Au Bon Climat’s Clendenen
When you meet a striking personality, you are inclined to think of
other striking personalities. And while Jim Clendenen and Ernest Hemingway are
probably not all that similar, they certainly have a few things in common.
Namely, an affinity for France; a direct, no-holds-barred
conversational style; and a certain passion for wine.
“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of
the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest
perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than,
possibly, any other purely sensory thing,” said Hemingway.
Hemingway’s point of view pretty much sums up a recent visit with
Jim Clendenen, owner of Au Bon Climat, a winery in the northern end of Santa
Barbara County and directly opposite the famed Bien Nacido vineyard.
It is that zeal for bringing wine to its greatest perfection that
drives Clendenen’s approach to winemaking.
When asked about his philosophy, simply put, he answered, “Balance,
tradition, history.”
Clendenen is unequivocal about his style and resolute about
defending traditional, historical ways of winemaking.
“The philosophy’s always the same. Wine is all about balance,
elegance, finesse. The higher the quality of the wine, the more of those
attributes it possesses,” he said.
Not one to mince words, Clendenen speaks right to the point when
asked about the current paradigm of blacker fruit, lower acidity, higher
alcohol, and sweeter appearance that many critically-popular wines follow.
As I watched him prepare a full 7-course Indian lunch, grabbing a
myriad of spices from a chaotic kitchen larder, he described the dilemma.
“Nobody wants a wine that is so fruity and jammy, that it can’t
possibly go with anything. You see, my cooking involves vinegar, lemon, salt,
spice. All those things are the antipathy of something that can coëxist with
high alcohol and low acidity. Those things just don’t go together at all,”
explained Clendenen.
Being sometimes considered “out of fashion” from a critic’s point
of view is not as important to Clendenen as being true to classical styles of
winemaking.
When asked if he ever felt a need to accommodate current popular
points of view, his response was emphatic.
“Nope. Never. Goodness gracious, no. Everybody else changes. Not
us. We’re leaders. And sometimes you lead by going backwards,” he said.
“When things became more a question of obviously big alcohol or
small alcohol, we went the other way. We went even lower. Just to make sure we
had a clearer gap. So, if people actually understood what was going on, then
they could focus on us as an alternative,” he explained.
“If you like the
wines, more power to you. I certainly do. If you say they’re too high in acid,
too green, well, that’s my choice.”
But clearly, there are plenty of avid followers that share his
contrarian point of view.
From its beginnings in 1982 with 1600 cases of wine, Au Bon Climat
has grown to over 100,000 cases annually and plenty of accolades from around
the world.
A recent acknowledgment was his induction into the prestigious
James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America” in 2007.
It has been a long road since Clendenen first volunteered on the
bottling line for Fred Brander to get his start in the wine industry in the
late 1970’s, following a pre-law degree from UC Santa Barbara.
By 1982, he was picking his own grapes and launched the business.
Over the next eight years, he and his then-partner had no employees and only
themselves to rely on.
But, by 1991, ABC’s growth and success meant building a team that
could help Clendenen achieve his vision. He was fortunate to make some great
choices early on.
Choices like Jim Edelman, winemaker, and Enrique Rodriguez, cellar
master, both of whom he credits as keys to the success of the business.
“I hired Jim Edelman
in 1991, and now he is every bit as good a winemaker as I am, probably a better
winemaker. He just has different ideas of how to achieve things. I feel better
about the wine Jim has supervised since ’05 here than any period of time in the
company,” he said.
By 2001, Clendenen’s vineyards started to bear the best fruit. It
was a combination of devigorating rootstock, increasing density, establishing a
vertical trellis system, and farming organically.
“All of the sudden, we had balanced grapes with low pH and firm
acidity, all the alcohol we wanted, and we didn’t have to do anything to it.
All we had to do was to extract it properly,” explained Clendenen.
Now, Clendenen believes more of the work happens in the vineyard,
not in the cellar.
“Starting in ’01, I didn’t have to add acid, sugar, water or yeast
to any cuvee of red wine that I fermented. That’s the goal: to get back there
every time,” he said.
“We didn’t have to do anything in ’05. In ’06 and ’07, there were
very minor adjustments on any level. This is what separates great farming from
poor farming.”
“One thing you can rest assured, the grapes as they come in from
the field are exactly reflected in the flavors of the wine,” said Clendenen.
When Clendenen is not travelling, he spends a part of his day
preparing lunch for all the employees and any occasional guests. It’s a daily
ritual that Clendenen firmly believes in.
”It’s what they do in France. It’s just a civilized thing. We have
a lifestyle in this business. I’m happy with my life and lifestyle, and I’m
happy to share it.”
And share it, he did.
We started off with a full panoply of flavors: lamb curry,
potatoes and okra, red beans and lentils - just to name a few of the dishes he
labored over. Spread along the long family-style table was a wide variety of
wines, including two first-class Pinot Noirs affectionately named after his
children, Isabelle and Knox Alexander.
The proof of everything he espoused was brought to bear in that
meal.
The wines sweetened in the mouth and became caramelized by the
contrasts in the highly-spiced flavors of the dishes. Everything we sampled at
the table just expanded.
There may have been some mutual agreement that the 2006 Riesling
from the Clendenen Family Vineyards label was the best match to the meal, but
maybe that was just my opinion.
One thing was certain, Jim Clendenen’s wines change completely and
come into their own when paired with the right food.
And that’s what
wine has traditionally, and historically, been meant to do.