Vermouth , Kelly Fox Wines, Dundee Hills, Oregon 2020

Kelly Fox Wines, Dundee Hills & McMinnville 

Kelley Fox Wines is a small family winery run by just two people, Kelley Fox (winemaker) and her brother, Gerson Stearns (general manager).  The first vintage was 2007, starting with just over 100 cases. The annual case production is now just shy of 2000 cases, all from the historic Maresh Vineyard and the Demeter-certified biodynamic Momtazi Vineyard.

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. That said, the wines are not really "made" at all.  As the winemaker, Kelley Fox has no end result in mind each year for the what the wines will be. What she is doing is responding to the essence of the fruit from each block, which she hopes is carrying the essence of the earth that bore it, along with the details of the year (the weather, the stars and the planets).

Kelley graduated Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and was admitted to the PhD program in Biochemistry.

Stephanie’s words for the vermouth that she so lovingly made: “This wine 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. In this regard, at minimum, we can think of this wine as a tasty aperitif before a meal to get the digestive juices flowing, and/or as a digestif post-meal to help break it all down.  

This is a sweet vermouth similar in approach to those produced in Piedmont (i.e., Vergano) but is uniquely Oregon with regard to both the base wine and the plants Stephanie sourced.

Grape: 49% Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir, 30 % Canary Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir and 21% Maresh Vineyard Pinot Noir

307 cases (750-mL Burgundy bottles with natural cork finish)

Biodynamic