I just had my fourth bottle ever from this producer, and the parade of excellence continues. Tonight, it was 2010 Clos Saron Spring Frost. It’s listed as a blend with mostly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, and a little Syrah. That little Syrah dominates the blend aromatically and in flavor. I would have guessed straight Syrah blind. Aromatic, structured and balanced. Great savory elements.
I’ve had the Home Vineyard Pinot on several occasions, and it is an amazing wine, one of my favorite domestic Pinots. I’ve also enjoyed a 2015 Carte Blanche, which was fiercely aromatic. The other was a 2013 Clos Saron Kind of Blue; another great (mostly) Syrah.
Count me as a fan too. I am letting the wines age and cellar more than I open. 09 Home PN hand carried home from the winery is in the queue for this year.
For anyone who may be interested, here’s a link to a visit with Gideon at Clos Saron last spring (including visits with a couple of other vintners who make their wine at Clos Saron). Clos Saron / Frenchtown Farms / La Onda - May 2018
Hi Bill, Our experience with farming grapes in our Sierra Foothills/Norh Yuba vineyards shows that the resulting wines, atypically for California, start their lives being at least somewhat austere, sometimes even angular, disjointed. For the most part they evolve slowly in the bottle and, in the case of the various Pinot cuvées, start coming to their own at 8-15 years of age (of course depending on the vintage specifics), and reach full maturity around 15-20+ years from harvest. It is also the case with our other local grapes like Syrah and Cabernet.
In its youth, in addition to its relative “lack of fruit” by Cali standards, the Pinot tends to be dominated by the vineyard character, that “interferes” with the pure varietal expression. It is sort of Pinot sort of not Pinot… But this ‘not Pinot’ element gradually integrates into the wine during the process of aging, and the wine becomes more and more “Pinot like” as it nears its full maturity. Ça pinotte, as they say in French… Specifically for the 2010 “Home Vineyard”, I would say that it’s about 3-5 years away from that relaxing and coming to its own point… it’s a tight, high acidity vintage that will take a while to integrate, resolve, and open up fully.
While there is a lot of talk about terroir expression in wines, I believe that there are actually relatively few wines out there that truly are committed to maximizing that vineyard stamp, at least to such a distinctive extent. In view of this fact, and in order to offer at least some people a chance to verify this for themselves, we have instituted a yearly open house tasting, in which customers get to taste mini-verticals of all of our wines (2-5 vintages of every “product”, by now spanning 25+ years). This way each person can see for themselves how the wine appears at release, and with additional five, ten, or fifteen further years in the bottle. The vintages are randomly picked from the cellar so that those who manage to attend a few of these in a row, get to taste most vintages of our history. The point is that a wine may have a lot more to offer than what it displays in its early stages and detecting it, and reading and assessing it correctly is not necessarily that simple, especially when it comes to distinctive, atypical wines.
Wow, thanks Gideon. I will hang on to my last two bottles a little longer.
Funny, I think of a 2010 burgundy as undrinkably young, but usually don’t apply that standard to domestic pinots. Clearly your wines deserve similar respect.
Last night and tonight we enjoyed the 2002 “Heart of Stone” syrah. Picked it up two years ago for $19.99 from K&L on a flyer. Glad I bought 2 (that may have been all they had), as this was the first and this was terrific, and young. Much better tonight than last night, but still a bit tight on the nose. On the palate, and I mean this as a high compliment, you’d have sworn it was from the Northern Rhône. Meat and olives aplenty, a little light on the pepper, but that’s quibbling. Well done, @Gideon! I will wait a few more years to open the other one.
