“Legends are not born, they are created.” – Ricky Pierce

Bien Nacido. LEGEND!!!

One of the Most Important California Vineyards All Wine Lovers Need to Know per Food & Wine. They go on record stating that “Bien Nacido is ground zero of California’s Santa Maria Valley - it is the vineyard against which all of Santa Maria is measured. It’s the benchmark, crown jewel of the region.”

They continue… “Fifth-generation Californian farm family the Millers began planting Bien Nacido in 1973. As of today, there are 83 distinct clients purchasing grapes from Bien Nacido. Big-name producers like Joel Gott and Orin Swift buy grapes, but it’s the smaller, boutique wineries that have made the vineyard famous, like the late Jim Clendenen’s Au Bon Climat, Ojai, Qupe, Tyler, and Gary Farrell. ‘Bien Nacido on a label means a guaranteed certain level of quality,’ explains their Grape Sales Manager Nick DeLuca… what draws winemakers to the site is a very unique ‘saline character that pervades everything. The excitement with winemakers right now is Rhône varieties, especially Syrah.’”

Add to that list of superstars: Chanin, Foxen, Ledge, Paul Lato, Twomey, and of course BYRON. Wine Spectator calls them “one of the best wineries in California’s Southern Central Coast.” Since 1984 that is! Yet as Jeb Dunnuck points out their 2015s are “…full of highlights. The forward, racy style that is such a signature of these wines remains.”

Highly expressive aromas of blackberry, kirsch, and sexy baking spices. Lush, creamy, and sweet, offering abundant dark berry preserves lifted nicely by brisk acidity, and continuing with outstanding persistence and clarity. It’s outright delicious, unashamedly Californian yet with a Northern Rhône undertone, pliant, rich, and sweetly fruited with silky tannins and very good length and verve.

It’s so obvious that this was crafted by none other than Jonathan Nagy - one of the top consulting winemakers of the Central Coast, with Bien Nacido, Solomon Hills, J. Wilkes as some of the other labels he worked with. Wine Advocate “loved the 2015 releases from winemaker Jonathan Nagy, and they all show ripe, fruit-forward characters, with plenty of oak, yet they’re beautifully balanced and fresh” just like this somehow overlooked single vineyard, as it has no reviews anywhere. C’est la vie.

Twenty-two bucks for a Bien Nacido, you still here?