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| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.4 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 19 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 6/3/2023 & rated 91 points: Very rich and engaging with a floral start, followed by butterscotch, vanilla, papaya, and apple tart notes. Maybe a touch oaky still. At a wonderful place now, I will drink my other bottle in the next few years vs cellar longer. (1434 views) | | | Tasted by danstrings on 3/3/2022 & rated 89 points: Wonderful clean sleek balanced domestic chard. Round and fruity but not overblown and I didn't find the oak as obvious as others here did. Nice stone fruit / floral / mineral notes. Great showing (972 views) | | | Tasted by Mr T on 9/27/2021: drank this over 2 nights and on opening is definitely a bit oaky, so give it some air. Drank most of the bottle on the 2nd night and the wine was balanced. It's definitely ripe and fruit forward CA chard, but good acidity to balance the fruit/oak and this does not impart a heavy feeling. Really enjoyed this. (1097 views) | | | Tasted by Scottwhipp on 8/17/2021 & rated 94 points: Full lush mouthfeel. Butterscotch and lemon verbena on the nose. Butterscotch and ripe pineapple on the front palate. Nice lemon lime acidity on a long finish. Really nice balance of lush and crisp. Excellent, serious wine. Punches above it’s weight class. (1175 views) | | | Tasted by bonedoc on 7/28/2021 & rated 92 points: Nicely done, briny, fresh Cali Chardonnay (1121 views) | | | Tasted by Carib on 5/18/2021 & rated 96 points: How sad & strange to open this bottle, then turn to Instagram and learn of Jim Clendenen's passing. Salud, maestro!
Wine Spectator will forgive me:
winespectator.com
Au Bon Climat’s Jim Clendenen, Colorful Santa Barbara Pioneer, Dies at 68 | Wine Spectator
Kim Marcus
5-6 minutes
Jim Clendenen, who brought a love of Burgundy to his groundbreaking Santa Barbara winery Au Bon Climat and helped put the region on the world winemaking stage, died in his sleep the night of May 15 at his home in the Los Alamos district near the town of Buellton, Calif. He was 68.
Clendenen was a tireless proponent and guiding light for Santa Barbara wines from his base in the cool-climate Santa Maria Valley in the northern reaches of the county. His Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from a variety of vineyard sources helped set the quality bar high for the region’s wines. He was also a frequent traveler to restaurants and wineries throughout the world, spreading the gospel of Santa Barbara wines and Burgundian varietals in California.
In this guise, he was an iconoclast in his early career, and a force of nature in his joie de vivre. Clendenen was a legendary cook and often greeted visitors with large lunches and overflowing wine at his utilitarian winery on a corner of the famed Bien Nacido Vineyard, which he helped champion.
“There's no way to overemphasize his importance to the Santa Barbara County wine industry. A pioneer in every possible definition of the word. He was fearless, flamboyant and a never-tiring voice for Santa Barbara wine and California wine in general,” said fellow Santa Barbara vintner Brian Loring of Loring Wine Company.
“He broke down barriers and shined a light around the world for Santa Barbara,” said Greg Brewer of Brewer-Clifton winery. “So many projects down here are variations of what he wanted to do. He transformed Santa Barbara from a source of anonymous fruit for others to a main player on the world stage. For the better part of four decades he was a champion in that regard and we’ve been riding in his wake.”
With a flowing mane of blond hair and a beard to match, as well as sartorial preferences for colorful T-shirts or short-sleeve prints, Clendenen cut a distinctive figure in the mostly buttoned-down world of Santa Barbara winemaking. A self-taught winemaker, he was resolute in applying what he considered the best European techniques to his wines and, while many were acclaimed, some were not, as he found his way through trial and error. His wines were more delicate in style than many of the standard-bearers of California wine, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. “I’m a liaison between the old style and the new,” Clendenen told Wine Spectator in 1997.
Born Jan. 11, 1953, and a native of Akron, Ohio, Clendenen was studying at U.C. Santa Barbara in 1974 when he took a trip to France and visited Bordeaux, where the wine bug first bit. After a second trip to France and a stay in Burgundy he soon decided against becoming a lawyer and instead to pursue a life in wine. In 1978, back in Santa Barbara, he was hired to be winemaker Ken Brown's assistant at Zaca Mesa winery.
Clendenen left Zaca Mesa in 1980 and worked the 1981 harvest in Burgundy, taking time to visit dozens of cellars during a three-month stay. He was surprised to find many winemakers there worked with basic techniques and equipment. "Even an impoverished American could duplicate that," he quipped.
