Bien Nacido Estate

Bien Nacido Estate is the most historically consequential and most critically cited single vineyard source in Santa Barbara County. The Miller family's Santa Maria Valley property — situated on land that has been continuously farmed under Spanish and American ownership since 1837 land grant origins — planted the Bien Nacido Vineyard in 1973 and inadvertently created what became the most universally referenced and most critically lauded single vineyard source in the entire Central Coast wine landscape.

The Bien Nacido Vineyard name appears on the most celebrated and most critically recognized Pinot Noir and Chardonnay expressions produced by Au Bon Climat, Qupé, Byron, Foxen, and dozens of other Santa Barbara County and California producers who have sourced Bien Nacido fruit for their most prestigious designate wines. When Jim Clendenen, Bob Lindquist, and the founding generation of Santa Barbara County's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay winemakers wanted to demonstrate what the Santa Maria Valley's cool-maritime growing environment could produce, they looked to Bien Nacido Vineyard as the most credible and most individually expressive single source available.

The Miller family's own Bien Nacido Estate label — producing estate Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, and the proprietary blends from their most prized vineyard blocks — provides the most directly vineyard-identity-estate-specifically-Miller-family-personally conducted appointment available from the most historically consequential Santa Barbara County vineyard source. Visiting the Bien Nacido Estate is the closest any wine lover can get to the vineyard whose name appears on so many of California's most celebrated Central Coast cool-climate wines.