United States of Vermouth - Moxie Mule Batch #1 “Lola” Vermouth Bianco

Moxie Mule Batch #1 “Lola” Vermouth Bianco

Origin: Snohomish, Washington USA 

Producer: 40 Acres Blending Co. 

ABV: 19.5% 

Wine Base: N/A

Known Botanicals: orange peel, golden raisins, vanilla, licorice root, jasmine, calendula, red rose, wormwood 

Sugar: N/A 

Look – Unfiltered cloudiness with a transparent, light goldenrod/yellow ochre color, with dull platinum glints and hints. 

Nose – Vanilla with light orange citrus overtones. 

Mouth – Big sweet vanilla and citrus at front of taste (a little bit of creamsicle) which resolves to orange tartness at mid-taste with vegetal and light bitterness coming in toward the end and a slightly saline dryness which lingers at the end. 

Interesting stuff here. A strange quaff, that’s not at all like any classic biancos. Vanilla incredibly forefronted, a sort of taste that I don’t really associate with white vermouth. The balance of flavors is far from classic, but built with intent. I’m fascinated. But not that crazy about it. When it comes to modern vermouths, the sky’s the limit. Or is it the Earth? 40 acres worth, plowed and planted, toiled upon, loved and cursed. The sweet and bitter tastes that come from the soil. The pleasures sometimes come hard. Sometimes they come easy. Moxie Mule beguiles. Its hints of bitterness hint at a more complex story. I must admit, this vermouth comes off as more of conceptual puzzle, rather than a necessarily necessary thing to drink. But it is worth a taste - or two.

Moxie Mule is the brainchild of Seattle-based vermouth savant, Sean Perryman. Perryman has been a bartender for over a dozen years. He also interned at JM Winery where he says he first got his inspiration to craft his own vermouth. Perryman gives a nod to history and his upbringing in naming his company 40 Acres Blending Company – perhaps also a bit of an homage to Spike Lee’s company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. For those not in the know - in 1865, by Special Field Order No. 15, a 400,000 acre strip of land from Charleston, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida was confiscated by the federal government and divided into 40 acre parcels with the intent of giving them to newly freed slaves. Thus the idea of “40 acres and a mule.” It was a boon to displaced people who had long suffered under the lash of slavery. Within a year though, Andrew Jackson (Trump’s favorite president) pretty much destroyed this promise of restitution and hope, ordering much of the confiscated land to be returned to its former owners. By the way, Jackson was not considering Native Americans as “former owners.” 

Perryman has staked his own claim for being “the world's only Black owned vermouth company.” Sorry to burst your bubble, Sean, but Ashlin Bantom in South Africa has been at it for a few years with his vermouth, Fynbos Revolution. But let’s celebrate these fine vermouths and encourage more Black entrepreneurs to get into the “vermouth space,” creating new and inspired variations of this bittersweet wine. 

Taste

Wood / Vanilla 5 

Bitter - 2 

Alcohol 0 

Sweet 4 

Acid 3 

Caramel 0 

Aromas  

Spicy 0 

Astringent (barks, roots) 2 

Vegetal / Herbal 1 

Floral 1 

Fruity 2

NV