Back in Santa Barbara in 1982, he founded Au Bon Climat on a shoestring budget with Adam Tolmach, who today owns Ojai Vineyard. "All we had at first was the ability to communicate," Clendenen explained in 1997. "We bought used equipment. It was so pathetic; it would have embarrassed a home winemaker."
Tolmach and Clendenen parted ways in 1991, with Clendenen buying out his partner. In 1989, the Miller family, who own Bien Nacido, built a no-frills structure for Au Bon Climat, as well as to house Qupé winery, then owned by Bob Lindquist, who continues to make wine at the site, now under the Lindquist Family Wines label.
Clendenen was Lindquist’s mentor at Zaca Mesa and they worked side by side at the Bien Nacido facility. “He was a total force of nature," Lindquist said "He knew everybody and everybody knew him—in Burgundy and the Rhône and Italy, and everywhere in the wine world. An amazing guy who up until Friday was making lunch for everyone at the winery, opening up his wines and sharing them.”
Au Bon Climat makes an estimated 30,000-plus cases of wine per year and also includes wines bottled under the Clendenen Family Wines label. Clendenen is survived by his two children, Isabelle, 26, and Knox, 21, and former wife Morgan. (1098 views) | | | Tasted by Château de Farmer on 3/29/2021 & rated 84 points: Do not understand the sky high ratings on this. It's an overripe, overoaked, underwhelming acid, very new world wine. I get that some people enjoy that style, but this was about as far from Burgundian as you can get. (1093 views) | | | Tasted by nickvdm on 2/27/2021 & rated 93 points: Good, sharp acidity in great balance with white fruit, citrus and a hint of pomelo. Long, long finish. (839 views) | | | Tasted by markjanes on 2/13/2021 & rated 92 points: Revisting ABC: Tasted alongside 2017 Hildegard and 2015 Chardonnay "30th Vintage" Sanford & Benedict... very similar nose to the Hildegard with stone fruits being overshadowed by very nice french oak aromas. on the palate high acids, fleshy midpalate, firm structure on end from oak tannins, low alcohol. another very serious wine. (905 views) | | | Tasted by Hi.its.Don.4.Wine on 11/17/2020 & rated 94 points: Stretching the Envelope
What do you do if you’re already a successful Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer? You stretch the envelope even further. That’s what Jim Clendenen did in 1996 with the introduction of his first release of the Au Bon Climat Chardonnay “Nuits-Blanches au Bouge.” For this review, I found the recent vintage 2016.
The style for this wine being richer and aged longer in oak than the other Chardonnays he produces. With the grapes coming from Bien Nacido Vineyard “K” Block (90%) and the remaining 10% from the extremely small crop at their estate Le Bon Climat Vineyard, this cool climate wine of the Santa Maria Valley then sees 18 months in new François Frères barrels and is bottled with no filtering. What you have when bottled is a wine of intensity and richness both in aromas and taste. Providing one with wonderful stone fruit notes along with citrus and a comingling and balance with the oak, leading to nice acidity and a long satisfying finish to the wine.
A couple of 95 Point reviews tend to confirm that this wine is exceptional and did what, I believe, Jim intended it to do; stretch the envelope.
With a scant 850 cases made, how available it may be at your local wine shop, I can’t say, but as of this writing, the winery seems to still have it available. At $40, if you are a Chardonnay lover like me and you are looking for that Burgundian quality to your wine, this is one that I heartily recommend you try.
Cheers (1281 views) | | | Tasted by Carib on 8/23/2020 & rated 96 points: Incredible purity of expression from the Bien Nacido vineyard of winemaker Jim Clendenen. Beautiful terroir. Good balance between fruit (apricot, vanilla) and alcohol; long, long finish. What a long strange trip its been since the bad days of oaky Chardonnay in California. Buy it, drink it, buy it again. See Jeb Dunnuck's review, spot on. (848 views) | | | Tasted by Ilhabela15 on 5/17/2020 & rated 89 points: Classic CA Chard, lemon, white peach, vanilla (792 views) | | | Tasted by nzinkgraf on 3/6/2020: Fruit and mineral aromas. Oak doesn’t show much on the nose. Shows a much more generous palate, with it’s oak flexing. Very big palate, with some circus peanut and a little nut. (884 views) |
| Au Bon Climat Producer Website
(Producer Location - Los Olivios, CA)
Founded in 1982, Au Bon Climat (which means "a well-exposed vineyard") produces internationally-recognized Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Blanc wine from grapes grown in California's Santa Barbara County. The Au Bon Climat winery is located on the world-famous Bien Nacido Vineyard, and is owned by winemaker Jim Clendenen. Au Bon Climat was listed on Robert Parker's Best Wineries of the World in both 1989 and 1990, while Jim Clendenen has been named Winemaker of the Year in 1992 by the Los Angeles Times, and Winemaker of the Year in 2001 by Food and Wine Magazine. The winery is not open to the public for either tours or tastings. Members of our wine club and mailing list are invited to our Spring and Fall Open Houses.
