Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Los Alamos Vineyard 2015
In the Fall of 2018 I took a trip to Santa Barbara, CA to visit a few selective wineries and taste some of their current offerings, particularly the Rhone blends. There were four of us tasting wines and my comments, on each of the wines tasted, incorporate nuances from everyone’s palate. It was a great trip, the wines were outstanding and the folks I met at each of the wineries were extremely informative, helpful and very generous with their time. The wineries have “Wine Clubs” which offer some tremendous, small production, wines that can only be obtained directly from the vineyard. I recommend to try a “Club”, click this “WineClubLink” to go to their site. I highly recommend a trip to Santa Barbara, you will not be disappointed! Keep checking back with SippingFineWine.com for all of the wineries visited, wines tasted and comments regarding the wines, wineries and folks I met.
Au Bon Climat has made Pinot Noir in Santa Barbara County for 30 years, and winemaking philosophy and winemaking practices have been relatively constant, except for upgrading equipment and technology. They still hand pick and sort heavily in the vineyard, use open top fermenters allowing “punch down” by hand. Their top Pinot Noirs are never pumped, only moved by gravity and age these in new French Oak. Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir is basically the same since 1982.
A lively Pinot Noir with big blue fruit aromas and some sweet spice, aged for 2 years on French oak, 25% new. On the palate sweet dark berry fruits with cacao and cola notes, nice mouthfeel. Soft tannins, easy drinking now, lingering ending with a fruit character. Nice! Tasting Sample!
Cheers!