North America | Oregon | Fossil & Fawn | Oregon White

Oregon White

VARIETALS
35% Gewürztraminer, 26% Riesling, 22% Grüner Veltliner, 12% Auxerrois, 5% Sémillon

NOTES
VINEYARD: Sourced from non-irrigated biodynamic and organically-farmed vineyards in the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. The soil types range from marine sediment, to volcanic, and alluvial deposits. The vine age ranges from 10 to 38 years. Vineyards are Silvershot, Sunnyside, and BeckenRidge in Willamette, and Rebecca's in Umpqua.
SILVERSHOT: This is the Fischers’ home site. Jim Fischer Sr. and his brother Bill collected cuttings from neighboring vineyards and started their own nursery in 1999. The first vines were put in the ground the following year on a five-acre field with a gentle south-facing slope and the shallow, rockiest soils on the property. They farm 15 acres of vineyards, 14 of which are Pinot Noir (114, 115, 777, Pommard, and a few "suitcase" clones of unknown provenance), with an acre of Pinot Gris (Colmar clone). A few years in, they discovered a smattering of Chardonnay inter-planted in one of the Pinot Noir blocks. All of the vines are dry-farmed and most are own-rooted. The site is south/southwest-facing on Holmes Hill at the exit of Holmes Gap (better known as the end of the Van Duzer Corridor) and gets strong, cooling marine breezes. Wines made from these grapes have that distinctive Eola-Amity quality: displaying great spice, structure and clarity of fruit with pronounced minerality from the old oceanic soils.
SUNNYSIDE: Tended by Luci Wisniewski and Tom Owen since the early 1980s, Sunnyside is a fun and funky mix of old-vine Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Tempranillo, Dolcetto, and Auxerrois. The vines, like many older sites in the valley, are planted on an east/west orientation instead of north/south. This is now against conventional wisdom for getting the most sun exposure, but frankly, means that one can still get beautiful, later harvest fruit coming in at moderate sugars in ever-hotter years. Some of the vines were planted on the property as early as the late 1970s. Vines are own-rooted into the brilliantly red volcanic soils on the gentle southwest slope of Sunnyside, about 630’ elevation. Luci and Tom still do much of the work themselves,
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-80s or the early-90s, by Sophie Lerro. 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 (for formal certification - they've been practicing organic for years). In the spring, herds of sheep graze in between the vines. On steep slopes ranging from 400’ to 890’ in elevation, the Fischers work with Draper selection Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Sémillon. Additionally, the vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, and a little Riesling.

VINIFICATION: Harvest took place from 9/21 - 10/14, and because it was spread out due to the various vineyard locations, carbonic maceration was used on the earlier picks in order to hold the fruit and prevent it from going dry, so that all the lots could be pressed at the same time. Native yeast fermentation for all lots. Length of skin contact was an average of 12 days, and the length of fermentation was 5 months. The wine was settled and racked to a mix of Oregon, Hungarian, and French oak barrels. 295 cases produced (5cs for MA)

TASTING NOTES: Jim and Jenny Fischer wanted to make this wine akin to Gemischter Satz (Austrian tradition of planting different and complementary grape varieties together in a vineyard – then harvesting and fermenting them together as well) interpreted as an orange wine.