Episode 2 - Fox Farm Vineyards

Join Rashelle Newmyer, an experienced Oregon realtor and wine enthusiast, as she explores the intersection of real estate, local wineries, and community connections. In this episode, she sits down with owner and operator David Fish of Fox Farm Vineyards, a hidden gem in Dundee, Oregon, right in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country!

Fox Farm Vineyards is a small, family-owned winery founded by Thomas Ratcliff, David Fish, & Desiree Neel. In 2005, David, Desiree, and Thomas attended a Wine Symposium in the Willamette Valley, where they struck up a conversation about starting their own winery. With years of Sommelier experience, David and Thomas set out to make their dream a reality. Fox Farm Vineyards boasts a charming tasting room and a "party barn" off-site event space, perfect for wine lovers and special gatherings. David shares the story behind Fox Farm’s award-winning wines, the vision for the vineyard, and what makes this boutique winery a must-visit destination.

Are you planning a trip to the Dundee area soon? Mention Realtor Rashelle or the Realtor Who Wines when booking your tasting reservation for $5 off per person! 

Special Mentions of Redhills Market, Dundee OR and Beckett's Table, Phoenix AZ

Thank you for listening! Connect and collaborate with Realtor Rashelle on any of her social media platform pages > https://linktr.ee/RealtorRashelle

Transcript

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Welcome to the Realtor Who Wines podcast. I'm Rashelle Newmyer, your hostess with the most as a student of life, a connector, a passionate wine enthusiast, and your local favorite guide. Join me as we explore the vibrant Pacific Northwest. Savor the finest wines and champion the spirit of entrepreneurship. Each episode, I'll sit down with inspiring guests, supporting business ownership and uncovering the stories that make this community unique. So grab a glass of wine, settle in, and let's embark on a journey of discovery and connection together. Cheers. Hi. Thank you for tuning in to the realtor that once. I'm a realtor, Michelle, and I'm very excited to be here today with David Fish of Fox Farm Vineyards. David, thank you so much for having me. Cheers to you. I appreciate you sitting down with me. I look forward to playing in the reindeer games. So for those of you that don't know, Fox Farm vineyards is in Dundee, Oregon. There's a tasting room here. And then also they have an off site property that something special. events are hosted But David, give us a brief introduction to you and the business. So thank you for that. So we are we're small and very local. This will be our 20th year of winemaking. So that's kind of cool. We are named after the road. We're on, Fox Farm Road, which is only about a mile from our downtown. And, that's where we got our name. And, yeah, we've been quietly making really good small batch wine for almost 20 years. They make very, very good small batch wine. It's that's that I am a huge fan of Fox Farm Vineyards, which is why I absolutely had to have David as one of my very first guys. I would love to share your journey about, like, how did you travel into the wine ownership business, in the wine tasting room and winemaking? Like, I know that that's not where your roots began. So like, how did you journey? Sure. So I started as an apprentice wine steward at a, a resort in Vermont or something by Lawrence Rockefeller's hotel company, 35, Missouri. And I was their assistant wine steward. I was a kid. I was, I think 18 or 19, and I was offered an apprenticeship there. A number of years later, they opened a resort down near Scottsdale, and I moved out there and also became their wine director for 11 years. It was a lot of a lot of opportunities. After that, I helped a friend of a restaurant week tables like at the bar. I work in liquor stores and wine shops. I was a consultant to concierge, so I did everything good or bad in food and beverage and hospitality. Yeah. And then in 2005, we came up here for a symposium. And at that symposium, I met a guy who became a business partner, became my wife. Sounds like it was a great visit. It's a great trip back. We took all of our money, maxed out our credit cards for Boston Vineyard Land, and started funds for Vegas. I love that and what has been your journey so far? Like once you bought the vineyard, did you know because of like your work history, like what your next step should be or like what helped you map out, like, now what? Like we have this and you know what we do. My business partner Thomas, and I'm both huge wine nerds, wine lovers, and and we recognize the quality here. It's. And it's one of us. I talked to the Burgundy one neighbor once upon a time. He said he felt compelled to do things in Burgundy. There's no more land. Just really strict rules here. You can do almost anything you want. It's a great place for dreamers. Great place to reinvent yourself. said, let's just go for it. There's no plan B. We just started making wine and have gradually grown and we love it. We did? Yeah. And that shows, I know, like, selecting grapes. So, like, you don't grow all of your grapes. And so you partner with other vineyards and you source grapes. How do you decide where to get grapes from there? Like what parts of the country the events are same. So that's a solid question. So far, we've only gotten grapes from Oregon and that is likely to remain the case. I love Washington wines. I loved ones of California as well. But my number