Kelley Fox Durant Vineyard Pinot Noir 2024

There is a stretch of Worden Hill Road in the Dundee Hills that serious Oregon Pinot Noir collectors know the way serious Burgundy collectors know the Route des Grands Crus. Eyrie Vineyards. Durant. Domaine Drouhin. White Rose. Archery Summit. The original plantings. The volcanic Jory red clay that defines Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. The ground where Oregon wine’s foundational story was written, one vintage at a time, beginning in the 1960s.

Durant Vineyard sits at the center of that story. Own-rooted Pommard vines planted in the 1970s and 1984 — the oldest now over 50 years in the ground, roots running deep into volcanic soils, producing Pinot Noir of the exceptional concentration and elegance that genuinely old Oregon vines can deliver. A stone’s throw from the original Eyrie plantings. Neighboring Domaine Drouhin. Hallowed ground.

Kelley Fox has been making wine in Oregon for more than 25 years — including a decade as winemaker at Scott Paul — and established her own label in 2007. Her conviction is that the finest Pinot Noir requires nothing more than biodynamic farming, native yeasts, neutral old oak, and the complete absence of intervention.  It's a two-person operation. Tiny production. The vineyard-designated bottlings sell out to mailing-list collectors before most retailers ever see a case.

The 2024 Durant Vineyard Pinot Noir may be the finest wine she has made from this site.

Audrey Frick, writing for JebDunnuck.com, awarded it 98+ points — an extraordinary score in a vintage she considers Kelley Fox’s finest collection of Pinot Noirs to date. The 98+ designation leaves room for the wine to develop even further with bottle age. Frick praised its remarkable purity, extraordinary length, crystalline salinity and depth. All this from a mere 146 cases.

The Durant’s own-rooted vines — planted decades before grafted rootstock became standard practice — are at the heart of its remarkable depth and precision. The character is unmistakably Dundee Hills: ripe strawberry, raspberry, crushed violet and sweet tea, with a beautiful suggestion of orange and saline minerality. The tannins are fine and silky, the acidity bright and sustaining, the finish long, structured and deeply satisfying.

Drink it now with a long decant — it is already expressive and compelling — or cellar it through the early 2040s and watch it develop the complexity that 50-year-old Oregon vines on volcanic soils can deliver.

We have a very small allocation of a wine that does not reach most retailers in meaningful quantities. For collectors who follow Oregon Pinot Noir seriously, this is not a difficult decision.

Don’t miss it.