How are / were these James? I shall have my 2016 Maresh tonight.
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Curious about the Royal Ann, it was kind of a dead a year ago or so
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Dead as in DOA or dead as in shut down?
Shut down, still showing something but really needed some time
- 2019 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Royal Ann Block - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills (8/2/2024)
It's still dead, needs time. It definitely feels like there's something waiting to come out. I was hoping it would open up for day 2, it just feels more watered down. Cranberry, strawberry, potpourri.
Wait until fall 2025 or spring 2026 for the next bottle. (91 points)
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2016 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard
Pale garnet appearance. Pronounced nose with primary aromas of red cherry, raspberry, strawberry. These are complemented by more tertiary reflections of the same with cherry pie, rhubarb crumble, spiced raspberry jam, rooibos tea. The iron character I’ve noticed in all the Kelley Fox wines I’ve tasted so far comes through strongly again. Tertiary aromas of fresh tobacco and mushroom.
Dry. High acid. Medium tannin that’s now well-resolved. Medium alcohol. Medium body. Pronounced flavour intensity. Long finish. Interesting wine of two parts. There’s a core of sweet fruit but surrounding that is an ethereal savoury, transparent character. Of particular interest is that I often experience these two things sequentially but here it feels like they overlap on the palate. I read the note on the back of the bottle after tasting which I think describes it perfectly “ simultaneously transparent & full of depth”. Great stuff - I can see the lineage to the Mirabai but in a more complex articulation. It feels like it’s around peak but I’d be curious to hear other views on the aging curve. Outstanding.
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I drank a bottle of the 19 Royal Ann in August of 2025 and it was absolutely singing. Billowing florals and mineral with bright cherry fruit. Everything you could want from a young K Fox.
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I am drinking a 2023 Mirabai tonight to prime myself for picking up some SVD on BD17. Damn this is just so tasty. Drinks great right now, but it is bigger and more tannic than my recollection of other vintages. This could definitely develop with some age and bodes very well for the SVDs.
I suppose this can fall into the “take it with a grain of salt” category. Kelley is my partner. I obviously want good things for her and go to bat for her wines. All that being said, I am self-aware and really post WAY less stuff than I could about her wines here. I know people like her wines a lot completely independent of what I have to say about them.
We tasted through a selection of her 2024 Pinot Noirs today (we did Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc yesterday and I didn’t post anything about that).
This is…I don’t know, this is the greatest young Oregon Pinot Noir I have ever tasted. I don’t taste tons of other wineries’ wines to be fair but I do taste a LOT of young Oregon Pinots. I have over 30 years doing this. This is royalty-level Pinot Noir. I won’t mention vineyards but you know what I’m getting at. At 3x what she charges for it this wine would still be worth every penny in the crazy economics of high end Pinot Noir. More, actually.
I have never made anything this fine and complex. This is a dazzling wine that is a handful of months in bottle.
Do with this what you will. I’m not encouraging anyone to do anything. If this was someone else’s wine I would write the same superlatives. This is as good a Pinot Noir as I have tasted in a long time. What this will do over time one can only assume is an upward trajectory that begins at 50,000 feet elevation.
This could go into any tasting of wines of a comparable age, with any producers and vineyards and hold its own. I am sure of that.
She is going to murder me in cold blood when one of you bastards tells her I wrote this.
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Crap! 
Sorry, dude.
Well…that’s a note.
Yep. It is.
I can’t really tell if he liked it….
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I don’t even buy Pinot and went to see if this was in their BD packages 
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I picked up a couple of the 23 carters based on revirws, sounds like i need to add some 24s to my wish list.
“I can’t really tell if he liked it….”
Yeah. I hate it when people sit on the fence.
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That’s beautifully said, Jim. I enjoy both of your wines a lot and hope you all had a good BD17.
I think everyone on this thread would be thrilled if you posted more on Kelley’s wines. Your thoughts and insights on the PGC thread are highly useful and informative. There is no reason they would be the same here. The partner thing is just another one of the great wonders in the wine community.
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This was the best Pinot that we tasted at the winery. I’ve been procrastinating, but just picked up a couple this morning. After all, Berserker Day was LAST month…
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I brought a bottle of the Blueberry Wine to an “Open Red” blind tasting. Seemed like the only way to sneak in a proper ringer at an open format. I didn’t check the back label, so I’m not sure if it was the ’22 or ’23. I’ve had it several times before and always loved it.
Unfortunately this bottle wasn’t pristine. It had a noticeable secondary fermentation, even a bit of leakage from the pressure. I opened, shook, and recorked it several times trying to knock down the fizz before serving.
Still, it showed fairly well. It was a very savvy group and while everyone was puzzled, no one guessed fruit wine. Still good and fun to taste, just not quite on the level of a clean bottle.
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