2020 Au Bon Climat Clendenen Family Vineyards Petit Verdot Bien Nacido Santa Maria Valley

Petit Verdot is one of Bordeaux's least understood grapes. In its French homeland, it shows up as a tiny percentage in classic Bordeaux blends — rarely more than 5%, sometimes less — because it ripens so late that French growers can barely get it across the finish line in most vintages. That's why a 100% Petit Verdot bottling is genuinely rare anywhere in the world. Jim Clendenen saw the opportunity differently. In 1994, he leased a plot at the legendary Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, planted it in 2000, and made it all Petit Verdot. The result is one of the most successful Bordeaux variety expressions on California's Central Coast — and one of the most singular bottles in the entire ABC / Clendenen Family lineup.

Clendenen — known across the trade as "the Godfather of Santa Barbara County wine" — founded Au Bon Climat in 1982 and built it into one of California's most respected wineries. The Clendenen Family Vineyards label, launched in 2000, was his "varietal playground": small lots, unusual grapes, no commercial pressure, made with the kind of patience the rest of the industry has mostly abandoned. The 2020 was Jim's final completed vintage before his passing in May 2021. His children Knox and Isabelle now run the operation.

What makes this wine special isn't just the grape — it's the time. Most Napa Cabs spend 18-22 months in barrel. This Petit Verdot spent three full years in 50% new Taransaud French oak (Taransaud is the same elite French cooperage used by Bordeaux First Growths). The extended barrel age softens Petit Verdot's naturally muscular tannins, lets the wine integrate slowly, and builds a complexity you simply can't manufacture with shortcuts. Slow, long fermentation in small open tanks ensures complete extraction. Fined, bottled unfiltered, and made in genuinely tiny quantities.

For US buyers used to Napa Cabernet, this offers a different angle on the Bordeaux family: inky color, deep berry fruit, real structure, but with the cool-climate Santa Maria signature giving it more aromatic lift and food-friendliness than the typical big California red. It's the kind of bottle a sommelier brings out when they want to surprise you.