This producer has survived decades of the bigger-is-better wine market in California, away from the spotlight on Napa and Sonoma, quietly carving an iconic place for itself among lovers of wines with subtlety and finesse. Even now, Au Bon Climat sells at much lower prices than the wines of their quintessentially American neighbors to the north.
Au Bon Climat unabashedly aims to produce ‘Burgundian Style’ wines, and although I’m not fond of their (older) Meursault-style whites (I find them secondary-dominant with way too much malo and intrusive oak), the pinots have a delicate and balanced restraint without utterly abandoning fruit. I’ve never tasted better pinot noir from California.
The ‘climat’ may be ‘bon’, but it achieves its results for very different reasons than Burgundy. The Santa Maria and Santa Inez valleys funnel cool sea winds from the cold, California current far inland, and frost is never an issue. Indeed these are maritime terroirs, and it was most clever to recognize their potential back in ’82. Now the vines are fully mature and producing wines that continue to bely their latitude.
Tasting notes online for Au Bon Climat seem out of line with the wines we tasted. Even notes from the winery seem bent on characterizing the wines as much bigger and fatter than they are, but then these critics recommend drinking Au Bon Climat pinot with fish… so which is it?
Tomorrow we will dive deep into the heart of Burgundy, for a week of classes at BIVB and a long list of winery visits, but as we prepare, I can’t help remembering not long ago tasting pinot noirs from AU BON CLIMAT, and frankly I doubt many will taste better. Thanks to ENOTECA TAIWAN for staging this fine introduction. The food at the Grand Hyatt was wonderfully tasty and wonderfully well paired.
