First of four ‘19 Mirabai purchased on BD17. This is the first red wine I’ve tasted from Kelley Fox, and boy, I am a fan! It’s on the lighter side in terms of body and concentration, but that is a big part of its charm. Floats on the palate like one of Bob Ross’s “happy, fluffy little clouds.’” Pretty, slightly sweet strawberry flavors, a bit of fungal earthy nuance and a pleasantly tart rhubarb and rose hip tea flavor on the snappy back end. Class in a glass. Excited to try a single vineyard example tomorrow night.
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2017 Maresh Red Barn Blocks. More happy, puffy little clouds floating around the palate, though this brings much greater concentration and intensity. I’ve never liked the term crunchy as a descriptor, but this wine is so packed with crunchy red fruit, I felt like I could have chipped a tooth sipping it. I know it’s oxymoronic, but this wine is explosively elegant. It’ has excellent length, and If i may plagiarize a phrase commonly used by Fass Selections, it possess “insane inner mouth aromas.” Loved it.
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This is a flex 
. So cool
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Need those notes!
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Haven’t drunk any of them yet, but just put in an order from her Spring release offer (mostly bought whites, so will try them when they arrive).
-Al
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I think that’s a pretty good stylistic description of Kelley’s wines. They are intensely aromatic but also light and ethereal.
I am not a big fan of 2021 pinot noir across Oregon, which is probably a lonely hot take, but just about every other vintage of hers is a winner in my book. The 2022s are especially grand, and worth seeking out.
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Is a hot take, i liked 2021 a lot when young, what dont you like? I found many to be quite structured.
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This is not KF specific, but I bought big on 21 based on excited vintage reports and generally positive noise from Oregon. I just do not think they are nearly as good as 19 or 22. Something about the fruit/savory profile is just not compelling to me. I don’t think I’ve had a single 2021 in the past 18 months that really got me going. I’d suggest putting a 19, 21, 22 blind next to each other and tasting the wines with your wine crew. Hard to specifically define what it is that falls short for me, but the profiles have not been my jams, and I have a lot of good Oregon pinot, and drink a lot of good Oregon pinot at my folks’ house as well.
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I love 2019—it is my favorite Oregon vintage of the last five years—but I would be a little hesitant to open those three vintages now to evaluate as i think they may be shutting down. I also really liked 2021 for the structure, though that same structure may be making the wines less approachable at the moment. They should be very interesting to revisit in 15 to 20 years.
I was less enthusiastic about 2022, especially from some of the areas that were hit hard by frost. In a number of those wines, it felt like the fruit struggled to fully mature. Because of that, I bought much more from Eola-Amity and less from Dundee and Ribbon Ridge in 2022.
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Generically speaking, which vintages say 2015 forward would you think are most likely to be open for business right now?
Ive been enjoying 2023 amd 24s 
yeah, point taken, ive had some 16 and 17s that didnt feel too tight, but also didnt have much development either.
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- 2019 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Blanc Barbie Freedom Hill Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley (4/26/2026)
Still drinking strong, with additional age the sweetness of its youth has receded, showing a more mineral version of the Barbie. Ripe pear and good cleansing acidity, and still has the rich touch of the acacia wood on the finish. I wouldn’t push it too much longer. (93 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
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By chance, I saw 2 bottles of this in a wine shop here in Osaka for USD$50 each. No hesitation!
2017 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Red Barn Blocks
Pale garnet appearance. Medium+ intensity nose. The primary fruit aromas of raspberry, strawberry, red cherry still have freshness. Fruit notes are complemented by mint, rose, iron, and a little cough candy. The nose got better and better with air over 30 mins to 1 hour revealing a more savoury, tertiary edge with mushroom, tobacco, earth. On the palate, high acidity, low perfectly integrated fine-grained tannin, medium alcohol, medium body, pronounced (piercing) intensity. Long finish that unfurls with iron, cured meat, and a black tea component that I always love in a wine.
This was fantastic. There’s a purity and brightness to the fruit that I see as a characteristic of Kelley Fox Pinot Noir but it’s allied with a wonderfully transparent and savoury complexity.
To John’s point, I think this is probably toward the end of its peak. You could certainly hold for a few years if tertiary is your thing but there’s a perfect balance right now between remaining bright fruit and tertiary complexity. While it’s not conclusive, I certainly felt it fell off in intensity on the second day reinforcing my view. My original plan was to hold my second bottle for 2-3 years but why wait. I look forward to drinking my second bottle at Xmas 2026.
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That’s interesting to hear. We had a great growing season in 2022 post frost, and canopies were nicely developed. At .4-1.2 tons per acre at Whistling Ridge, we had no trouble getting the fruit ripe.
I think there are some basic 2022s out there and some things could have used more backbone, but at least for our wines, the whole cluster folded in seamlessly and gave the wines a lovely backbone.
2021s have some grand aromatics, but will need a bit for the tannins to develop. I think they have tremendous potential with patient cellaring.
And apologies for the thread drift…
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I’m with Brian. 2019 hands down, any day, every day. Perhaps amongst my favorite vintages from Oregon ever (and maybe the one closest to some old school wines from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s vintages that I loved back in the day). 2021 is a great vintage, but it does have a lot structure and will need a lot of time. For me 2022 is mixed. There are certainly impressive wines. But I’ve lot a lot of wines from producers I buy regularly that have high acidity, and particularly, high VA, and I say that as some who tends to like higher acid wines. I can deal with the higher acidity. I have a hard time with the higher VA. I haven’t seen other folks mention it, so I assume it’s more a personal sensitivity. (I’m also the guy that doesn’t like 2018 reds since they have incredibly hard tannins that seem out of place in most Oregon pinot noirs). Sorry, also for the thread drift. I came here to talk about a 2017 Tir I opened this weekend.
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I opened one of these this weekend as well. I expected it to be a bit more forward, but while it’s excellent, it’s also pretty tight. For me this was better on day 2 (I opened it on Saturday and immediately poured half into a 375 that went back into the cellar to drink on Sunday). It’s an interesting wine to me. The house style makes it elegant and approachable, the terroir from Momtazi gives it structure that seems to call for a bit more time to really show its stuff. I have two bottles left and think that I need to hold them for at least 2-3 years and reassess. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on it.
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I’m with Brian as well on 2019s. It’s a lovely vintage for both whites and reds and produced wines that are right in my wheelhouse for personal preference.
With the high whole cluster, we’re typically near threshold for VA but the 2022s are not above our norm. I should probably get out and taste a bit more of the vintage from around the valley though.
I’m with you on 2018s tannins, though I believe they will soften up eventually. But where 2017s, my foavorite vintage of the decade, are waking up and the 2019s are beginning to wake up, 2018s are solidly asleep still.
Based upon some nice notes on the 2018 Lewman Heritage wine, we opened a bottle and it was still in need of a few more years (IMO).
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