The winemaker, Jim Clenenden: Jim Clendenen graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with High Honors in Pre-Law in 1976. It was during his "junior year abroad" in 1974, while turning 21 in France, that he discovered life beyond tacos. After graduation, a one month stay in both Burgundy and Champagne convinced him to attempt a career in wine rather than continue on to law school. Beginning with the 1978 harvest, Jim Clendenen was assistant winemaker at Zaca Mesa Winery for three vintages, a valued training experience. In 1981 his vision broadened with three harvests in one year as Jim worked crush and directed the harvest at wineries in Australia and France. Three harvests in one year confirmed his masochistic tendencies. In 1982, Clendenen decided, along with now ex-partner Adam Tolmach, to start his own winery in leased quarters. Au Bon Climat (which means "a well exposed vineyard") has grown over its history to over 30,000 cases through careful re-investment from its own production. The winery has cultivated an international reputation for its Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Jim Clendenen, the “Mind Behind” Au Bon Climat, is recognized worldwide for his classically-styled wines (in addition to his Burgundian-focused ABC wines, Jim is also highly regarded for his Italian and other French varietals). In 1989 and 1990 Au Bon Climat was on Robert Parker's short list of Best Wineries in the World, and in 1991 was selected by Oz Clark as one of fifty world-wide creators of Modern Classic Wines. Dan Berger of the Los Angeles Times named Clendenen the "Los Angeles Time Winemaker of the Year" in 1992; Food & Wine Magazine named him "Winemaker of the Year" in 2001. Germany's leading wine magazine, Wein Gourmet, in 2004 named Clendenen “Winemaker of the World;” and in 2007, Jim was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.”
The vineyards: Au Bon Climat sources fruit from several of the most highly regarded vineyards in the Central Coast. These include Clendenen’s own Le Bon Climat Vineyard and estate plantings at the legendary Bien Nacido Vineyard – both in Santa Maria Valley, Sanford & Benedict Vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills, Los Alamos Vineyard (Santa Barbara County), and San Luis Obispo County's Talley Vineyard.
Bien Nacido Vineyard: The fabled Bien Nacido Vineyard is the primary vineyard source for Au Bon Climat wines. Located at the northern end of California's Santa Barbara County, the Bien Nacido vineyard produces internationally renowned Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines from more than 40 different producers. Bien Nacido is made up of over 900 acres of vines, nestled in a canyon twenty miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Though the ocean can be viewed only from the hills surrounding the vineyards, the influence of the sea is felt in the cool temperatures of the Santa Maria AVA. Warm days and cool nights combine with soils composed of gravel and calciferous clay to produce wines with a unique and much sought-after character.
Le Bon Climat: In 1998 Jim Clendenen purchased 100 acres in Sisquoc along the south side of the Sisquoc River and directly across the Santa Maria Valley from Bien Nacido (and the same distance from the Pacific Ocean). It was comprehensively planted, with drainage installed in the soil, Riparia Gloire rootstock to reduce vigor, drip irrigation, and 1600 vines per acre of carefully selected plant material. The vineyard is situated primarily on hill tops (an additional 11 acres were planted in 2006 & 2007 along the valley floor), with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Viognier as the original plantings. Le Bon Climat is farmed organically and has been certified organic since 2003.
Le Bon Climat is on southern border of the Santa Maria Valley AVA, overlooking the Santa Maria River. The cool Pacific Ocean air runs right up the Valley to Le Bon Climat. Most days the breeze from the ocean is evident before noon. The day time highs seldom get above 85⁰F and most days the highs are around the mid-seventies. Le Bon Climat was planted in 1997 with low vigor rootstock in poor soil. This combination of factors destined this vineyard to be slow growing and low yielding. Growing and ripening top notch Pinot requires keeping the tons per acre within balance. The soil, clone and rootstock combination at Le Bon Climat produces two tons per acre average, which is small. The yields are poor, but the quality is sublime. Most of the vineyard is planted with clone 667 Pinot Noir, with some 777, 115, 2A and even a little Mt. Eden clone.Chardonnay The Chardonnay GrapeUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Central Coasthttp://www.ccwinegrowers.org/links.html
http://www.discovercaliforniawines.com/regional-wine-organizations/
http://beveragetradenetwork.com/en/btn-academy/list-of-winegrowers-association-in-central-coast-california-274.htm
Central Coast AVA WikipediaSanta Maria Valley Santa Maria Valley Wine Country Association | Santa Maria Valley Wine Trail |
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