Fossil & Fawn, Only Always Sunnyside Vineyard 2024

49% Auxerrois, 29% Gewürztraminer, 22% Riesling

Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA

Single-site white blend from old ungrafted vines on red volcanic soils. Harvest Dates: 9/27/24-10/14/24. The Auxerrois and Gewürztraminer were picked during the same week and pressed together. The Riesling was harvested 18 days later, foot-trodden, pressed, and used to top the fermenting barrels of Auxerrois/Gewürztraminer. Aged in a mix of French and Oregon oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. Production: 221 cases. VEGAN.

Only Always is inspired by the very rule driven, single-vineyard-derived, Viennese wine style - Gemischter satz. What is Gemischter satz? Well, it is a white wine that has to be from one vineyard. It has to consist of three grapes at minimum. The majority grape can’t be more than 50% of the blend and the minority grape can’t be less than 10%.

Sunnyside Vineyard in South Salem is the oldest site (c. 1970) F&F gets grapes from, and it is farmed by Luci Wisniewski and Tom Owen. The vineyard is about 750 ft above sea level and planted on brilliantly red volcanic soils, dry-farmed and own-rooted! The blend percentages vary a little, year-by-year, but it is always composed of Auxerrois, Gewürztraminer and Riesling. The wine is fermented in tank and then aged in a mix of Oregon and French oak barrels.

Fossil and Fawn started out as a completely reasonable idea in the late summer of 2011, and quickly spiraled into a much more complex, frustrating, terrifying, and unbelievably rewarding venture. Jim Fischer and Jenny Mosbacher began with the notion of making a small amount of wine from their family vineyard, Silvershot (formerly Crowley Station) located in Eola-Amity Hills AVA, as a single-site bottling, simply because no one else had done that before. The plan was to have a nice example to show to potential buyers of the Pinot Noir and the Pinot Gris grown there. While winemaking is handled by Jenny and Jim Jr., viticulture is handled by Jim Sr. Silvershot is both dry-farmed and sustainably managed. Somewhere along the line they figured that for all the effort, they might as well make it an official wine label, and Fossil & Fawn was born!