one hate is paperwork and I don't want too much. I don't know anyone in the country. Second agriculture agriculture reports second tax year for the second set of licenses. Sure. Yeah. So we get wine for Oregon. And as you said, we have a lot of different vineyard sources. We own one small home property. And after my wife does a great state vineyard, which is cool, but it's almost husband points. Oh for sure. Yeah. And there are other vineyards close by that that we least are. And most of them are quite big. But we might have an acre here and for and decade or so, a bunch of small batch sites. Remember, we get them two times, three times more time to make small amounts of wine. And do you partner with your winemaker on like where you should be sourcing grapes? Or do you just say to him, I want to make this amount of wine or this variety of wine, like, how do you make those decisions? We work closely together and the answer is, I decide the vineyards we use, I decide when to pick if there's a blend, I'm a big part of it. But it is primarily our winemaker, Michael, and his associates that are doing all of our real time work. I do some of the farming. Yeah, but he's, he's our guy. I love that, I love that so much. And then when you open the tasting room, like, what kind of atmosphere and vibe where you will be to present and not you do all right. At that time. And so I've been at wine tasting. We've been at wine tasting, but yeah, some places you walk in, you feel. You feel. Any better be really smart. In other places you feel like you're in a big time gift shop for sure. Yeah. We're more than a man cave. We're kind of like a big living room, but we're comfortable. I'm wearing a white shirt. Yeah. We're not. It's not clean. Armani. It's. Yeah. No, I love I'm actually a that is a perfect way to describe the tasting room is that feels like a living room because it's comfortable. It's welcoming in it's, casual, but like, the wine isn't casual, you know, it's elevated, like, oh, my gosh, I've never thought about calling this, like, a living room without you nailed it perfectly. That's a great way to explain it. And they have a big tables and small table. So if you want to bring in a larger group like 8 to 10 people, there's space for that. Or if you're just coming up, one friend or two friends or space for that too. But you also like to do a lot of fun events. And sometimes you have like music, sometimes like there was a Girl Scout cookie and wine pairing. Like, if you want some fun stuff, what are some events that you might have, throughout the rest of the year? So everything is up in the air. A lot of it's weather dependent. I to the courtyard of that room where we can accommodate perhaps up to 65 people, and then the the barn at my house beside the vineyard. We're careful not to call it being an event center, because that sounds to us we actually call it the party barn. And, that's more likely where we have wine club events like, but we've, we've had that loves doing wine dinners with the restaurants. We've had movie nights, What is something that would surprise people about the industry that you don't think they know? Almost everything. There's a license for it. I have a federal license. I have an Oregon license. We now sell wine in Arizona and Nevada and state licenses there. As of today, we have one in Maryland. So every expansion you do, there's there's more paperwork. And it's not the end of the world. But that's not what people get in the wine industry, the wine industry, because they want to they want to bring wine. Yeah. I'm not saying don't get the wine industry, but you'll be surprised or have a really good program. The most paperwork gets. So I have a coworker, Amy, and she is. She's smarter than I am, and she likes detail. She loves excel sheets. She's probably, you know, probably making sure all the dimes in her purse are face on it. But yeah, very detail oriented. And Amy is amazing. Shout out to Amy. If you come by the tasting room, you might just meet her in person. Talk to us about the journey that you're taking today. So this is the, Chardonnay from our own vineyard, again, named after my wife, Desiree, a state vineyard. Ladies, first of all, can I just say first? The vendor is named after his wife and not wine like. Hello. So let us take notes. And then in very small print, we were placed on the front page for the for the babies. They're very young, so we only have a lot of Chardonnay there. And our very first year, this wine, we only made up 30 cases, perhaps 85 cases last year. So everything we do is restaurant. Yeah. That's amazing. And when you decided to make sure. Now, is there certain fruits that you were hoping that would come through? Like, did you want a better Chardonnay and oaky Chardonnay? Like, what was your vision for your drink? Another excellent question. The most popular shark based in America. Are you sure? Not a right or wrong. That's not exactly my favorite. So we like ours a little more subtle. So we did aged in oak, but older oak barrels. Older barrels are more subtle. They don't overpower the wine. And we're not big enough or cool enough for a mission statement. But if we were, I would hope you find fox fine wines to be perhaps aromatics first fruit, an acid second, you know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I think you just read your mission statement. No, it doesn't add to the website. And, although we weren't aiming for one thing, we just wanted to let the vineyard sort of express itself. I think this