Au Bon Climat's New Tasting Room

The new Au Bon Climat tasting room opened up in downtown Santa Barbara in May of 2011. Au Bon Climat's many fans are thrilled by this news because there is no tasting room at the Au Bon Climat Winery itself, even though there are lots of folks who'd  relish the opportunity to sample the many excellent wines of Au Bon Climat owner and wine maker Jim Clendenen.

 They do open to the public twice a year for a tasting and tour of their facilities--but that only happens twice a year. This is how they explain it on the Au Bon Climat website:

  

Au Bon Climat is not open to the public for tastings or tours. Check this area of our site for announcements of various tasting events, as well as the dates for our semi-Annual Open House events.

 

Held twice a year, the Au Bon Climat Open Houses provide visitors with the opportunity to come visit our winery facility, meet with our winemakers, sample all of our available wines and purchase wines directly from the winery.

 
So it's great that we can now taste Jim Clendenen's wines anytime during their Santa Barbara tasting room's opening hours. Following is a list of what's on offer. First of all they pour a whole range of Pinot Noirs:

 

• Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County (easy-drinking, unpretentious California Pinot)

• Barham Mendelsohn Pinot Noir Russian River Valley (made with grapes from Sonoma County's Russian River Valley)

• Pinot Noir Isabelle (a stately blend of the best fruit from Au Bon Climat's various Central Coast vineyards)

• Pinot Noir Talley "Rincon" (bigger and more intense than Au Bon Climat's usual Burgundian style  Pinot  Noirs)

• Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley "Knox Alexander"  (a lush wine made from 50% Dijon clones and 50% traditional California selections)

• Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley "La Bauge Au-dessus" (a full, rich with plum and warm spice flavors) 

Au Bon Climat is deservedly famous around the world for its fabulous Pinot Noir but, as much as I love their Pinots, my favorite Au Bon Climat wine is their Chardonnay. The following is a list of the white wines they serve at their Santa Barbara tasting room:

 

• Pinot Gris - Pinot Blanc Central Coast (a simple and food-friendly white)

• White Table Wine Santa Maria Valley "Hildegard" (A blend of 55% Pinot Gris, 40% Pinot Blanc and 5% Aligote)

• Chardonnay Santa Barbara County  ("Burgundian in sensibility but with California style")

• Chardonnay XX Anniversary Santa Maria Valley

• Chardonnay Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Rita Hills (This is a wine that I fell in love with at first sip - highly recommended)

The Au Bon Climat   tasting room and Jim Clendenen Wine Library is located In Santa Barbara, at 813 Anacapa St., Suite 5, next to the Wine Cask.

 Visit Eric Hilton's website, http://santabarbarawinetours.org, for more on wine tasting in the Santa Barbara Wine Country