places like this if the person working the grill is worth a damn. While it’s not that hard to make a great hamburger, it’s not that hard to screw up either. Luckily, One Horse Tavern hit. I had a cheeseburger and fries and reset my palate with a Busch Light in an homage to @Charlie_Carnes, and my wife did too, though she was, um, not a fan of the beer choice. I told her it would ensure our good friend was there in spirit and so was worth it, and though she sometimes thinks I’m an idiot, including right then, she appreciated the sentiment.
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If you’re in a room with Marcus, Kelley and Jim, feel comfortable you’re the 4th smartest person at the table.
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Recently tried the 2022 Golden Crowned Sparrow - probably the cleanest, most focused wine I’ve had so far this year. I’ve only tried a couple bottles of the chardonnay and they’ve all kind of fallen flat for me, need to revisit.
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Part 4 - Continued
Patricia Green Cellars
After getting our feet underneath us a bit we headed to Patricia Green Cellars for a tasting with @Jim_Anderson, most well known on this website for his insightful commentary on all things NBA and MLB (I jest, of course). Poor Jim had just overseen two days of bottling and a full day of scrubbing barrels and grinding at the winery, but agreed to host our crew for a little vineyard tour accompanied by Maggie, one of the PGC crew’s hounds. PGC is rather titanic, but according to a trusted source in the valley, Jim vinifies the 27 or so wines with the care and attention a small winery would if each of those blocks was their primary and most beloved wine. The result is fantastic site expression highlighted in high quality wines from different areas of the vineyards.
Again, wines are great, but people are better and Jim was no exception. He was patient, engaged in our questions, and spoke openly and honestly about places he’d worked and how he got to where he is. He shared opinions about his own wines, what he loved, what he’d tried that worked and what didn’t work and why. You get the impression from Jim that his mind is a steel trap and if something is worth remembering, he’ll remember it. He comes across as the guy who rarely, if ever, makes the same mistake twice, and I’ve no doubt that his attention to those details that matter is why so many of his wines are extraordinary, year after year.
So let’s get into those wines. We started with an estate sauvignon blanc, a 2024, I believe, that was lovely, and showed a nice mix of tropical and citrus fruit with nice texture and acidity. Next, we had an estate vineyard chardonnay, but I did not catch the vintage. It too was well structured, balancing acidity and fruit with a lovely texture. I’d not had a PGC chardonnay before and was really pretty impressed. It was a strong wine that I would love to have again. Jim, if you know what vintage it was, let me know!
After our vineyard tour we sat down with Jim in a cool, secluded and shaded area to taste through Jim’s lineup of 2023 pinots. I really enjoyed talking pinot with Jim. Again, he’s so in tune with his vineyard and has been walking these wines through to bottle and so knows them like the back of his hand. I thought that the 2023 Estate Vineyard Wadensvil Block was an absolute standout, with an elegant profile and beautiful aromatics. The 2023 Etzel block is lovely, but I really enjoyed the Bonshaw Block. The 2023 Patty’s Block is gorgeous, and was one of my favorites. You could hear Jim’s love for Patty in his voice as he described the wine and why he renamed the Lakeview block Patty’s Block (aside from there being no lake in view). If you’re going to get some PGC wines right after reading this, and you absolutely need to, do yourself a favor and snag some of this and the Estate Wadensvil. Thank me later. The last duo of wines we tried were the Wind Ridge and Ridgecrest vineyards. I put my money where my mouth was and picked up some of these. They’re both gorgeous. I struggled picking my preference of the two, and Jim noted the Wind Ridge was one of the 2023s he was digging the most. Both of these are whole cluster wines and the aromatics on these whole clusters from Ribbon Ridge are just so spectacular and haunting, pairing deep berry and musky cherry fruit notes with soaring baking spice aromatics. These are both structured wines, and give them a few years in bottle to knit together and absorb some of the structure. I don’t think I ever made up my mind which one I liked best. Both of them, really.
General Wine Takeaways
Yes, I specified wine…we’ll get to that. Jim’s wines are excellent. Period. And I think they’re priced really well. The Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir is $37, and the Old Vine is $45. Wadensvil and Wind Ridge are $55. These are really high quality and really quite affordable wines with unique characteristics. It’s something I really appreciate about my Oregon adventure; these winemakers know they’re making Burgundy competitive wines for comparatively ludicrous prices. And if you’re a big burghead, I would strongly recommend picking up some of Marcus and Kelley and Jim’s wines with a little age and taking them for a spin. Back to Jim’s wines. These 2023s are loaded. They are packed with gorgeous berry fruit without being heavy. They are pretty loaded with structure and should age wonderfully. The aromatics are consistently deep, complex, and pretty, and I can see, in 5 years, 2023 being a truly standout vintage. Jim has prime real estate and prime ability and it shows in his wines.
Patty Green Whiskey Distillery
I’ve tried snagging Jim’s whiskey a couple of times but failed due to shipping/access restrictions. So as we wound up the wine tasting I told Jim that I wanted to try his whiskey if he had the time. Yes, I invited myself. Shame on me, but I’ve seen Jim post about his whiskey, I’ve tried to buy them, I’ve had the Toddfather bragging about drinking them with his porch door open watching a thunderstorm or whatever and hell, I was there. To his credit, Jim lit up and was like, oh hell yeah, let’s do it! So we drove back down to the now-empty tasting room and Jim basically said what do you want to try? We settled on Gazelle Rye, Francin Barley, and Purple Karma.
