United States · Santa Cruz & Bay

Au Bon Climat

Santa Barbara County winery making vineyard-designated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in a Burgundian style since 1982, founded by Jim Clendenen at Bien Nacido vineyard.

The producer

Au Bon Climat sits in Santa Barbara County, where the coastal mountain ranges angle east-west rather than north-south, pulling Pacific fog and cold air deep into the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez valleys. That geography keeps summer temperatures low enough for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to ripen slowly, holding acidity through ripening. Jim Clendenen co-founded the winery in 1982 with Adam Tolmach inside a shared facility at Bien Nacido vineyard, producing the first bottles on a small budget in a county the wine trade had not yet taken seriously. Over four decades, Clendenen farmed roughly 168 acres across owned and leased parcels, sourced from Bien Nacido, Sanford and Benedict, Nielsen, Los Alamos, Sierra Madre, and Le Bon Climat, and built production to around 40,000 cases a year.

The range is structured around vineyard designation: county-level Pinot Noir and Chardonnay serve as the entry tier, and individual parcels are bottled separately when the fruit justifies it. For Chardonnay, sur-lie barrel ageing adds clove and nutmeg behind the primary citrus and stone fruit, with a lemon-lime edge at the finish that keeps the wine from reading as heavy. The Pinot Noirs are built on the Burgundian model: moderate body, a clean acid line, and red fruit shaped by the cool marine-influenced season. Clendenen died in his sleep on May 15, 2021, at age 68, survived by his children Isabelle and Knox. The winery continues under the family name.

Known for

Vineyard-designated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Santa Barbara County's cool transverse valleys

Notable facts

The story

A Good Climate

In 1982, Jim Clendenen and Adam Tolmach set up inside a shared facility at Bien Nacido vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley and chose a name before they had bottled a single wine. Au Bon Climat is French for "a good climate," which was a claim rather than a description: a direct argument that the transverse valleys of Santa Barbara County, where Pacific fog pushes inland through gaps in the coastal mountains and keeps summer temperatures low enough for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to ripen slowly, were serious wine country. The California wine establishment had not reached that conclusion. Clendenen and Tolmach printed the name on the label anyway, produced their first wines on what Clendenen later described as a shoestring budget, and spent the next four decades making the argument that the name was correct. By the time Clendenen died in 2021, the county's international standing for Burgundian varietals was established, and the winery he built was producing at scale across the vineyard network he had developed parcel by parcel over forty years.

A Good Climate

In 1982, Jim Clendenen and Adam Tolmach set up inside a shared facility at Bien Nacido vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley and chose a name before they had bottled a single wine. Au Bon Climat is French for "a good climate," which was a claim rather than a description: a direct argument that the transverse valleys of Santa Barbara County, where Pacific fog pushes inland through gaps in the coastal mountains and keeps summer temperatures low enough for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to ripen slowly, were serious wine country. The California wine establishment had not reached that conclusion. Clendenen and Tolmach printed the name on the label anyway, produced their first wines on what Clendenen later described as a shoestring budget, and spent the next four decades making the argument that the name was correct. By the time Clendenen died in 2021, the county's international standing for Burgundian varietals was established, and the winery he built was producing at scale across the vineyard network he had developed parcel by parcel over forty years.

From the atlas

Au Bon Climat

At A Glance

The Producer

Au Bon Climat is a Santa Barbara County winery that has spent four decades making the case in the glass that California's Central Coast can produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on Burgundian terms: measured acidity, proportioned fruit, and enough depth to age. Jim Clendenen co-founded it in 1982 with Adam Tolmach at the Bien Nacido vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, on a small budget, in a county the wine trade had not yet taken seriously. The winery's name is French for "a good climate," which was less a marketing phrase than a declaration of geographic confidence.

Clendenen farmed roughly 168 acres across owned and leased parcels, sourced from a rotating cast of the county's most sought-after vineyards, and built production to around 40,000 cases a year. He was a founding member of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association and Vintners Foundation, spending as much energy on the region's collective reputation as on his own label. He died in his sleep on the night of May 15, 2021, at age 68, survived by his children Isabelle and Knox. The winery continues under the family name.

Place

Santa Barbara County sits at the southern end of California's Central Coast, where something unusual happens to the geography. The coastal mountain ranges, which run north-south along most of California's coastline, here angle east-west. The Pacific Ocean does not simply brush the coast; it pushes directly inland through gaps in the mountains, carrying fog and cold air deep into the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez valleys. The growing season runs longer and cooler than most of coastal California, with warm afternoons checked by marine air arriving in the early evening.

For Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, two grapes that lose their defining acidity quickly in heat, this transverse valley geography is consequential. Grapes ripen slowly, holding acid through the growing season. Labels from Au Bon Climat's named vineyards carry Santa Barbara County or, in some cases, the more specific Santa Maria Valley appellation, anchoring the bottles to this coastal geography.

