Description
The “Lower Block” is the lowest half-acre section of our Home Vineyard, planted with own-rooted Pinot Noir vines in 1999. East-facing, very gently sloping at about 1550 ft. elevation, the soil here is dense reddish clay, sprinkled with bits of quartz. It is the nearest section of the vineyard to the seasonal creek that cuts through the bottom of our property, by virtue of which it is kept cooler than the rest of the vines. It is usually harvested a good three weeks later than the Old Block and Suzy’s Block, and two weeks later than the North Block. It is more prone to spring frost damage that hammer the vines almost every year and keep the vines small and scraggly.
This limited cuvée is produced only in years when we happen to harvest at least half a barrel’s worth of grapes (400 lbs) in one pass through the site. At Clos Saron, we harvest our vineyards in consecutive weekly passes, exclusively picking clusters that are ripe to the touch (just like assessing the ripeness of an avocado by a gentle squeeze), essentially making a “cluster select” type wine (widely associated only with late-harvest wine) from our whole crop.
Our Pinots are always long lived and slow to evolve. Our flagship “Home Vineyard” Pinot is aged for 5-6 years before release, the “Old Block” and “Lower Block” cuvées four or more years longer. In the long run, our goal is to hold them back for 12-15 years before release (the time they usually “turns its first corner” in terms of their evolution). In order to do that, we skip 2-3 years between releases. This 2017 vintage is released today in September, 2026.
By comparison, the “Lower Block” is always the densest of our Pinots, texturally speaking, darker in color and body than the “Home Vineyard”, leaning toward the black fruits, with more obvious fruit density. This 2017, however, is still very youthful and tight (as of September 2026). Very pure and well defined, it reluctantly starts opening up 24 hours after uncorking, and takes four full days to truly sing, at this stage of its life. It begs for extended cellaring. We believe it will be one of the longest living Clos Saron Pinot Noirs.
One barrel (288 bottles) produced.
