#183 The Enclosure: Or a Modern "Clos"

The nine-acre vineyard we enclosed with a fence in 2022, might turn out to be a special site.

As you approach Boundary Breaks, you make a turn at the bottom of a hill, and at this corner is a fenced-in vineyard, accessible by this gate pictured above.

The are iconic wines from Europe that have the word, “clos” in their name. Among them are Clos de Vougeot, Clos Rougeard and Clos Sainte Hune. In the United States, you also will find the word “clos” on the label; California’s Clos du Val, for instance,.

The word, “clos,” refers to an “enclosure” or “walled vineyard.” The word, reportedly, originated in Burgundy with Cistercian monks who built walls around their vineyards to protect them from thieves, animals and weather.

Today, the word is used to refer to a unique vineyard site that is notable for producing exceptional wines. You can’t just slap the name on the label and assume the wine will be exceptional. If you are being honest, there has to be something about the site where the grapes are grown that earns the name, “clos.” The wines made from the grapes grown on that site must be memorable.

We installed a fence around the nine-acre parcel that we first planted in 2019. From the beginning these vines have prospered. But they are surrounding by woods, and the deer and other animals were eating up to 30 percent of the fruit. In 2022, much like the Cistercians, we installed a fence to protect the vineyard from wildlife. It became, sort of, an enclosure, but not yet a “clos.”

Not only in the site now protected by a fence, it may also be uniquely positioned in a way that makes it less prone to frost. The frost event on April 21 of this year, which affected our older Cab Franc planting, did hardly any damage to the vines in the block inside the fence. The vines in the lower end of the block at the western end show very little damage.

We have planted these nine acres with six acres of Cab Franc and three acres of Merlot. To find out if there is anything special about the wines from this “enclosed” block of vines, we will need to make wines specifically from these acres. They will receive the same care that we give all of our vines. To the extent possible, we will pick them at an optimal degree of ripeness.

But, at the time of harvest, we will separate them from the rest and manage them during the fermentation process as a separate and unique batch. We will need to choose the barrels that they go into and keep track of those barrels as the wines mature. And we will take them out of the barrels and bottle them when we think they are ready.

Once they have spent enough time in the bottle, we will taste them and decide if they taste any different from the other wines we made from that same year. And if, after four or five years of this process, if we are convinced that, yes, the grapes from this site produce a superior wine, then we will find a name to go on the bottle that designates it as special.

So even though these grapes are in an “enclosure,” the name won’t be a “clos.” That name is taken. But we will certainly think of something suitable.