We opened two, one each at our two most recent dinners. The first one drew mixed reviews, I think in part because I didn’t shake all the sediment off the cork before standing it up (these were stored upside down, as library wines often are). I’d say you can tell that as an appellation level wine, it wasn’t supposed to last 40 years. Still a great experience to taste the first commercial ABC release if you get a sound bottle.
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Hard to believe there was any 1982 wine left. I tasted the '82 Chardonnay with Jim, Moke and Raj many moons ago. It was one of the last bottles.
These wines were made from a vineyard in Los Alamos where Jim and Adam made wine in an old dairy barn. They used old dairy tanks for fermentation. The grapes had been considered worthless, perhaps because of overcropping.Jim and Adam did the pruning themselves, as I recall, and the results were terrific. Then the vineyard was sold to Corbett Canyon and ABC had to move.
I forget what the clones were but there weren’t many good pinot clones in that area back then.
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It seemed like it was the 1982 Santa Barbara County Pinot specifically that had significant inventory left. If you look at the list in the original post, everything else was from the 90s and later.
Thanks for the additional details and backstory!
Jim was a hoarder.
He often didn’t trade in a car but kept it. His house looked like a used car lot.
You’d show up at his house and wonder who else was visiting.
Nobody.
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It should be added Mel, Jim’s cars weren’t just another car, they were exceptional model of high end Mercedes in most cases and amazing deals he finagled with pride and glee.
Using one of his special deals, his cross country treks with dear friend Tom Black form Nashville, were replete with one of kind wine tastings and dinners prepared by world renown chefs, most of whom were friends of Jims like Emeril Lagasse, Charlie Trotter, Roy Yamaguchi, Alice Waters, Gary Danko and Thomas Keller.
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My favorite Jim car story:Jim went to a wine charity auction where somebody was offering a Jaguar convertible. One of the people asked Jim to bid, just to get the action moving. Next thing you know, I am driving Jim to Monterey to pick up the car.
Nobody ever really drove the car, and finally Jim gave it away.
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That Jag auction lot was at the Central Coast Wine Classic held in Avila Beach many moons ago. { i have many of the auction catalogues, but am too lazy to look up what year that was, but it was in the 1990s}.
He would always get a table or 2 for the live auctions and our table became an auction lot in itself as we opened some of the best wines wines on the planet and shared pours with others who would venture over throughout the day.
Jim was notorious for holding his paddle up even after he had already reached the winning bid and often he paid a lot more as a result, but it was his heart that spoke up and the CCWC/ Archie McLaren benefited from it for over 30 years.
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I enjoyed the ABC Sanford and Benedict Reserve Chardonnay earlier this week.
It was allI could hope for. Golden in color, still quite alive…I got a good bottle.
And I’ve got one more.
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FYI K&L just reloaded on more library bottles from Au Bon Climat and Clendenen Family Vineyards
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Sigh, here I go again. Reload isn’t really the right word, as I’m still fairly loaded, but more Chardonnays to rare storage.
Alas, 2003 Nuits Blanches that I just popped is pretty well oxidized. Nose was… fino sherry. Palate… also fino sherry. Actually surprisingly OK to drink in the sense that, if I’d been expecting sherry, vin jaune, or similar I would not have immediately dumped the glass. But not what you’re after with this wine.
Leaving it in the fridge open for a couple hours just to make sure there isn’t some bizarre resurrection but not keeping much hope!
Poured it into a decanter for a good look at the color. Shy of iced tea but certainly browner than you’d like!
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Pulled a bottle of 2010 Nuits Blanches as a replacement and it is quite nice. Once again a surprising amount of “fancy” gunflint/matchstick reduction — I get the sense Clendenen was ahead of his time on a lot of stuff, or else he simply stuck to old techniques that have become new again.
Behind the gunflint there’s a huge wallop of spicy citrus, golden apple, a tiny bit of oak but really not much, especially given what I know about the barrel program on this wine.
On the palate this thing is huge and broad flavor wise although the body is actually probably moderate plus rather than genuinely full or plus. (Like significantly lighter body than a recent youngish bottle of Kumeu Mate’s as a random example.) But flavor concentration is off the charts, definitely ripe and in your face but very balanced with mid+ acidity. Spicy orange and lemon, some caramel, gunflint, baked and fresh yellow and red apple (bit of bruised apple but not much), honey, candlewax. And more steely reduction. Honestly the oak is quite integrated to my palate other than as a spicy backdrop, not much by way of vanilla character. Long finish.