smells a little bit like, some, some funny little bit like, like baby powder. Know certainly. Aroma of mineral aroma. I think it smells a tiny bit like, kind of like pineapple. And it's probably the way cabbage, which is what our personal. Yeah, for sure. We're not 100% research. So I think that's what we're hearing on the streets. What would you recommend to pair with your champagne? Like if someone was going to have a better meal, what would you say we go? So here in Oregon, Dungeness crab is affordable, is wonderful. Fantastic. We frequently have, shrimp dishes. We have a, a chicken and mushroom pasta last night. As a rule of thumb, white wine works well with creamy things. As a rule of the white wine works with fish, etc. will you also talk about the wine I'm drinking? I'm having the 2023, you know, the valley is so Pinot noir is the gold standard for it. And I can say this, that, there needs to be a little more. What? Maine is the lobster? It's just considered among the best of the best of the best. And people in the water should not be too dark. It should be fairly graceful. That's again, something we try to do. But everything is preference, not quality and just preference. If I like coffee, let us. So. Yeah. Yeah. If I like pilsner, that's just a difference. Richness. And this is a medium bodied Pinot noir. Hopefully it's again, mostly aromatics. A lot of people say this smells like strawberries or cherries. It's not unheard of for Pinot noir to smell like cola. It's not unheard of. It smells a tiny bit like leather. And in a funny way, I think this smells a little bit earthy and earthy. Doesn't mean plumbing's well, sharp. But, you know, mushrooms are, potatoes are earthy. When you go walking in the woods in November and all the leaves are down, it's kind of perfect. Yeah. So that's the way I think. That's why I like, you know, cause sometimes I have someone tell me once I like the taste of dirt because I like the way, like pinos taste. I like when you can taste the barrel on different wines or Bourbons. What would you pair with this being on the water? If you're having dinner tonight? Anything in the world of mushrooms? And food doesn't have to be fancy. This is really good with a lot of comfort foods. Things like shepherd's pie is one of our favorite foods. We have a whole lot. Yeah. In Turkey, very often, it pops into very often. Is it works together? Almost anything. But that's just what we frequently eat at home. If you were going to have prime rib, you might prefer a strong. Oh, yeah. But for something of medium intensity again, comfort foods for people who are not going for. So at some of our listeners are like newbies, like maybe you haven't ever gone wine tasting or I've only dabbled a little bit. What is some advice that you would give, like someone just first starting to dip their toes in, like maybe consuming wine or trying out a wine tasting. First of all, don't get too tied up with other people. Think it's all about you. It really is. Ask as many questions as you can. I'm not 100%, but 90% of the people doing what I do, they should love questions. They should answer questions. And if you would, if someone walked in here and said, I hate Pino, I hate foxes, I hate mustaches, make sure that you found the right spot, but I'm still looking for that. That does make it easier. Yeah. Can ask questions now. This is not to be negative. This is for you to have the best experience possible. I promise I'm not supporting anybody. Check if you smoke cigarets, don't smoke until after you're done. For sure. I was happy about, I've also heard, like, Come on. Heavy perfume. Because I affect your palate. Because you also smell your perfume when you're, like, grabbing your glass. Or if it's, like, on your hand to, like, lotion. That's sometimes it's just too strong. For example. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with him. Yeah. Get an to emotion. little things like that, if you're going to be snacking. Absolutely nothing. But if you said, hey, what should I have in my in my bag for snacks, I'd say have, have a big. Oh, okay. Maybe I don't have chili lime, spicy nacho chips. Sure. For sure. Yeah. Because they'll totally take, like, change what you're drinking. And I'm not saying you'll enjoy it, but if you want to learn for sure, getting yourself, a clean slate and a head start is never a bad way. that's all very good. Solid advice. obviously people can get your wine here at the tasting room. And then to you, which I highly recommend, when you're not in local stores here, correct? Yes. So that's why it's a very small value exclusive. But come in, So things are growing. we are actually having, a very good 2025 so far. Oh, great. And I expect we'll be adding a few other states. now we have wines in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, and as of next week, I think we'll be Maryland. We'll be growing a little bit as we go. Checking in is never a bad thing. Owning it, you can call and ask if hold of the owner again. Yes. That is one thing that I love about this place. And, actually, the first time I came here, David was our host and he did the wine tasting we were here for. I was celebrating a birthday, actually, the first time I came home with a bunch of girlfriends. And that was one thing. I was on something like, sign me up for the Wine Club membership, because I love that you're here and available, and, it just makes you feel like you really, truly understand the product and the love behind the product. I'm like the owner, so I