Vermouth-inspired, Basket Range-bred, Ochota family created…Botanicals of the Basket is kind of a wine, kind of a vermouth. Deliciously tasty liquid that truly has no boundaries or class. The 2024 vintage of this “wine” is a blend of Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Gamay (a deviation from an entirely Pinot Noir based 2023). It was always a labor of love for Amber and Taras and continuing this wine was always in the plan.

Amber’s words sum up this wine perfectly, “so…. this vintage, we once again crushed some delicious grapes from our mate’s vineyards up the road in peramangk country … the children and I then took our little baskets and wandered around our garden, picking organic herbs, flowers, fruits and leaves… we submerged these into a continuous ferment throughout vintage…. this wine is a true taste of vintage 2024 and summer here in basket range…. some of the organic botanicals infused this year were…. lavender…. rose petals…. wormwood…. bay leaves…. meyer lemon zest…. thyme…. grapefruit zest…. spearmint…. lemon balm…. Rosemary…. sage…. lemon verbena….”

The fruit was hand-picked, and each lot saw about a day of skin contact before being pressed off saignée style to the stainless steel variable-capacity tank. As varieties came in at different times, a continuous fermentation was carried out over the course of a few weeks, with two weeks of botanical infusion. Gravity was used to rack the wine off the botanicals and into two seasoned French barriques, where it remained for about five months. It was then bottled directly from barrel without anything removed nor added other than a small sulfur addition. No fining or filtering.