2021 Au Bon Climat - Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Ynez Valley (750ml)

Au Bon Climat was founded by the late Jim Clendenen, often called the godfather of Santa Barbara County wine, who applied Burgundian techniques to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and helped win the region international recognition. The winery has sourced grapes from Sanford & Benedict, planted in 1971 and regarded as the county's first great vineyard, every year since the mid-1980s.

The vineyard's hard chert-gravel mantle over deep, well-drained soils, combined with cool Pacific influence, is ideal for Pinot Noir. Grapes for this wine come from an old vine, own-rooted section, hand-picked in the early morning on September 22 and kept cold for a long soak and slow fermentation. About half of the fruit was fermented as whole clusters. The wine then spent 20 months in François Frères French oak barrels, 50 percent new, and was bottled without fining or filtration at 13.5 percent alcohol.

Reticent at first, it opens with air to perfumed red and black cherries, dried cranberries, star anise, and cedar. The silky, nuanced palate layers spice through the fruit, with lip-smacking acidity driving a long finish.