Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 2024
Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 2024
AU$100, 13.5% alcohol, cork, Santa Barbara County, California.
This is grown on a number of vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley – the Bien Nacido, North Canyon, Rancho Sisquoc and Rancho Real vineyards among them. The Santa Maria Valley runs, highly unusually, east-to-west as part of California's Transverse Ranges. This unique east-to-west orientation means that the valley faces the Pacific Ocean – which funnels cool air straight along it.
I was lucky enough to visit the Bien Nacido vineyard last year. Apart from marvelling at the vineyard itself, which is both large and exquisite at once, I fell in love with the Bien Nacido Estate wines coming off that vineyard.
I mention this because when I initially tasted this Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 2024, I was tasting it blind. Not double-blind – I knew this wine was on the table – but I didn't know specifically which wine was which. When I first took a sip of this wine though I instantly turned to the person sitting beside me and said: now that’s a lovely wine.
In the US this wine sells, I’m told, in the US$26–36 range. That frankly is incredible buying. If I lived in the US, this would be my house pinot.
It would be because this wine is class from start to finish. My notes say: “the integration here is perfect.” I was referring to oak-fruit integration but the take-the-fruit-by-the-hand nature of the tannin is equally as impressive. It tastes of various berries, dark and red, bright and bass, with crushed flowers and pink peppercorn notes duck-diving both into the wine and rising as highlights. There’s a gentle meatiness in play here too, which is part of what I love about it. This wine is the goods. It’s framed, it’s fruity, it’s cheerful and it’s serious. Au Bon Climat produces more expensive pinot noirs; this wine is meant to be the gateway. But it’s better than that.
93+ points – Campbell Mattinson.