Drinking well. Probably will not win friends with those who are die hard Chablis drinkers but for those with catholic tastes in Chardonnay a very nice glass.
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I was finally able to get in on the action while visiting SF on business the week before last. Liked it a lot and brought one home.
- 2001 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir La Bauge Au-dessus - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley (6/4/2025)
This pours light ruby in the glass with faint bricking. Wonderful color for the age. The nose just leaps from the glass in a glorious blaze of orange peel, pomegranate, red cherry, raspberry, cranberry, cardamom, mushroom, and woodsy undergrowth. The palate enters on the large scaled and focused fruit, with medium minus dusty tannin, and medium plus acid. The finish lingers nicely showing a lovely blood orange note and the lovely red fruit of the nose. All in all, I was seriously taken by this wine. It's absolutely fabulous, centred on it's core of ripe but fresh fruit. The complexity beyond that is modest, but enjoyable and the mouthfeel and finish are great. This is an absurd value for $40 USD. (93 points)
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Having been though a handful of these now, I’m coming to the conclusion that these really aren’t 20 year wines, by in large, and I’m really not understanding any comparisons to Burgundy — most of the ones I’ve tasted so far have been “solidly CA” and most have their peak already in their rearviews — this '01 Sanford & Benedict is a perfect example:
2001 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (3/17/2025)
– decanted 45 min. before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over 3 hrs –
NOSE: tertiary; red-fruited; odd rotting foliage aspect; medium to medium+ expressiveness; light raisined/tawny edge; even at the 3 hrs open mark, the off-putting scent remains — it’s not bottle funk that blows off, but rather some oxidation, apparently.
BODY: ruby colored core, with bricking throughout; color is of shallow to medium-shallow depth; lots of fine sediment on sides of bottle; cork barely soaked, but did break at the point where the corkscrew’s screw ended; {forgot to note weight}
TASTE: tannic and a bit prickly; some sweet oak, and I think the tannins are oak-derived, too; moist forest floor; fading red fruits; tawny/woodsy/nutty edge; medium-low to medium acidity; 13.5% abv pokes through a bit. Paired well with pork chop & mushroom risotto. Enjoyable & good, but on its downslope. Drink Now, preferably with food.
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Brian … I’m in total agreement.
I have had about six different bottles of Pinot from this tranche, most recently a mag of 2009 Sanford and Benedict this weekend.
The wines provide more curiosity and nostalgia than sheer pleasure to me. They read somewhat muted and disappear on the finish.
I really want these to be magic given the maker and provenance. But they are not, based on my sample.
I keep thinking: I would’ve liked to have drunk this bottle 10 years ago … more fruit and lift.
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Recent bottles of the '07 Los Alamos and the '05 Sanford and Benedict hit me the same way. '06 S&B might be the next one I open …
I’ve had a fantastic '92 S&B Chard and a rather worn out '91 Santa Barbara Chard.
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As I said upthread, I’ve enjoyed the chards more than the pinots. I will say the blue label (Isabelle/Knox) pinots have been quite good including an excellent 2004 Isabelle recently. The slightly less impressive showings have been the svd pinots, though I don’t think I’ve had one yet that I thought was bad as opposed to just a bit over the hill. The chards have been more variable with lower lows (probably 5 bottles so far that were either totally tired or just plain ox’d) but the highs have been much higher. (And at $35/per on a statistical basis still very good value for money even factoring in a significant loss rate.)
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2005 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Los Alamos Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County (3/26/2025)
– decanted 25 min. before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over a couple hrs. –
NOSE: ripe, high-toned, mouthwatering aromas of rhubarb and red currants; hint of grease; open and expressive.
BODY: very little bit of fine sediment in the bottle; garnet core with light bricking throughout; medium bodied.
TASTE: smooth and soft; aged – tertiary – earthy, a touch leathery, and a light coffee tone; medium+ acidity; 13.5% alc. not noticeable; drinking well, but it is past peak for my preferences; light aged Pinot funk. Drink Now.
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