North America | Oregon | Fossil & Fawn | "Do Nothing" Red

"Do Nothing" Red

VARIETALS
Pinot Gris (48%), Pinot Noir (32%), Gewürztraminer (16%), Grüner Veltliner (4%) from vineyards in Willamette and Umpqua Valleys

NOTES
VINEYARD: BeckenRidge (Willamette), and Rebecca's (aka Sophie's, in Umpqua).

BECKENRIDGE: First planted in 1976 by the Hudson family and known as Ellendale Vineyards, Ken and Becky Jacroux have owned and managed the property since the 1990s. Ken manages 16 acres of own-rooted, single-wire-hanging Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Niagara. At just shy of 600’ elevation in the wooded foothills several miles west of Dallas, Oregon, BeckenRidge is a beautiful, wind-swept site with soils transitioning between marine sedimentary and volcanic Jory soils.

REBECCA'S (AKA SOPHIE'S): The site is located in the upper northwestern corner of the Umpqua Valley, nestled into the eastern edge of the Coast Range, which means it behaves climatically much more like the northern Willamette Valley. Depending on who you ask, the vineyard was planted sometime either in the mid-1980s or the early-1990s, by Sophie Lerro, who has one of the craziest life stories you’ve ever heard. A native New Yorker, she allegedly fell in love with Oregon during a stint in a traveling circus. A career in the US Merchant Marine earned her enough to retire to Oregon and establish the vineyard. Nobody can say definitively who Rebecca was, or why Sophie named the vineyard for her. With some outside help, Sophie managed the vineyard herself for decades until she passed away in 2018. Her son, Chance, now manages the vineyard and has been in the process of transitioning to organic farming. In the spring, herds of sheep graze in between the vines on steep slopes ranging from 400’ to 890’ in elevation. Fossil & Fawn work with Draper selection Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot gris, and Semillon. Additionally, the vineyard is planted to Pinot noir, Gamay noir, and a little Riesling.

VINIFICATION: Manual harvest from 9/27/19 - 10/6/19. All of the fruit was fermented whole cluster carbonically, on stems and skins for one month - gently extracting color, tannin, and flavor. After pressing, the juice was transferred to old French oak barrels where it finished fermenting over the following five months. Bottled without fining or filtration. 263 cases produced

TASTING NOTES: Do Nothing is a chillable, fruit-driven 'red' wine that is made predominantly with white grape varieties. The light crimson shade is achieved by the varietals fermented together for a month. According to the winemaker, this is the closest they get to making a “wine of style,” in that, the grape composition and sources may change, but the focus is always on making an entirely whole-cluster, carbonic “red” wine that is fun, fruity, and chuggable. Although the stats may make it sound like a weird grape dumpster, creating an interesting, well-balanced blend from more than a dozen tiny lots of fruit is a sincere challenge. 'Do Nothing' is Fossil & Fawn's most serious attempt at being as hands-off as possible in the red winemaking process. The whole-cluster grapes are simply put in a bin, which is then sealed, and left alone (hence, 'Do Nothing'). No yeast, nutrients or acid were added.

The carbonic process provides an explosively juicy and fruity quality that makes this a killer chillable red! There is still a robust tannic structure to the wine so a service temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (or 30 minutes in the fridge before opening) is highly recommended.