Why do you hate my marriage so much, Chris?
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Speaking of being ITB, I made wine with Jim for about 20 years under the Ici/La-Bas label. We made Oregon and Anderson Valley Pinot Noir and Anderson valley Chardonnay.
I also used to import French bottles. When I was getting out of that business, I cut Jim and Bob Lindquist a deal on magnums, 3L and 5L bottles. Did Jim love the larger bottles or what!! He loved taking them to trade shows.
The giant bottles always made an impression.
So, with Ici la Bas each partner got 120 bottles of each wine…anything under ten tons meant we lost money!
I drank and gave mine away but Jim still had a lot when he died. So I am helping out and working on a plan to unleash older bottles of ILB going back to 1993.There are over 200 cs of magnums alone.
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I’m thinking to myself “that sounds oddly familiar”
@Chris_Seiber was that your bottle
- 1992 Ici/La-Bas Pinot Noir La Cagoule - USA, Oregon (5/17/2024)
Book Club (Water Grill): Blind: guessed “awesomeness” and I was right. Knew it was Pinot but wrestled with France or California. I suspected it might be even older than the color revealed. When Chris said it was a California wine made with Oregon grapes I figured it had to be a Jim Clendennan wine because who else would do that?
Light bricking led me to think early 2000’s but 1992? Fantastic. Red berries and rhubarb. The acid it fairly high, must be holding this together. Seems like there’s whole cluster here but how knows. Very good balance. Impressive wine. Great experience.
Posted from CellarTracker
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Sounds great Mel! That bottle of ici/la-bas you shared at dinner last year was special, and I hope we can do a repeat one of these days. Happy holidays to you and all.
Vince,
At looks as though I will be sharing more even more wine!
Chris and Brig: was that bottle tasted just this year?? Not much was made that year… We expanded the following.
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Yes, May 2024
Ten bottles left!
Those La Cagoule wines provided the best two pinot memories I have. I still have several of the (now empty) wooden six pack boxes. Stoller Vyd maybe, though the label didn’t say and the sourcing could change with the year. Records show $24.41 per bottle, including tax. The '95 Les Révélés jumped 53 cents.
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We made wine from the Montinore vineyard near Gaston from 1992 until 2002, when the new owner realized we had been getting their best fruit at a steal price.
In 1995 we learned that Cagoule was a French fascist group in the thirties so we changed the name.
@CJ_Beazley - Looks like Justin P did answer, but confirming shipping to TX can be done through shipping partner Rare Storage - linked here. Free transfer from K&L warehouse to them. It is unfortunately not super speedy as it goes by refrigerated truck first then handed off to UPS or FedEx, but it is indeed doable.
K&L had a case of “1991 Au Bon Climat Clendenen-Tolmach Vineyard Chardonnay” earlier. It’s sold out now, but does anybody know anything about this bottling? There isn’t an entry on CT for it.
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I told myself I was done buying for awhile, but I had to spring for a few magnums, especially since I have an order at K&L pending pickup anyways…
Went with 1x 2005 Talley Rincon PN, 1x 2008 Los Alamos PN, and 1x 2009 S&B Pinot Noir.
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This wine was sourced from Bien Nacido’s K Block which was planted in 1973.
Prior to releasing the wines to K&L, some of the present winery staff tasted through all of the wines and made notes. This chardonnay was showing really good at that time and is recommend to be drunk soon.
I might add, the known stellar vintages of 2001 and 2005 are now amended to also include 2006 and 2011, the latter being a cold vintage that was not considered to be all that great but is now showing lots of acidity and getting some love.
Jim and I drank tons of his 2005s of his wines across the board, and all were stupendous then and even better now, especially the Nebbiolo, IMHO.
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I think it may also have to do with the insane yields that some vineyards achieved. One SMV pinot I had was harvested at 1 ton/acre. It was way dense.
Wow. I just did a Pobega on a bottle from a Sanford & Benedict Pinot stash I just picked up from K&L store.
The 06 is just singing. Luscious pluot fruit, zippy acids, and gorgeous ruby color. So freaking fresh. Silky texture. There’s definitely a bit of bottle sweetness but structure tames it. No brown sugar at all. No way you place this as 18-year-old California Pinot.
S&B really got me into Pinot back in the day … the sandalwood and succulent fruit. @Blake_Brown might know why the ownership and management of these special vines went sideways …
This bottle really took me back in time. These library releases of absolutely perfect provenance (Jim’s cellar!) are such a treat and value! If you like California Pinot, you will be remiss not to buy a few bottles.
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Eek!
Long story about Richard Sanford. Nice human. Visionary. First to plant Pinot in SRH.
The business side of owning a winery was a challenge.
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There is a Levy Dalton podcast with Richard Sanford for those of you who want the whole story.
For a while the vineyard was owned by a Londoner named Richard Atkins. He staged a tasting at his home of every wine made from that vineyard sometimes in the late '90s. The wines were really magnificent.
Stella McCartney lived/lives across the street and that was the day Paul was knighted so we all got to watch Paul talking to the press.
Jasper Morris has a great story about arriving at the tasting with Clendenen.
Years earlier I took an English wine writer Andrew Barr around the Central Coast. His comment was that it seemed impossible to make bad wine with S and B grapes.
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As Brig states, the business side went south and eventually Richard lost control and was moved out when he held to his true devotion to being organic and sustainable, principles he started out with that were good in most vintages, but not for a few of the challenging ones which most others chose to make some counter decisions as was true for Jim Clendenen.
He has been able to move on and craft some fine wines under his Alma Rosa label, but not without a lot of stress and ensuing health issues. In my mind, he held to his virtues which is to be commended, but business is business and in this case, the bank took over.
Richard Sanford is one fine person who will be long revered and remembered in the Santa Barbara area. Here’s more: Visionary Vintner - The Santa Barbara Independent
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Massive thread drift but great Sanford story. The warden and I went to the tasting room at the original Alma Rosa tasting room. Super cool place, had that whole Santa Fe Adobe vibe going on.
We walk in and we’re the only people there but Chris the tasting room manager, from sideways movie, and Richard are standing behind the bar. Oh damn. Chris gets us started and Richard sticks around. Just light chitchatting and basic questions about the wines. Very casual.
Then a guy walks in and says “Are you Richard Sanford? My name is Joe Blow”. Richard politely says “Sounds familiar, where do I know that name from?”. The guys responds "I raced against you in the 1984 Transpac (Transpacific Yacht Race - Long Beach to Honolulu)
The two of them start telling sailing stories and reminiscing about the racing days.
It was spectacular.
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Just had a bottle of the 2001 Sanford & Benedict Pinot. Happy to confirm that it’s also singing and still has lots of life. Visually browning, nose largely tertiary, but surprisingly vibrant palate.
This might be one of the best value wine purchases I’ve ever made, especially considering its provenance. Should’ve gotten more. (Edit: I got more.)
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