just love that so much. Know, I like I like being able to answer questions. You mentioned, mentioned other states. So we're going to be doing a wine dinner in Arizona on Thursday, April 30th. And where is that? In Arizona, it is approximately 36th Street in Indian school, close to the Camelback corridor, close to Arcadia. You can book that reservation directly with the restaurant. Okay. That's amazing. Great to know. So if you're in Arizona, definitely check that out. What about, any promotions or things that you have going on here in Dundee? we are at the end of the winter season here. It's been kind of slow and it's I don't know what the weather is today, probably 50 and the chance of rain. That's not Palm Springs but it's not Buffalo. Yeah. It's very civilized. As to whether it's natural to be doing more and more events. Right now, Roman, five days a week, starting late April, we'll be open seven days a week. And we are toying with the idea of encouraging people to film ahead in the following way. We like to say, hey, our tasting is $25, but if you make a reservation, it's only $20. Perfect, I love that. Yeah, definitely one month. So if you're going to be in the Dundee, Oregon area, definitely go ahead and give it a phone call to make a reservation. It's super easy and painless, and then you also save $5 per tasting, which would be awesome. Yeah. When you're doing that, you mentioned Michelle mentioned the podcast. Yes please. That will activate the $5 I love that. So obviously I'm a wine club member here. I'm a huge ambassador of this winery, and I love the wine and I love the atmosphere. Will you talk a little bit about what the Wine Club is and what it entails? Spa Wine club members say between 20 and 30% of the regular retail price. And we release wine generally 4 or 5 times a year. It would be discounted 20 to 30%. And it's an event which is about $75 at a time. So, as an overview, you assume it's about $300 a year. It's about in case you want to hear, wine club members get to enjoy complimentary tastings. They get free reduced admission, and for doing wine dinners for special events and things like that. Wine club members also can use our our barn as an event center. There's no such thing. Which is awesome. Not everybody offers that. And I can personally say that I haven't had an event on the barn and it was great. And a huge positive feedback from everyone that attended. how many bottles is included? The Wine Club membership, like each pick up, it's usually three bottles. It could be two bottles. Reserve can be four bottles for better value. But you must own three bottles. Yeah, sorry. Quarterly, approximately Valentine's Day, approximately Mother's Day, approximately Labor Day, and approximately. So if someone wanted to join the club, obviously they just come in and there's just, panels on they there's a right, and you put them in the system, or you take it out nice. Yeah. So there's no reason not to do that. You have to do most of it over the phone. Yes, that's true too. Do you mind if people are passing through and don't live locally? But one of the, you know, one of the members. Absolutely. We ship wine almost everywhere. The most important thing is some states have laws that prohibit that. That's there are laws not working. So we're always really, really careful about whether, I love Arizona, but I can't ship wine there in July. Oh for sure. We have we have a club member for holding that one right now because we can ship it. But I think it's only four degrees in Montana today. They don't want to be damaged by cold. So we can ship to about 40 states when the weather is right again. And for anybody that's like, brand new to, being in the wine industry or just consuming wine or being a fan of wine, what is a good temperature to keep in mind? So if you wouldn't mind tasting on a Saturday and then you came over six bottles, like, what should they do with that to make sure that they don't? Turn as I guess the proper right, right. Or like turn. Make sense? It. Yeah. Not to be negatively affected. Sure. Heat is the number one killer. So if you have a choice of storing your wine a little too warm or cold, go a little too cold. So probably a perfect temperature to store wine is 58 or 60. When they came up with the term room temperature they were talking about a hunting lodge in Germany. They condo in Scottsdale. So there's a lot of inexpensive wine refrigerators. When in doubt, just throw it in your regular refrigerator. Or probably the easiest thing is just stop by here every day and all bottle. Yeah, that's easy peasy. What about, even red wines? Would you tell people to put it that way? I know some people are like, you never put red wine in the fridge and others and, like, why not put it in the fridge in school? So a fancy wine refrigerator being about 60 degrees. And if you were a banker using that just for traditional manufacturers, keep all your wine in the fancy wine fridge at 50 or 60 degrees. And after work you get home with the white wine in the fridge. But the red wine is counter by the time you feed your cat, find your favorite radio station and check your email. The white wines drive 7 or 8 degrees, red wines going up 7 or 8 degrees. Oh my gosh, that's great. If I could say one back. And then one thing to I wanted to talk about is do you have screen caps what. And versus corks. And I've noticed that via tradition or tradition but trends lately too. What was your thought process around speed exercise or procedure? So screw caps had no romance