There’s so much exciting wine coming out of the Willamette Valley right now, it’s hard to keep up—but, believe me, we’re doing our best. And while there have been some larger-scale projects launched in recent years (including some by ‘outside’ interests, to the chagrin of more-entrenched locals), the Willamette Valley is still a place where a small, artisanal producer can not only afford to hang his/her shingle but also produce an affordable wine.
Who knows how long that will last, so let’s take advantage of current conditions as long as we can: Today’s Pinot Noir from Kelley Fox is a triumph of hands-on natural winemaking utilizing 100% whole-cluster fruit. Sourced from the biodynamically farmed Momtazi Vineyard—one of Willamette Valley’s most celebrated sites—this is a perfumed, woodsy, mineral Pinot Noir that pulses with life. It has the energy and soil character that distinguishes Oregon Pinot from so much of the New World pack, and it comes from a producer who’d much rather be described as a wine ‘grower,’ than ‘maker.’ And still: Look at the price. Youthful and humming now, this 2017 also has the structure for 10+ years of aging. So yes, you need to add Kelley Fox to your list of names to know in the Willamette Valley (if you don’t know it already). And yes, I know it’s a long list—but there’s simply no resisting Pinot Noir that gets it this right at this price. Keep ‘em coming!
Kelley Fox launched her own label back in 2007, producing about 100 cases while also serving as the winemaker at Scott Paul Wines, where she spent 10 years. Her first gig in the Willamette Valley was with Eyrie legend David Lett, and she also worked at Hamacher, Torii Mor, and, eventually, the Central Otago region of New Zealand. Now focused on her eponymous label (although production is still small at around 3,000 cases), Kelley is passionate about being a true ‘vigneron’—i.e. someone as intimately involved with the growing of the grapes as with the cellar work. She takes pride in doing as much as is physically possible herself, including vine-pruning, harvesting, sorting, and of course ‘punch-downs’ of the cap of skins during fermentation (“I enter my wines with my body to manage the caps—just me and no one else,” she says on her website).
Fox’s two principal vine-grower relationships are with the Maresh and Momtazi families, the latter being the source of today’s “Ahurani” bottling. Ahurani is the name of an ancient Persian water goddess of “water and well-being,” and in this case references not just the many natural springs within the Momtazi Vineyard but the heritage of its owner, Iranian-born Moe Momtazi and family. Possessed of an incredible
backstory of its own, Momtazi has become one of the acknowledged ‘grand crus’ of the Willamette Valley: Situated in the McMinnville AVA, right at the mouth of the Van Duzer Corridor (which funnels in cool air from the Pacific Ocean), Momtazi has been Demeter-certified biodynamic since 2004. Its soils are a classic mix of sedimentary loam and silt over volcanic basalt, and of course the “Momtazi” vineyard designation can now be found on many different wines. Kelley spends a tremendous amount of time among ‘her’ rows, applying biodynamic treatments personally during the growing season and picking as much of the fruit as she can personally during harvest.
Once this pristine fruit arrives in the winery (she doesn’t yet have her own facility but rather leases space from someone else), the process is resolutely natural the whole way: Using only the ambient yeasts that arrives in the cellar on the skins of the grapes, this 2017, this wine was fermented with 100% of its grape clusters intact and aged in used oak barrels for a short period before being bottled with a minimal sulfur addition. She provides another great (and self-deprecating) description of her approach on her website: “My wines are deeply loved—I am not kidding,” she writes. “I wish I were, because it sounds so horribly canned/new age/crazy.”
We deeply loved the “Ahurani” 2017, which is a youthful, briskly refreshing, cool-vintage Pinot Noir right now and promises to grow broader and more profound with time. It’s a bright ruby with magenta and pink highlights in the glass, with black cherry, raspberry, plum, violets, wild herbs, juniper, underbrush, and freshly turned earth. You’ll come across several descriptions of Fox’s wines as “lithe,” and that really is the best word: Medium-bodied and delivering a terrific melding of wild-berry fruit and earthy, slightly smoky savor, there’s lively tension and spicy grip to this wine that really enlivens the palate. Over the next decade, its edges will soften and more fruit and florals will flood to the fore. Feel free to enjoy some now—decant it 30 minutes or so before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems and enjoy how it unfolds in the glass (always a good sign of ageability). The mix of darker-toned fruit and fine-grained tanginess makes me think of beef or duck to go with it—just nothing too rich!
