Au Bon Climat

Au Bon Climat is the most personally Burgundy-philosophy-intellectually-committed and historically Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay founding-significance wine program in California. 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 the most intellectually forceful and most personally Burgundy-conviction-driven advocate 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.

The 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 death in 2021 was mourned throughout the California wine community as the loss of its most intellectually provocative and most personally Burgundy-conviction-forcefully-committed voice. The Au Bon Climat program — now continued by Clendenen's family and team — carries the most historically founding-significance and personally Mind-Behind-the-Wine-intellectual legacy available from any Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay appointment.