whatsoever. They look a little lame. Initially they were only on the cheap ones, but much, much, much later we realized that they are a better culture. So quirk is my quirk is a piece of tree bark and it can be susceptible to pain. Foreign called tri chloro and a solid ex6. And if your cork gets this bad, I call it going to be. It can affect the wine and it won't hurt you. It's not poison, it just will smell here and tastes great. And we don't want that happen. Yeah. So the odds of that happening with a real cork, which is a piece of tree bark, is maybe one out of 20. The odds of that happening with one of these is maybe one out of 20,000. Oh wow. Okay. So you may not like the one you probably won't like me but it will not be Cork. No I like that. And then also you don't ever risk the cork crumbling into the wine. Like if it's an older bottle or another bottle, you don't need the sturdy one on the side, you know, if this was an A and a cork and a purpose, you know, two inches higher, that's harder to put the first. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, this is way in the future and you don't get your corkscrew confiscated. Airport. Yeah. It's so true that when you're traveling these are much better easier to work with for sure. What about glasses. So we're drinking out of Pinot noir glasses. Do you ever recommend second glassware for certain varieties? I'm going to upset a lot of people, especially people that sell glassware. I think the glass is a less important part. I would much rather drink a $7 wine, kind of a coffee cup with the person I love rather than a fancy one. I have a fancy glasses. I would yeah, I wouldn't overthink the wine glass any. Anyone that is traveling to them, I might not know the area what would be. And then they stop in and say, hey, where should we go to next? What are some of your tips and tricks at the end of the year? Absolutely. So we are, front row, 35 yard line. We are right in the middle of this and you could easily walk to 12 different here and probably six restaurants. It's a lot to do here. This is a great place to start your trip and base yourself on a trip. The probably the gold standard, unquestionably the most popular restaurant and it's called the breakfast market. They do breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything they touch turns to gold. Yeah. They do make great food. And they also have a cute little shop. And then you can also buy cheeses and meats there too that they get from local vendors. Creamery. It's like you can take snacks along with you the other day too. Okay. That's well spoken. They are they're locavores and they are to Willamette Valley what the local grocery is to Napa Valley. Yeah. You just go there. It's my friends and I have this rule that if you're going to wine tasting that you do not buy wine after stops to because your palate might change, you might remember the wine differently. Do you have any fun rules like that if people are out wine tasting. Because we are open later and frequently people make it's a rather spontaneous possibility. I can see that. And I sometimes joke that, oh, we we planned this, we planned this and this. You're random. Like I'm sort of booty call. Well, the wine we call, that's hilarious. I will say, I actually do love your hours, because sometimes, especially at the after work, and I want to, like, take a client just for advice or an industry partner. So many places close at 5 or 530, which that's when some people are available. So I do like especially on Fridays and Saturdays are open later till seven and then during the summer, do you go to Italy or do you stay at seven? Well, I want to make sure that I'm not, I'm not getting too greedy on this during the summer. A lot of fun. And also, a lot of our, we are open till seven here. Yeah. I do love that. In fact, the other day, I grabbed a sandwich at a local market, and I was driving home. I was like, you know, there's no stopping to see Damon. I made my sandwich there, and I had a glass of wine with it. You think you had this one? I did, and I was eating, It was curry chicken sandwich. It was so good. But the Chardonnay was, like, less spicy in that we had a little bit like. So we talked about the two wines that we're drinking. What other wines or how many? If someone comes in and does a tasting, how many wines do they get to try and what's the variety? Because sometimes when you go in to because, like you said, this is, you know, the water capital, right? Sometimes you go in and you're tasting just for people who are sometimes like sometimes it's a wide range where you talk about what your plant is and how many wines people can expect to taste. So, today's menu. There are five wines. On today's menu. There's Pinot grigio, Chardonnay, penal law, pure water, nice rock. Other ones we frequently switch in. We might have some. We might have our, rosé. Rosé sometimes just probably on the plate. But that's another thing you can double check when you change your menu frequently. But when you're calling around to make your reservations and come here, there's nothing wrong with saying what's on the menu today, and especially if I know ahead of time maybe we can switch things around. So yeah, I love that. And just so everyone knows that I like to bring in snacks and outside food. There I love that. I love that so much. Thank you so much for having me in the tasting room today and for being one of my first guests on the podcast this year. She is so much fun to into, I appreciate that. Cheers to you.