Kelley Fox Durant Vineyard, Dundee Hills Chardonnay 2023

In the words of winemaker Kelley Fox: "Kelley Fox Wines is a small winery I created in 2007 along with my father, Gerson “Gus” Stearns. Though I have lived in the Willamette Valley since the late 80’s, I find myself loving Oregon more every year. The first vintage (2007) started with just over 100 cases. The annual case production is now around 5500 cases, from vineyards including the historic Maresh Vineyard (1970-1991 vine ages), Hyland Vineyard (through 2019), Freedom Hill Vineyard, Weber Vineyard (1983 and 1988 Pinot), Durant Vineyard (Chardonnay, Pinot gris, and starting in 2022, Pinot noir), Dux Vineyard (Chardonnay), Carter Vineyard (1983 old vine), and Canary Hill Vineyard. I’ve been a full-time, year-round, on-the-floor Oregon Pinot noir winemaker since 2000. My education includes a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Biology from Texas AM University. I graduated Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and was admitted to the PhD program in Biochemistry. Not long after entering the program, I changed my path to pursue winemaking. I learned winemaking not from a classroom, textbooks or from working in other regions, but directly from Oregon winemakers who had put in some serious time. I was deeply influenced by my dear friend and former employer, the late David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards. David was the ultimate iconoclast who pioneered the Oregon wine industry in the 1960’s. My winemaking experience includes Torii Mor, Hamacher, The Eyrie Vineyards, and ten years as winemaker at Scott Paul Wines (August 2005 to about mid-April 2015). Since then, I have happily worked for my own winery exclusively. Starting with the harvest of 2018, I have been producing my wines at the winery of dear, longtime friends, Ann and Dean Fisher of ADEA Wine Company. The wines are made to reflect the land, the vines, the fruit of the vines, the year, and everything else unknown and unseen that comes with those things. They are Oregon wines, and hopefully, they are wines specifically of their vineyards. That said, the wines are not really “made” at all. I am not Pygmalion, imposing my idea of what they should be onto them. It is a vulnerable approach, but to me, it’s how this work becomes non-hierarchical and respects life. What I am doing-and it still takes a lot of inner and outer work-and being in the silence- is responding to the essence of the fruit from each block, which I hope is carrying the essence of the earth that bore it, along with the details of the year (the weather, the stars, and the planets, etc. etc.). As I age having worked like this for so long, I feel profound gratitude to be on this walk."

Dundee Hills AVA, Oregon

Chardonnay

Minimal Intervention, low sulfur, unfined, unfiltered, sustainably-grown. Native yeast. Aged in concrete amphora.