About Au Bon Climat
Au Bon Climat belongs on a Santa Maria Valley / Santa Barbara itinerary for travelers who like their wine stops to have a clear identity. For Au Bon Climat, the experience is strongest when you slow down, taste comparatively and pay attention to the relationship between the bottles and the surrounding region. Around Au Bon Climat, wine travel in Santa Maria Valley tends to feel more agricultural and less village-centered, rewarding visitors who enjoy vineyard stories and a slower pace. Founded in 1982 by Jim Clendenen, Au Bon Climat became one of California's defining Burgundian-inspired producers.
Vineyard sources matter at Au Bon Climat, so guests should listen for the connection between fruit and style. Because bottles rotate, the lasting reason to taste Au Bon Climat is the perspective behind Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made with restrained, cellar-driven methods. The best way to taste at Au Bon Climat is to let Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made with restrained, cellar-driven methods create a sequence. For Au Bon Climat, begin with the clearest introduction to the house style, then move toward a wine that changes the vineyard, vintage or technique so the differences have context.
Newer drinkers can approach Au Bon Climat through one clear example of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made with restrained, cellar-driven methods before exploring less familiar releases. A second comparison can show how Au Bon Climat handles vintage or vineyard differences within Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made with restrained, cellar-driven methods. Plan Au Bon Climat with the current official hospitality details in hand. For Au Bon Climat, walk-in policies, tasting formats and hours can shift, so verify the address and booking options shortly before travel rather than relying on an older directory or map entry. For a well-paced Santa Barbara itinerary, Au Bon Climat works best as an anchor or meaningful mid-day stop rather than a rushed add-on. For Au Bon Climat, the more curious you are about place and production, the more the visit has to offer.
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Au Bon ClimatAu Bon Climat is a Santa Barbara County producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay built on Burgundian winemaking philosophy, and its founding was a significant moment for those varieties in California.
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Jim Clendenen,Jim Clendenen, the self-styled 'Mind Behind the Wine' who studied Burgundy winemaking traditions in France before establishing Au Bon Climat in 1982 in the shared Bien Nacido Vineyard facility, was a forceful advocate, driven by his Burgundian convictions, for Santa Barbara County's potential to produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of world-class quality at a time when the California wine establishment barely acknowledged Santa Barbara County as a serious wine region.
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The French nameThe French name, Au Bon Climat, meaning 'a well-sited place,' the most precise translation of the Burgundian 'bon climat' concept of an ideally situated vineyard site, declared Clendenen's founding intellectual conviction: Santa Barbara County's cool-maritime climate and diurnally-temperature-swinging growing environments represented the most ideally situated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay growing conditions available in California, and deserved the most Burgundy-philosophy-intellectually-rigorous winemaking attention available.
"Jim Clendenen's 1982 Santa Maria Valley 'well-sited' Burgundy-philosophy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay program."
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Mind Behind the Wine Legacy Appointment
Taste the wines at Au Bon Climat in the Santa Maria Valley. By appointment only, reservations required.
From $35
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