Kelley Fox Vermouth

Kelley has always been a hero of mine and I am lucky that she is also my friend! Honest, genuine with a wicked sense of humor who makes incredible wines and throws a great dinner party plus travels well - YES!!! Love this girl!! 

And you can imagine how scary it was for her and her team plus all of us who love her when the fires of 2020 came so close to the vineyards - you may remember how bad the smoke was here in the Seattle area. In the Willamette, it was so thick that not even the sun couldn’t penetrate. Grapes didn’t ripen but even worse, the smoke permeated the grape skins creating an interesting dilemna for the natural winemakers of the region - manipulation to “fix” “correct” the smoke taint or not. 

SIDE TANGENT - These are, sadly, decisions that have begun to affect the natural wine world as climate change continues to deeply affect our planet. And without the option to use chemical manipulations, many will make tough decisions (use a lab-created yeast or close all-together is a f’ing tough choice!!)
And trust me when I say there is zero judgement here - I don’t want anyone to lose their entire livelihood - we will definitely continue to support in whatever way we can and you should too. 

OK - resuming wine crush - this vermouth is a choice Kelley made and so the 2020 vermouth, as Kelley says, is “truly redemptive of the vintage.” Choosing to make a vermouth and to continue making completely natural wine is classic Kelley. This yummy was made in collaboration with Stephanie Sprinkle and Lynsee Sardell (Big Wild Spirits owner and distiller)! These three remarkable women chose to not see failure in a smoke-stressed vintage but as an opportunity to make something new. Using Kelley’s 2020 Pinot Noir as the base wine, Stephanie chose over 35 plants from the surrounding area to create a reflection of Oregon in 2020.  Lynsee’s distillation, the ‘Maresh Pinot Brandy’ (also from Kelley’s pinot) was used to soak the plants and fortify the base pinot noir. The result is an exceptional bottle so full of interplaying flavors and layers and depth. 

I’ll leave you with Stephanie’s words, “This wine (vermouth) tips its hat to the ancient connection of humans and plants– the true beginnings of vermouth and all botanical wines that came before and since. While we can't make any curative or medicinal claims, we can confirm the inclusion of 35 plants that each carry their own vital force, among the vitality of the wine itself. The ancients knew. Our bodies still know.”