Soil And Site

The named vineyards from which Au Bon Climat draws fruit sit across Santa Barbara County's cooler inland corridors. Bien Nacido, in the Santa Maria Valley, is the oldest of these relationships and the site where the winery was physically founded in 1982. Sanford and Benedict, Nielsen, Los Alamos, Sierra Madre, and Le Bon Climat are the other contracted parcels that supply fruit for single-vineyard and county-level bottlings. The county's soils vary across these sites, but the shared characteristic is the cool marine influence that slows ripening and keeps natural acidity in the grapes through harvest.

Story

In 1982, Clendenen and Tolmach set up inside a shared facility at Bien Nacido, one of the Santa Maria Valley's largest vineyard properties, and produced their first wines. The regional argument was not obvious to buyers at the time. Santa Barbara County was known mostly as a warm coastal destination; the idea that its inland valleys could produce wines comparable in proportion and acidity to Burgundy took time to prove through accumulated vintages and growing critical attention.

Clendenen spent the following four decades sourcing from the county's best parcels, building institutional relationships through the Vintners Association, and travelling internationally to place Santa Barbara County on buyers' maps alongside the French regions it was being compared to. A secondary label, Clendenen Family Vineyards, was created in 2000 to cover more personal projects and additional varieties outside the main Au Bon Climat range. By the time Clendenen died in 2021, the county's international standing for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay was established, and the winery he built was producing at scale across the vineyard network he had spent decades developing.

Vineyards And Cellar

The range draws from 68 owned acres and approximately 100 acres of leased or controlled land, spread across named parcels in the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding areas. The parcel-level sourcing is central to how Au Bon Climat builds its range: individual vineyards are bottled separately when the fruit justifies it, giving the wines a specific address rather than a blended county character.

For Chardonnay, sur-lie barrel ageing is confirmed across the range. The extended lees contact adds a spice layer, with clove and nutmeg appearing behind the primary citrus and stone fruit character, and it builds a fuller texture without pushing the wine into heavily oaked California Chardonnay territory. The Pinot Noir approach follows the same parcel logic, with the county's cool, slow-ripening conditions doing the fundamental work of preserving acidity and proportion before the cellar handles the rest.

Wines

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the two pillars, and both are structured around the same vineyard hierarchy. The county-level bottlings, labelled Santa Barbara County, serve as the entry tier, drawing from across the contracted parcel network. Above those sit the single-vineyard cuvées, each bottle carrying the name of its source: Bien Nacido, Sanford and Benedict, Nielsen, Los Alamos, Sierra Madre, and Le Bon Climat appear across the range depending on vintage and allocation.

The Chardonnays show citrus and stone fruit at the core, with the sur-lie ageing adding clove and nutmeg in the background and a lemon-lime sharpness at the finish. The Pinot Noirs are built on the Burgundian model: moderate body, acidity that lifts rather than dominates, and a fruit profile shaped by the cool marine-influenced season. The Clendenen Family Vineyards label, established in 2000, covers varieties and projects outside the main range, giving Clendenen's more personal winemaking interests a separate address.

In The Glass

The Santa Barbara County Chardonnay opens with citrus and stone fruit, peach and lemon sitting forward, with the sur-lie barrel ageing introducing clove and nutmeg as secondary notes behind the primary fruit. On the palate the wine is fuller than its acidity suggests, with the lees texture adding weight to a mid-palate that stays bright rather than heavy. The finish carries a lemon-lime zest that keeps it from feeling broad. The Pinot Noirs, shaped by the same cool transverse-valley climate, run moderate in body with a clean acid line through the mid-palate. The fruit reads red rather than black: cherry, cranberry, and dried rose at the aromatic level, with a firmness at the finish that reflects the slow-ripening season rather than any aggressive extraction. Both ranges reward ageing, the acidity carrying the wines past the first few years.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Santa Barbara County Chardonnay. It is the entry tier, but it carries the full character of what makes Au Bon Climat worth tracking: slow-ripened fruit from the coastal valleys, sur-lie barrel ageing for texture and spice, and an acid line that keeps the wine proportioned from first pour to finish. Citrus and stone fruit on the nose, clove and nutmeg in the background, a lemon-lime edge at the close. It does not taste like the broad, heavily oaked California Chardonnay that dominated the market in the decade when Clendenen founded the winery. That contrast is the point.

Anecdote

The name came first. When Clendenen and Tolmach were setting up their shared facility at Bien Nacido in 1982, they chose "Au Bon Climat," French for "a good climate," before they had produced a single bottle. It was a claim rather than a description, a direct argument that the transverse valleys of Santa Barbara County, where Pacific fog pushes inland through gaps in the coastal mountains and keeps summer temperatures low enough for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to ripen slowly, were serious wine country. The California wine establishment had not reached that conclusion yet. Clendenen and Tolmach printed the name on the label anyway, and spent the next four decades making the argument that the name was correct.

Final Word

Au Bon Climat is the label that built its county's case through the bottle rather than through marketing. Jim Clendenen spent forty years proving that Santa Barbara County's transverse valley geography could produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with genuine acidity, proportion, and depth. The wines carry that argument in the glass: cool-climate fruit, measured oak, and an acid line. The winery continues under the family name.

Sources

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