Named for its location next to the Dayton watershed, this 4.25 acre block is all Pommard clone planted on its own roots in 1977 at 6'x 10' spacing. At 550’ elevation this is the highest Pinot Noir block of the Sokol Blosser vineyards. The section slopes east and south and is comprised of Jory soil, the distinctive red clay loam of the Dundee Hills.

Unlike the extremely warm vintage of 2003, 2004 was more of a typical Oregon year. We began our Pinot Noir harvest on September 10 after a week of clear, warm, sunny days, only to be hit with rain on the 11th. During the next week we had cool, wet weather, with just enough periods of drying out for us to bring in about half of our Pinot Noir. Finally, on the 20th the rain and showers ended and, with the exception of some cold, foggy mornings, we had generally nice weather, especially in the afternoons. We brought in the balance of the grapes during the two weeks between September 21 and October 5 (Watershed Block was harvested on October 3), just before the rains began again on October 6. Sugars were not excessively high, acid levels were good, and, other than the mini-eruption of Mt. St. Helens on October 1, the harvest of 2004 was refreshingly uneventful.

The yield in 2004 was fairly small from this old block – around two tons/acre. The grapes were de-stemmed into small (three-ton) open-top fermenters, preserving as many whole berries as possible. After two days of pre-fermentation maceration they were punched-down three times per day during a seven-day fermentation. Finally, the wine was given a very long (twenty-two day) post-fermentation maceration, then went quickly to barrels for a long, slow malolactic fermentation. The barrels, 60% of which were new, were all fine-grain French oak from a number of different Burgundian cooperages.  The wine was bottled without any fining or filtration in March, 2006.

The wine from this block usually has the most firm, focused structure and backbone of the single-block designate wines we produce. Medium-bodied, graceful and restrained, with flavors and aromas of sweet berries and cola evolving into the distinctive Sokol Blosser earth and truffle, this wine is truly expressive of Watershed Block structure, complexity and elegance.