Écluse Wines

Écluse Wines
1520 Kiler Canyon Rd
Paso Robles, California
USA 93446
Phone: (805)238-4998
http://eclusewines.com/

Contact: Steve and Pam Lock
Email: [email protected]

Welcome to Wines! We are a small boutique winery and vineyard dedicated to producing limited production, hand crafted, award winning wines.

A question almost always asked of us is about our name,. The explanation is simple - is French for the locks on the canals that gently carve their way through the remarkable French wine country. Since our last name is "Lock", the name for our wines was born!

Our adventure as a small boutique winery and vineyard began in 1997 when we purchased 30 beautiful acres of gently rolling hillside terrain on the desired Westside of the Paso Robles AVA. Our philosophy from the beginning has been that great fruit makes great wine.

We were excited at the prospect of planting a vineyard that could take advantage of our special location, microclimate and exposure to the northeast, the southeast and the south. Because the soils in our vineyard are quite varied ranging from calcareous limestone on the hill tops to areas with clay and loam near the bottoms of the gentle hills we were able to take advantage of the subtleties of the soils by choosing the optimum varietals to plant. Thus Lock Vineyard came to life in 1998 with the planting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Zinfandel. In the past year we have decided to add blending varietals to the vineyard. We have begun planting very small blocks (1/2 acre to 1 acre) of Mourvedre, Grenache, Petit Verdot, Rousanne, Malbec and Cinsault to increase our blending options.

Our first harvest was in 2000 and we found we truly were producing extraordinary grapes for our winery customers. Starting out as growers gave us special insight that truly remarkable wine definitely begins in the vineyard. After Steve won several Gold Medals for our homemade wines and accolades from friends and family we decided to "take the plunge" and produce a limited bottling of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon under the label to "test the waters". It seemed a natural progression for Steve to go from grower to winemaker.

Knowing the best wines begin in the vineyard, Steve spends a great deal of time there every year. We use sustained viticulture practices which involve water conservation, use of natural predators for pest control and efforts to minimize the use of any herbicides and pesticides. We plant cover crops in the vine aisles to promote the development of friendly insects. During the course of a full growing season we are able to pay individual attention to the nearly 25,000 vines that make up Lock Vineyard. The vines are pampered and stressed when necessary to produce the highest quality of fruit possible given the nature of the terrain and microclimate we are lucky enough to have.

Over the course of several years, Steve has had the opportunity to interact with winemakers such as Matt Trevisan (Linne Calodo Cellars), Mike Mooney (Chateau Margene) and Scott Hawley (SummerWood Winery). Thus, when the decision was made to expand the Lock Vineyard operation to include winemaking, the knowledge had been laid and friends became consultants.

When the grapes have reached their peak of flavors they are carefully hand harvested and the winemaking process begins. Steve handles all the winemaking duties with our consulting winemaker, Scott Hawley, overseeing the process.

Having the control from the vineyard to the bottle insures that will remain the truly remarkable wine that it is today.

Winemaker: Scott Hawley

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