WineLovers Discussion Group

2003 Au Bon Climat, Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir
Served this with a simple dish of grilled salmon fillet topped with a Dijon-Dill cream sauce.
The color is fairly light which might suggest this was going to be a delcate wine. Not so at all, as it delivers quite a flavor whollup without heat/alcohol and oak. When I first opened the bottle I got a good whiff of strawberry rhubarb pie. Now I like rhubarb, just not in my wine. Fortunately the rhubarb thingy blew off after 15 minutes or so to reveal a nice red fruit profile with clove, cinnamon and black pepper to funish complexity and acidity to provide lift on the palate. I've posted a number of favorable notes on ABC pinots and this bottle continues my streak of good stuff from this producer. About $25.

Disclaimer: I sell Au Bon Climat wine to people

I haven't ever been a fan of the ABC style of Chardonnay, but I am sure coming around on Clendennen's Pinot Noirs.

As I told him when I saw him a couple of weeks ago, maybe he's mellowing in his "old age". (He laughed, and denied it.)

Hoke wrote:I haven't ever been a fan of the ABC style of Chardonnay...

Hoke,
I've only tried a couple of Jim's Chardonnay, both loer end stuff, and share your lack of enthusiasm for the Chards. Of course, I could say that about 98.93% of Chardonnay coming from the Golden State.
Bill

Redwinger wrote:

Hoke wrote:I haven't ever been a fan of the ABC style of Chardonnay...

Hoke,
I've only tried a couple of Jim's Chardonnay, both loer end stuff, and share your lack of enthusiasm for the Chards. Of course, I could say that about 98.93% of Chardonnay coming from the Golden State.
Bill

Hey, what's the point of giving us the %age without a margin of error, Bill? How can you expect me to take you seriously as a WineGeek™ without stated MOEs? I demand a clarification!!!!

Mark Gallup Lipton

Thanks for the note: I've got a few 03's and have been meaning to get around to trying one. Bought them out of curiosity, hadn't really tasted an ABC pinot in years. In the early 90's I found them to have a singular flavor somewhere in the iodine/antiseptic/bug killer range of flavors, could pick them out blind every time. Don't know if that's still there, and if it is I wouldn't count myself out for loving it now.

Mark Lipton wrote:

Redwinger wrote:

Hoke wrote:I haven't ever been a fan of the ABC style of Chardonnay...

Hoke,
I've only tried a couple of Jim's Chardonnay, both loer end stuff, and share your lack of enthusiasm for the Chards. Of course, I could say that about 98.93% of Chardonnay coming from the Golden State.
Bill

Hey, what's the point of giving us the %age without a margin of error, Bill? How can you expect me to take you seriously as a WineGeek™ without stated MOEs? I demand a clarification!!!!

Mark Gallup Lipton

Mark, Mark, Mark,
When RW states a percentage there is zero/zip/nada margin of error. You can take them as true facts. What the hell kind of stat courses are they teaching up at Laugh-a-lot these days anyhow?
RW

Earlier this year I got a chance to try some '93 and '94 ABC pinot, along with a bunch of Oregon producers' wines from same years, and I thought the ABC was the best of a good bunch. Light in color and body, intense in taste. I love that kind of wine! I still have a bottle of 1994 McKinlay, which has an even lighter color. I'm curious about it now.

Dave

MTBakerDave wrote:Earlier this year I got a chance to try some '93 and '94 ABC pinot, along with a bunch of Oregon producers' wines from same years, and I thought the ABC was the best of a good bunch. Light in color and body, intense in taste. I love that kind of wine! I still have a bottle of 1994 McKinlay, which has an even lighter color. I'm curious about it now.

Dave

Dave,
Do you happen to recall if these were vineyard designated? IIRC, Clendennen has been sourcing fruit from the same Bien Nacido block(s) for many years. I'm not sure about wheter that holds true for his other sources or not.
Curly