Fossil & Fawn started out as an idea in the late summer of 2011. Jim Sr, Jim Jr, and Jenny Fischer began with the notion of making a small amount of wine from their family vineyard as a single-site bottling, simply because no one else had done so before. The plan was to have a nice example to show to potential buyers of the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris grown there. Somewhere along the line they figured that for all the effort, they might as well make it an official wine label.

The Fischers aren't too interested in bold manifestos or style declarations - their goal is to make wines that they like. They've found that the kind of wines they like, and thus the wines they make, are executed with a natural approach that allows the vineyard to do the talking. That means instead of buying yeast, they culture it from the vineyard itself, with no other additives or enzymes. It also means as-little-as-necessary sulfur additions and aging all of their wines in barrels, with very little new oak. The minimalist, natural approach is a nice way of saying they do things the hard way: by hand. The upside is that they end up with wines that they like. Wines that have acidity, structure, and balance that will brilliantly complement dinner tonight, or be a worthy reward for patience after a few years in the cellar.

Do Nothing is a chillable, fruity, light wine. A mix of red and white grapes sourced from dry-farmed, own rooted vines dating back to the 1970s. 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 wine-making 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.