I’ll start with this: I took one sip of each and make the call to transition my carry on bag to a checked bag so I could get these home with me.
Gazelle Rye may be the most enjoyable bottle of Rye I’ve ever had. It’s got a nice nutty, golden treacle, spice, and candied orange peel frame that is really classy and delicious, and the mouthfeel is excellent.
Francin’s flavor profile is delightful, and the brandy influence gives it nice mouthfeel and weight. Jim’s describes this as a snickerdoodle and I can’t really disagree. It has lovely baking spice notes and a flavor I can only describe as evoking Honey Smacks breakfast cereal. Again, a unique mouthfeel here that has weight but could not be further from cloying. Really lovely stuff.
Puprle Karma is unique and fantastic. I’d say the flavor profile here leans slightly more towards unpeated highland scotch, but that’s not quite right. And it’s not bourbon. And it’s not quite cognac or calvados or like any brandy. It’s 80% barley distillate using the unique Purple Karma barley, and 20% brandy from pinot noir. The blend yields a super-fine “whiskey” that has kaleidoscope of scotch and whiskey and brandy flavors with a rich mouthfeel. It is very much it’s own thing. And it is very much a top quality product. Even in its own box it finds a way to sit at the top.
Jim was clearly passionate about his wines, but his enthusiasm for these spirits was on another level. You can tell his excitement for this project and his happiness for how it has turned out. He was praising his distiller and her genius, raving about these bottlings, and energized by what his team is making. My buddy Zach and I were loving it. Special bottles. Truly. Jim wanted everyone to love what he was doing, too, and noticed my wife was, ahem, slightly less enthused than I was drinking these straight in a Glencairn or with a couple of drops of water. So he freaking disappeared for a while, then we hear a shaker going, and he comes back with a modified Lemon Drop with the Francin Barley (I think) that was one of the better cocktails I’ve tasted in a good long while. My wife loved it, and immediately felt super-included in the tasting. Jim has fans for life. It was one of those things that was probably a small gesture to Jim, but that was a big one to us and very well received. My wife even decided that if that’s what whiskey cocktails can taste like, maybe she’s interested! Great stuff.
Finally, I’m said I never saw Jim on Stump the Schwab, because if anyone might have been able to take Howie down, it would be Jim. That’s a big time compliment.
Dinner - Pinch
Though we were running very late to dinner, we convinced Pinch to hold our table. Pinch is a lovely small restaurant in McMinnville with a nice little bar. Also a farm-to-table sort of restaurant. We had wagyu beef carpaccio and sardinian flatbread with whipped ricotta to start. The carpaccio was not pounded particularly thin, but the aioli and marinated slightly pickled mushrooms and puffed crispy rice went very well together. The flatbread was more like a crispy cracker, but well seasoned and delicious, and the whipped ricotta delightful. I then had a Pinch Salad because they were out of the green salad. Radicchio is one of those things I dislike in most salads, but that can be a true delight when the star of the show and handled appropriately. If you’re evet at The Angler in San Francisco, their radicchio salad is one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten. Pinch did a very nice job. Not Angler level, but still very good. My wife had the gorgonzola-leek, sage, and spiced breadcrumb pasta, which was executed well. She enjoyed it. It was rich and creamy and she likes gorgonzola, so a win. I do not particularly like gorgonzola and was happy with a small bite and it was not for me. By that time in the evening, I needed something substantive and so had a Lombatella steak, which is basically a hanger with chimichurri and some veggies and stuff. It was cooked perfectly and very flavorful and hit the spot. More casual bistro fare than fine dining, but very good. If Pinch did anything on a level of profound excellence it was their french fries. Holy smokes. Thin cut, long, had to be double fried, and seasoned perfectly. Maybe the best french fries I’ve had in the 2020s. Spectacular. Just perfect execution. Addictive.
What a trip!
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I was only ever in a room with one of them and the four people in our group, and I felt like the 4th or 5th smartest person at the table anyway! Except at PGC there was a dog with us for a bit, so my wife would say I was probably 6th at that moment.
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Always a lovely visit with Kelley! Sometimes I think she would prefer to talk about life, art or science than winemaking which makes my wife enjoy our visits as much as I do 
If Kane is in fourth, that’s rarefied air indeed.
No time for your jokes!
Well, that’s quite the write up. Thanks so much. It was a fun tasting and that’s a credit to y’all.
This is what the gift of a Victor Wembenyama bobblehead doll gets you!!!
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It’s great that your wife humored you: you are lucky.
Glad you got to taste with Kelley! Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to meet her. With respect to all others involved in the service industry, it is miles apart tasting with the winemaker/owner than sales/tasting staff.
Not every operation is small enough to allow that though, same with schedules.
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One of my favorite winemakers, Isabelle Dutartre left De Pointe and shut down her own 1789 operation to takeover the winemaking at Drouhin’s Roserock operation.
Not that surprising. She and Veronique are good friends and she is very talented.
They have been friends for decades. Used to ride horses together. Isabel started in Beaune with Drouhin. I will miss her 1789 wines.
Michael