Au Bon Climat La Bauge Au-Dessus Estate Pinot Noir 2020
Au Bon Climat La Bauge Au-Dessus Estate Pinot Noir 2020
91pts Vinous
The 2020 Pinot Noir La Bauge Au-dessus is mostly Bien Nacido with a touch of Le Bon Climat, done with 20% stems. Savory herbs, crushed red berry fruit, cedar, tobacco, mint, dried flowers and incense give this ethereal, elegant Pinot plenty of charm and allure. Drink it over the next decade. Drinking Window 2022 - 2032 - By Antonio Galloni on June 2022
This is a fabulous set of wines from Au Bon Climat. I admit, it’s hard today to taste wines Jim Clendenen made prior his passing last year. At the same time, these new releases provide fascinating insight into his stylistic choices across several vineyards and sites.
I have said this before, but I think it bears repeating. It's fascinating to taste the Au Bon Climat wines given how much Clendenen influenced many of today's leading young winemakers. Pretty much without exception, Clendenen's wines, especially the Chardonnays, are richer and more powerful, with greater oak influence and overall lushness. In general, the wines here are marked by a focus on a handful of top sites, many of which Clendenen made famous, a high percentage of new oak, but often with larger 350-liter barrels, long aging in wood, and a high amount of whole clusters in the Pinots. More than anything else, these wines are American treasures, legacies of one of this country's most inspired and inspiring winemakers.
Tasting Notes
The complex, Old World character of dried cherry/cranberry, rose petal and cedar with subtle notes of leather and dark chocolate is reminiscent of an aged Burgundy from a superior domaine. La Bauge's hallmark is its remarkable integration and imminently drinkable character, which this has in adundance.
Winemaker Notes
The fruit is entirely from the highly regarded Bien Nacido Vineyard. The grapes were hand harvested and the Pinot Noir fermented in 5 ton open-top fermenters, which are punched down once or twice a day. These punch downs breakup the cap of skins that rises to the surface back into the juice so the fermentation process extracts the best part of the Pinot grapes. The wine is pressed to complete dryness then transferred to barrel with moderate lees. Our “La Bauge” Pinot Noir is aged in 50% new French oak barrels made by the cooper François Frères. The wine was carefully racked in the spring and then put backed to barrel. Total barrel aging was 20 months.
The Backstory
La Bauge Au-dessus translates as a “wild party upstairs”. Our original bottlings were from the hillsides of Bien Nacido Vineyard and we have returned to that format this vintage. The intent of the wine is to create a classic Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir with great aromatics and character showing cherry/cranberry fruit, rose petal, earth and spice. The key word is balance. A balance of oak and fruit, a balance of tannin and acid, and a balance elegance and intensity. This delicious Pinot Noir does not compete with food but maximizes the dining experience by complimenting whatever it is paired with.
