Kelley Fox cut her winemaking teeth at Eyrie, and that influence shows very clearly in the wines she produces. In 2007, Kelley launched her own winery, where she now produces around 3,000 cases a year of lithe, mineral-driven, and strikingly pure Pinot Noirs, as well as small amounts of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay.
She uses native yeasts for all the wines, and as of the 2015 vintage uses whole bunches for the Pinot Noirs. Kelley started out by using about one-third new oak for her first three vintages, used some for 2010 and 2011, and now uses none at all because she wants her wines “to be as pure and unadorned as possible, and oak can get in the way.”
One of the finest small producers in the region, Kelley demonstrates the best of complex American Pinot Noirs. Josh Raynolds, editor of Vinous, puts it this way in a 2018 article: “As my scores, here, and in recent vintages suggest, I consider this small producer’s graceful, finely etched Pinots to be among the very best being made in the New World and, for their quality, pricing is a gift.”
