A New Beginning
Hi Friends,
2021 is finally upon us, and hopefully an end to the pandemic is in sight. The past year was a wild ride for us, as I’m sure it was for many of you, so I just wanted to take a minute to share some news about Blue Ox and let you know where the company is headed this year. Think of it as a vinous State of the Union address from a tiny winery.
As of February, all of our wines will be released under the label of our parent company: Hammerling Wines. The vineyards are the same, the owners and winemaker are the same, the vision is the same: to produce delicious, fresh sparkling wines from organically farmed sites that speak to the bright warmth of the California sun. It’s fitting to launch this look with the 2019 vintage of our Sunflower Sutra, the wine that started the whole project for me. It’s a California take on a French classic, but I’m not looking for any comparisons to champagne.
We’ve been scoping out this change for a while, but this October we received a letter that said we could no longer use the name Blue Ox to sell wine in the midwest because a distillery in Iowa claimed our wines would confuse customers seeking out their canned lemon vodka. In a normal year we would have fought it, but we decided to not risk it and lean into our long-term plan instead. Except that now we only had two months to start from scratch and change the logo, the label design, etc.. Luckily we have very talented friends who jumped in to help us out with the transition.
When I started this business I had a simple question to answer: Why have so few people applied a low-intervention approach to traditional method sparkling wine sourced from responsibly farmed vineyard sites? The main answer, of course, is that it’s too hard: it’s very technical and takes significantly more labor than making still wine. And we do it completely by hand. But my love for bubbles won out--I charged headlong into production and have never looked back.
I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished since opening, and the way we’ve navigated the many twists and turns of last year. We’ve found ways to get wine into people’s hands safely during a pandemic, we’ve partnered with other local makers to create experiences that bring joy and connection during dark times, and we’ve managed to make another vintage of damn good wines despite one of the toughest years of fires that California has ever seen. We’ve worked super hard, and we’ve been super fortunate. We not only got picked up for distribution by Revel in California, but our wines will also soon be available in Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York.
Obviously I couldn’t have done any of this alone -- I’ve got an incredible team by my side. The new name brings attention to the role of my family in building this business: in particular, my brother Jeremiah and my wife Jessie, who’ve been my creative confidants and business co-owners since day one. Noah was also an important part of the original team, managing sales and helping with production, and we were sad to part ways with him over the summer. Our Wine Club / Tasting Room Manager, Molly, has stepped up in a huge way, helping us grow and adapt during a set of circumstances none of us could have predicted.
And of course, we wouldn’t be here without all of you. Your enjoyment of our wines and excitement about this crazy project is what keeps us going. Hoping we can all raise a glass together in person soon, and that 2021 will bring many more reasons to celebrate.
Cheers,
Josh
