2021 Au Bon Climat Clendenen Family Vineyards Syrah Viognier Rancho La Cuna Santa Barbara County

This is a wine with a story you'll want to tell. Jim Clendenen — founder of Au Bon Climat, called "the Godfather of Santa Barbara County wine" by the people who knew the region best — passed away in May 2021, at the age of 68. He'd spent four decades quietly putting California's Central Coast on the world wine map.

The 2021 vintage was the last harvest he personally directed. His children, Knox and Isabelle, now run the family operation and continue the project.

Clendenen Family Vineyards was Jim's passion project — launched in 2000 as the "varietal playground" alongside Au Bon Climat's more recognized Pinot Noir and Chardonnay program. It's where he made the wines he wanted to drink: small lots, unusual varieties, no commercial pressure. The Syrah-Viognier is one of the most beloved bottlings in the range. The grapes come from Rancho La Cuna, the 10-acre organically farmed vineyard that sat on Jim's own ranch in the Los Alamos Valley, tucked between the cooler Santa Maria Valley to the north and the warmer Santa Ynez Valley to the south. The location gives the wine the best of both — the dense, expressive fruit of the warmer south, the firm structure and finesse of the cooler north.

The winemaking is straight out of the Northern Rhône playbook. The Syrah and a small amount of Viognier are co-fermented together in a five-ton open-top fermentor — the exact technique used at Côte-Rôtie, where the small dose of white grape gently softens the muscular Syrah tannins and adds an aromatic floral lift. After fermentation, the wine spent 30 months aging in 500-liter Hungarian oak puncheons (50% new) — the longer barrel time builds complexity and integration without piling on heavy new-oak character. It's a wine made with the kind of patience the rest of the industry has mostly given up.

The result is everything Jim believed in: balance, restraint, depth, food-friendliness, and the kind of moderate alcohol that lets you actually enjoy a second glass. For US drinkers who lean Northern Rhône, this is the closest California gets to Côte-Rôtie — at a fraction of the price. For everyone else, it's a chance to own a piece of California wine history.