I was going to title this post 'Chardonnay' but it occurred to me that as the maker of this week's wine died just two months ago it would be more appropriate to honour him in this very small way. I did not know him, never met him and claim no special knowledge other than he was the classic Californian winemaking pioneer.
Most weeks I comment on a wine that I have bought in a supermarket, wine shop or on-line merchant. Very occasionally I have commented on a wine tasted in a restaurant and this is one of those.
We had been advised that the tasting menu we were about to eat would be mostly fish and vegetarian dishes and that if we were not going to spend quite a bit of cash on the suggested pairings, a white would be preferable. The restaurant had a wine list that was big enough and broad enough to cover every taste and pocket. The meal was expensive enough to deserve a decent wine, but it is always a challenge to get the balance right. The list priced this wine at £95 which is way above the amount I would pay in retail. But that's how the world works.
I had never tried it before, but did recognise the name Au Bon Climat on the list, so I asked the sommelier to describe it. He did so in glowing terms (they always do if they curate the list!) and so the deal was done.
First thing to note was that Au Bon Climat does not appear on the label as it had done on the list, which I have to admit worried me, briefly. But it wasn't the kind of place that would get things like that wrong, even unintentionally, so I nodded, sniffed it and accepted it.
It was quite well-oaked, had plenty of clean, stone and tropical fruit flavours and a nicely balanced acidity. It did indeed go well with the three appetisers and the first six courses of the main meal, but by the time we were approaching the lamb it had been drunk dry and a couple of glasses of a South African left-bank blend were required to keep us on track.
Having returned home I have red more about Jim Clendenen and his wines. It makes interesting reading as he was, with his winemaking business partner, one of those 'we will have to do it all ourselves until we can afford to pay for help' type of pioneers who clearly believed he could make a success of things.
The reason Au Bon Climat, the name of his winery, doesn't appear on the bottle is that Wild Boy is one of his more experimental, small batch wines and they had to stand on their own merits.
Buy again? Probably not. But only because it is now attached in memory to a great evening.
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