2019 Au Bon Climat, Larmes de Grappe, Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills, California, USA
About this WINE
Au Bon Climat
The late Jim Clendenen founded Au Bon Climat (ABC) in 1982. He became famous for making pioneering wines from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on California’s Central Coast. He passed away in 2021 and is remembered as one of the most charismatic and influential people of his vinous generation.
Jim’s passion for wine was born from a trip to Burgundy in the mid-1970s when he studied Law at UC Santa Barbara. During subsequent visits, his enthusiasm for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grew, and he became convinced that the Californian hills were capable of something special with these two noble varieties.
Au Bon Climat translates as “a well-exposed vineyard”, a name that suits the vineyards’ coastal position, with its benevolent Pacific fog and cooling breeze. Making the most of these conditions, ABC buy clones from Burgundy. This contributes to creating wines that emulate Europe’s restraint and finesse but with a magic touch of New World flair.
The vineyards ABC source their grapes from read as a ‘who’s who’ of Central Coast vineyards. Bien Nacido and Jim’s “Le Bon Climat” are the most significant contributors. The influence of the Pacific can be felt standing in the canyon of Bien Nacido, where the warm days and cool nights characterise this superb terroir. Le Bon Climat, in contrast, consists of mainly hilltop vineyards which were certified organic in 2003.
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
A truly special, whole cluster selection from the Sanford & Benedict vineyard, the Larmes de Grappe (or ‘tears of the whole cluster’), was again superb in 2019. The wine has a very intense, deep nose full of complex, rich fruit. The perfume is astonishing, open, fresh and quite intoxicating.
The palate is concentrated and multi-layered yet is still restrained and shy at this stage, whilst the finish is fragrant and refreshing yet leaves an elegant, savoury line lingering alongside the sweet, ripe raspberry fruit—pure loveliness.
Drink 2025 - 2044
Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd
Here, the Santa Ynez Valley creates a channel to the Pacific Ocean, drawing in the cool air and forming an ideal growing climate for Pinot Noir. Strikingly expressive and complex. Noticeably more herbal than the rest of the line-up - defined notes of rosemary and thyme backed by cranberry and spice. It’s still brilliantly covered in ABC’s signature—lots of sweet red cherry and berry fruit. The generous fruit profile is backed by excellent acidity and fine tannins.
Drink 2024 - 2036+
Charlie Leech, Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd
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