Washington’s 40 Acres Blending Co. is the world’s first black-owned vermouth company
Unlike in Europe, vermouth has too often been relegated in America to a side note. Thought of only as the less-important part of classic drinks like the Martini and Manhattan, it’s sometimes skipped entirely, or reduced to a whisper.
Paralleling this, United States vermouth production lags behind. Even in places like Washington state, a natural spot for vermouth creation due to the robust wine industry, the number of new vermouths released during our locally made booze boom pales beside sibling spirits and liqueurs. But tastes and trends are slowly changing, and vermouth is beginning to see the spotlight. Sean Perryman, 40 Acres Blending Co. founder and blender, is helping drive this change.
A 13-year bartending veteran, Perryman loved shaking and stirring cocktails for patrons, but knew it wasn’t his forever career. Then in 2020 he became the winemaking intern at Woodinville’s JM Cellars Winery. He soon “fell in love with production, and the craft of winemaking,” he says. “[It was] something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life in some way, shape or form.”
During Covid, he and a friend brainstormed ideas to turn this love into a business. He landed on vermouth creation, a perfect mingling of wine and cocktails. Perryman started researching vermouth construction and how wine and various botanicals and spices come together to make it. Soon, 40 Acres Blending Co. came into focus.
His wine and cocktail backgrounds weren’t the only influences on the company. The 40 Acres name and a lot of inspiration flows out of his upbringing and family background. Perryman and his brother grew up hearing all about black history from their dad, who is, as he says, a bit of a historian who taught them “the things they don’t teach us in school.”
This history and stories detailing what his grandmother and others growing up in the Jim Crow South actually went through formed a big part of his background. For example, learning how in post–Civil War America, freed slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule as a form of reparations — a promise that was never fulfilled. Representing black people in an alcohol industry featuring far too few is very important to Perryman. In his long bartending tenure, he’d only worked with a couple black bartenders, and there are only a handful of black-owned spirit, wine and liqueur producers. With 40 Acres Blending Co., Perryman is helping to change the industry. He’s also helping to change drinking habits.
This blending of his influences in a way mirrors vermouth itself, which is aromatized and fortified by blending a neutral wine base with alcohol and various ingredients — spices, flowers, roots, herbs, sweeteners and more. The precise mix of ingredients, how the flavors and essences are extracted, and when they’re added to the wine gives each vermouth a distinct flavor. Finding that ideal and tastebud-tantalizing blend isn’t easy; it’s also why the lusciousness levels within bottles on the vermouth shelf varies.
For Perryman, the process of finalizing his first vermouth, Moxie Mule Bianco, was a multiyear experience. “[It took] a lot of trial and error to find out which botanicals I wanted to use at the right extraction time.” He only uses local wine and botanicals, and crafts each small batch of vermouth by hand. That is time-consuming — but equals a high quality.
Inspired by Spain’s bianco-style, Moxie Mule is a semi-sweet vermouth, falling between the dry and sweet varieties Americans probably recognize most. It utilizes orange peel, golden raisins, vanilla, licorice root, jasmine, calendula, red rose and wormwood to deliver a rich flaxen color and a balanced, layered taste. On the nose, the grape from the wine base comes through swirling with bright citrus and flowers, a combination matched by the taste that follows, one that’s delicately underlined by an approachable, memorable earthiness, finishing with a lovely lingering citrus and spice. Light on its feet but full of flavor, Moxie Mule is a glass of spring and summer that can be enjoyed any time of the year.
Moxie Mule also goes well in our changing drinking culture. We’re seeing a modification recently, with low-ABV and no-alcohol cocktails taking extra menu space. Younger people, in particular, are “adopting a more European way,” Perryman says, “staying more composed while really embracing a more mature social way of drinking.” Lower-ABV vermouth fits this like an aromatic glove.
Of course, if you’re new to the world of vermouth, and not sure where to start, it can be a bit daunting.
Start with Moxie Mule solo, chilled, then over ice with a citrus twist. From there, start mixing it with other things. It’s dreamy, for example, with a good tonic when the hot sun’s breached the yardarm. It’s also swell in cocktails. You can also enjoy it during the winter months, with Perryman suggesting a reverse Manhattan (switching whiskey and vermouth ratios) or a vermouth hot toddy. The 40 Acres Blending Co. website is a solid resource for Moxie Mule cocktail ideas. We also have a terrific recipe below — the Turfed.
If you are heading out for a drink, Ballard’s The Garrison, Greenwood’s The Dark Room, and other Seattle-area bars have drinks featuring Moxie Mule. Capitol Hill’s renowned Liberty was the first place to serve Moxie Mule in a cocktail Perryman designed. Liberty has been a big Perryman and 40 Acres Blending Co. supporter from the start.
Moxie Mule Bianco Vermouth is just the start of the vermouth journey for Perryman and 40 Acres Blending Co. Two intriguing vermouths are being released this summer — perhaps even as you read this — a Rosso-style vermouth and a Strawberry-Rhubarb vermouth. In addition, next year a ready-to-drink canned vermouth spritz is on the way. Change in our stateside drinking habits and in alcohol industry diversity is overdue, and Perryman plans to continue to be a part of both.
The Turfed
The Turf cocktail (sometimes called The Turf Club) traces way, way back to the early days of cocktail creation. As far as I’ve read, the first mention of a Turf cocktail in print is in George Winter’s 1884 How to Mix Drinks. There, it’s a combination of Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth and bitters. In Harry Johnson’s 1900 Bartenders’ Manual, the Turf changed into a list of ingredients that became recognizable under the name in the first half of the 1900s: gin, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, bitters (most likely orange), and absinthe. The ratios might change somewhat depending on the book or bar, but regularly you see gin and vermouth in equal portions.
Modern versions (as the Turf has made a mini-renaissance along with cocktailing as a whole) tend to lean heavier into gin, but here we’re going the opposite direction, letting 40 Acres Blending Co.’s Moxie Mule Bianco Vermouth shine a wee bit brighter, while still playing perfectly with the remaining ingredients. Making that change, and as Moxie Mule is a bianco-style vermouth, not a dry, I’ve changed the name slightly to The Turfed. No matter what you call it, it’s darn delicious, with the botanicals from the vermouth and gin swirling like an early summer meadow in which surface small notes of herbs, anise, and nuttiness from the bitters, absinthe and maraschino.
recipe
Ingredients
1½ ounces Moxie Mule Bianco Vermouth
1 ounce Astraea Forest gin
¼ ounce maraschino liqueur
¼ ounce Pacifique absinthe
2 dashes Scrappy’s Orange bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish
Directions
Fill a mixing glass or cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add all but the twist and stir well. Strain into a Nick and Nora glass, or similar. Garish with a lemon twist.
