Lightning Strikes Twice! Au Bon Climat Library Wines Coming to K&L

A few years ago, I was absolutely honored to be able to purchase the incredible 45-vintage-deep library of wines from Calera Vineyards. It was one of the most monumental projects of my 13 years here at K&L, and a humbling experience to be able to taste through so many wines that have helped to shape the California wine industry as we know it today. Josh Jensen was a visionary and a dedicated vigneron. I was thrilled to be able to share his life's work with you, our customers. On that note I'm pleased to say that today we have another historic offering to bring to you. 

Late last year I attended the annual World of Pinot Noir event in Santa Barbara. This incredible gathering brings top Pinot Noir producers together from all over the world to celebrate the world's most fickle, but also most alluring grape. A series of seminars, lunches, and social gatherings culminates with two enormous grand tastings, showcasing more wines under one roof than I've ever seen. (It's really quite intimidating!) While hopping from table-to-table tasting dozens and dozens of wines, I saw some unmistakable bottles on a table at the far edge of the room—Au Bon Climat! I slid on over and started tasting through the wines that had long been personal favorites of mine and staples at K&L for many decades. In conversation with the folks pouring the wines, the recent K&L purchase and offering of the Calera Library came up. Next thing I know, Michael Meluskey the GM says, "Well we have a pretty decent-sized library that we would be interested in offering to K&L." Uh, YEAH! We talked about exactly how the process had worked with Calera, and I expressed how excited I would be to sell some library wines from the late great Jim Clendenen, and 10 minutes later we had a handshake agreement that we were gonna do this! 

Over the next few weeks we pored over spreadsheets and inventory lists of wines ranging all the way back to the first wine released by Au Bon Climat: the 1982 Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir. For those of you who knew Jim, or have heard the many epic stories about his life and personality, it will probably come as no surprise that the depth and breadth of this library was quite overwhelming with 500+ different wines and many different size formats. Jim was not a guy to be conservative about trying new things, working with different varietals, vineyard sources, experimental cuvées, and such. After some whittling down, the team at Au Bon Climat and I put together a list of around 200 wines to taste and assess.

So, back in July I headed down to the modest-yet-storied winery nestled among the vines at Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria Valley. In between the tanks and barrel stacks in the winery, several tables were groaning under the weight of the bottles neatly arranged for us to taste throughout the day. I was lucky enough to taste alongside longtime right-hand man/winemaker Jim Adelman, and also winemakers Marc Piro and Sarah Atwood. And, for an extra treat, Isabelle, Jim's daughter and now co-owner with her brother Knox, also joined us to taste through the wines. It was so fantastic to have such a depth of knowledge at my disposal to learn abut the wines as we tasted them. A dozen or so wines in it became very clear that the vast majority of the wines had held up superbly! From the very early days Jim has always made the wines with longevity in mind and it showed time and time again. Flights of Knox and Isabelle Pinots (the flagship bottlings) showed incredibly well across every vintage we tasted. Great Pinots from Talley Vineyard, Mt. Carmel, Sanford & Benedict, Bien Nacido, Los Alamos—and even some from further afield, like Elke Vineyard in Anderson Valley and a 1999 Oregon Pinot Noir—really impressed. The 2001s were highlighted across several wines, as were the 2006s. Several hours into tasting and we had only found a handful of wines that weren't excellent. The consistency of how the wines had aged was mind blowing. As my notes became less and less coherent, it was a great time to break for lunch. The team at Au Bon Climat has a treasured and long-running tradition of all sitting down together every day to share a staff meal. Fun, eclectic bottles of wine are shared, and conversation is lively and punctuated with laughter. What an incredible legacy Jim left behind at this place—the feeling of warmth and community is palpable. It really was a moving experience to be welcomed at their table and to share in this wonderful ritual. 

After a hearty and delicious lunch it was back to business with a string of Chardonnays from the late 90s (Clos Pepe, Bien Nacido, Talley, Sierra Madre) that all seriously impressed. The Chardonnays from the old blocks at Sanford & Benedict also really shone with life and vibrancy. The way the whites have aged is just incredible—sure they don't taste like new wines, but the development of these wines, some of which are 30+ years old, is magical and absolutely on a par with some of the finest white Burgundy on the planet. Though the vast majority of the wines in this library are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Jim also made incredible Nebbiolo under his Clendenen Family Vineyards label. Sourced from custom planted blocks of Nebbiolo at Bien Nacido and aged for 4-5+ years in large format oak casks, these are some of the finest and most thoughtfully made Nebbiolo wines you'll find outside of Barolo and Barbaresco. At 20 years of age some of these are just hitting their prime! 

All in all, I think about 10 wines from the 200 tasted didn't make the cut. That's a ratio that I think any winemaker would take when we're talking about such a huge range of wines over four decades in the making! I'm sure this can largely be attributed to the excellence and dedication of Jim and his team. It also doesn't hurt that these wines have spent their entire lives in the winery library, laying undisturbed. To be able to offer such a wide and comprehensive range of these incredible wines, with such great provenance is incredibly fulfilling, and I really hope that we can do justice to how remarkable this set of wines is. I want to extend my thanks to Isabelle and Knox for allowing us access to these wines, and to everyone on the team at Au Bon Climat for working with us on this incredible opportunity. And, to those of you considering buying some wines, when you open a bottle and pour a glass, don't forget to toast the legendary Jim Clendenen, "the mind behind" the inimitable wines of Au Bon Climat. Cheers!

- Ryan Woodhouse, K&L Domestic Wine Buyer