New Key Peninsula winery welcomes you to sip and relax in pastoral outdoor tasting room

Kyle and Tedra Hett were waiting outside the tasting room, a 1,400-square-foot cottage that looks as if it had been plucked from the Alsatian countryside. It’s been freshly painted in a modern slate hue, accented by creamy trim and varying shades of towering greenery that envelop this unexpected getaway.

The home of Two Fox Winery feels instantly remote, yet you’ve traveled less than 20 miles from Gig Harbor (or about 30 from Tacoma), around Henderson Bay into the refuge of the Key Peninsula.

On a clean gravel lot are several patio tables and chairs, with additional Adirondacks lining the tree-scaped lot. Grassy knolls await the occasional resident cat sighting and a weekend picnic, preferably enjoyed with friends over a bottle of the winery’s first cases of Columbia Valley syrah, Wahluke Slope chardonnay or a crisp, dry rosé.

“If you’d like to hear the neighbor’s chickens, get a nice breath of fresh air, actually be able to hear the person across from you,” said Tedra Hett, “we welcome you to bring your snacks … and really just soak in the space and the quietness.”

The Hetts have been pouring on weekends since June — following more than two years of renovations, landscaping, paperwork, permitting, scrubbing and organizing, not to mention many road trips across the Cascades to their source winery in Prosser.

It’s a lot of work, especially for a couple in their early 30s who both still work full-time in health care. He is a nurse and she is a pharmacist. A yearning for something more — more space, more purpose — led them here, to 15 acres of land in Lakebay, Washington.

TAKING THE LEAP TO LAKEBAY

“A winery was nowhere on our radar,” laughed Tedra Hett.

One weekend, when she was out of town, her husband took a day trip to Port Orchard.

Along the way back to Tacoma, he noticed a blue road sign for Trillium Creek Winery. He drove south on Route 302 into a rural neighborhood, stopping at 17812 18th St. Claudia Gahard welcomed him to the property, which she bought in 1989 and developed with her husband and winemaker Claude. By this point, the Gahards, both in their 80s, had been trying to sell their life’s work — including their house, the tasting room, the underground cellar that would require serious riches to install today, and the land on which it all sits — for years.

“I’m tired,” Claudia Gahard told The Gateway, The News Tribune’s sister paper, in 2016. “I want to sell (the winery) and have someone young do this.”

Perhaps it was destiny that Kyle Hett took that detour, or a stroke of crazy. In touring the sprawling property — through thick forest, stressed grapevines and a recently cleared plot now planted with dahlias, the start of a quarter-acre cut-flower garden, and another they envision as a future campground — I also get the sense that this story has played out the only way it could.

“I got the three-hour tour and just fell in love with this property,” said Kyle Hett on a Friday in late August. He couldn’t believe the 30-by-50-foot concrete cellar, the bonus building set up as a workshop, the expanse and the solace the property provided.

“As a Kansas farm boy, I loved it,” he said. “So, we bought a winery!”

Well, first he texted Tedra (whose name is pronounced with a long ‘e’). She wasn’t so sure about the winery, but the property itself was surely appealing.

Childhood sweethearts, they have been married for more than a decade and moved to Tacoma in 2014. At their house in the Proctor District, they eventually felt a little “claustrophobic.” They also felt the neighborhood growing busier and louder.

“We knew we wanted to go somewhere, at some point, with a little bit more space,” said Tedra Hett. “Have maybe some chickens, grow some of our own food, grow flowers, that kind of thing.”

She said again: “A winery was nowhere on our radar.”

Something about it, though, Kyle Hett couldn’t let go.

“He kept talking about it,” she continued.

It had more than enough land to continue gardening, which she did to “every square inch” of their Proctor yard. “We were kind of feeling like: We just go work, we go home, we exercise, we make dinner, we watch TV … There’s gotta be more to this.”

The property was not what real estate agents would call “turn-key,” but rather “amazing price” for a house on a lot of land with flex-room perks. Oh — and a winery business.

BUILDING THE WINERY

Technically the Hetts purchased all of the above, but they have been very intentional in building their own brand. The vineyards themselves are a “maintenance challenge,” as they put it mildly in an Instagram post, and the area isn’t exactly famous for growing grapes. (It is poised to grow as a wine-drinking destination, as other wineries have shown interest in opening tasting rooms here, according to the Hetts.) For now, their partner winery gives them full ownership of their selections, which lean dry. They haul vats of finished wine to the Two Fox cellar, where they hand-label and bottle.

A batch of Red Mountain cabernet sauvignon is currently fermenting here, too, but it’s not quite ready. Eventually, they hope to source high-quality Washington grapes but transfer the winemaking — from crushing to fermenting — to Lakebay.

“A lot of people don’t realize how long it takes to make wine,” said Tedra Hett. “To get to production of our own, it will take years.”

“The joke is we’re kind of doing this backwards,” added Kyle Hett. “Most people learn how to make wine and then they have an issue with selling it, but we have a place to sell it — and a beautiful location.”

Nearing the end of their first summer as winery owners and tasting room operators — they will always be your guide — the Hetts said a few locals have already returned. From wherever you may have traveled, they encourage you to really indulge in the day. Pack that picnic, call some friends, get the bottle.

Future plans include charcuterie boxes from Tacoma’s Art of Crunch, live music, Friday service and private events. They recently cleared and graveled more space to expand parking (with help from a kind neighbor), and already submitted an application with Harvest Hosts, the Airbnb of RV camping.

“This is a lifetime project,” said Kyle Hett. “We will beautify this space, it’s gonna be awesome, and we want you guys to experience that with great wine.”

“We’re gonna give the winery thing a go,” added Tedra Hett, “and if it works out great. If it doesn’t, we still have this beautiful place that we would still like to share with people in some way. We’re here to be good stewards.”

TWO FOX WINERY

▪ 17812 18th St. NW, Lakebay, 253-234-5535, twofoxwinery.com

▪ Tasting Room Hours: Saturday noon-6 p.m., Sunday noon-4 p.m., or by appointment

▪ Details: winery tasting room with indoor service and ample outdoor seating in a forested nook, reservations available

▪ Wine: tasting flight of 6 varietals $10, glass pours $8-$9, bottles $20-$25 (tasting fee waived with purchase of 2 bottles, 10% off case buys)

This story was originally published September 13, 2022 at 7:00 AM.