story to be published in The Montecito Journal on 5/20/21
The Santa Barbara wine
industry – and the wine world as a whole – lost one of its superstars when Jim
Clendenen died over the weekend. He passed away at his home in Buellton, in his
sleep. He was 68 years old.
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| Jim Clendenen (credit: Bob Dickey) |
Wine aficionados who
did not know him personally certainly knew his wine, especially his flagship
brand, Au Bon Climat. Loosely translated to “a well exposed vineyard,” the
label was the prime vehicle for his unapologetic approach to winemaking,
especially to making pinot noir and chardonnay. His wines were influenced by
his admiration of Burgundian techniques and were consistently fresh, balanced
and restrained.Those who did know him,
though, would say that the man behind the wines – or “The Mind Behind” as he
dubbed himself – was anything but restrained. When Jim Clendenen walked into a
room, people noticed. He was ebullient and exuberant, enthusiastic and
energetic. His loud shirts and flowing hair, in fact, were extensions of a
wonderfully dynamic personality.
“It’s funny, I always
think that winemakers are their wine,” says fellow winemaker Doug Margerum. “But Jim wasn’t. If his wines were more reserved, he
was certainly larger than life.” He calls Mr. Clendenen, who was godfather to
his son Evan, a mentor. The two men were also business partners in the wine
project, Vita Nova.
That was one of Mr.
Clendenen’s trademarks, actually – his imaginative approach expanded his
creative horizons, and he pushed out various boutique endeavors, like Barham
Mendelsohn, under which he crafted pinot noirs from Sonoma’s Anderson Valley,
and Clendenen Family Vineyards, for which he made artisan-style versions of
varieties like gewurztraminer, chenin blanc and petit verdot; his nebbiolo was
barrel aged for five years.
But it was Au Bon
Climat, or ABC, that became his most famous calling card. It made him – and by
extension, his home base of Santa Maria Valley and all of Santa Barbara County
– recognizable in wine drinking circles both domestically and around the world.
The various “Winemaker of the Year”-type accolades he won over the years came
from publications like The LA Times, Food & Wine Magazine and Germany’s
Wein Gourmet. The latter, actually, called him “Winemaker of the World.”
“He did a magnificent
job at spreading our message,” says winemaker Fred
Brander, who became fast friends with Mr. Clendenen in 1978, before either
became a torch bearer for Santa Barbara County wines. “If Robert Mondavi can be
credited with championing Napa, then Jim was his counterpart down here in Santa
Barbara.”
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| photo credit: Bob Dickey |
It was Mr. Clendenen’s
friend and fellow culinarian Frank Ostini, of Hitching Post II fame, who
discovered Mr. Clendenen Saturday night, after several calls to Mr. Clendenen
from family had gone unanswered. “We were so blessed to have him a part of our
lives,” says Mr. Ostini, who enjoyed a 40-year friendship with Mr. Clendenen.
“I will dearly, dearly miss him.When Mr. Ostini moved the Hitching Post wine production to the Au Bon Climat
facility in 2019, it was “a homecoming,” he says, since the HP label produced
wines there back in the 1990s and moved out only when space became tight. (Mr.
Clendenen’s good friend Bob Lindquist also made wine at ABC for many years,
until he sold his Qupé wine brand in 2018.) What’s remained the same at Au Bon
Climat, says Mr. Ostini, are the faces of the employees – a team of close to 30
people, many of whom have worked at ABC for decades. That’s a testament to Mr.
Clendenen’s professional generosity.
“These are such great
people who’ve now lost their leader,” says Mr. Ostini. “We’re here to hug them
and hold them, and to be a part of keeping the whole thing going.”
Mr. Clendenen’s
daughter, Isabelle, who works in sales at ABC, confirms that the world of Au
Bon Climat will live on. It is, after all, “a family business through and
through,” she says. “Even if you’re not related by blood, you’re still a member
of our family.”
Isabelle, 26, shared personal insights into the man so
many consider a superstar:
“A lot of people are
focusing on what he did for the wine industry, but he was also devoted to
charity work. He supported charities in places as far away as Atlanta and North
Carolina and Alabama. He was really focused on children, because children were
the most important thing to him.
“People say he was loud
and strong, but he was also a very sensitive person. He cried as easily as
anyone.
“And he had a hatred
for social media. Especially Facebook -- that one was the worst. He was such an
emotional person that all he wanted was a physical connection with people.”
Isabelle’s brother
Knox, 21, resides in Japan. Jim Clendenen married and divorced twice, most
recently to Morgan Clendenen, a winemaker of viognier for many years under the
Cold Heaven label.
“I know how Isabelle
and Knox feel,” says Drake Whitcraft, who took over Whitcraft Winery when his
father, the legend Chris Whitcraft, passed away in 2014. Drake, too, was in his
20s. “It’s indescribable how deep a void is created, losing your dad. You only
get one.”
On Mr. Clendenen, Drake
Whitcraft adds, “Jim is a force to be reckoned with in the wine industry – not
was -- is, even posthumously. Jim was not only a great winemaker… he had the
business savvy, too. And anyone who met him knows how he could captivate a room
with stories told with precise details, as if he were experiencing them right
then.”
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| For a story I wrote in 2015, Jim Clendenen, center, met with fellow winemakers to reminisce about the Santa Barbara Wine Festival at the SB Museum of Natural History. Also pictured, from left: Bob Lindquist, Ken Brown, Richard Sanford, Doug Margerum, Drake Whitcraft and Fred Brander. |
Jim Clendenen was born
in Ohio and graduated with high honors in pre-law from UCSB in 1976. He’d
already been to Burgundy and Champagne, though – he turned 21 in France, in
fact -- and the allure of pinot noir and chardonnay would eventually win out. A
stint at Zaca Mesa Winery in 1978, under the tutelage of winemaker Ken Brown,
led to Mr. Clendenen working three global harvests, an amazing feat, in 1981 –
Santa Barbara, Australia and France. He founded Au Bon Climat in 1982 with
friend Adam Tolmach, who’d leave in 1990 to launch Ojai Vineyard. Mr. Clendenen
would go on to grow Au Bon Climat by using European-inspired, Old World
techniques, a course to which he stayed true even when California winemaking,
especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, leaned toward bigger, richer wines.“That’s to be admired,”
adds Mr. Brander. “He didn’t get caught up in fads or styles. He kept true to
Burgundy, to winemaking that was not modern or popular. He let the vineyards do
the talking.”
Mr. Clendenen took his
winery, which has a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara, to a yearly production
of some 50,000 cases. He sourced grapes from a variety of vineyards, including
Sanford & Benedict and his own sustainably farmed Le Bon Climat. He was one
of the biggest fruit purchasers at the famous Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa
Maria Valley, which is owned by Santa Barbara’s Miller family.
“I’ll remember him for
always sticking to his guns,” says Nicholas Miller, who runs sales and
marketing for the family’s wine enterprises. While Bien Nacido is best known
for its pinot noir and chardonnay, “we were growing things like merlot and
nebbiolo for Jim – he definitely pushed the limits at Bien Nacido.”
Mr. Clendenen was also
known for his hospitality. Lunches he hosted regularly at ABC, in fact, became legendary. “You never knew who’d show up or which wines would be poured,”
recalls Mr. Miller. Actually, Mr. Clendenen was known for one of the most
extensive library of older vintages on the Central Coast, many of which would
get poured at his lunches. And the cooking – homegrown but always gourmet, and
plentiful – was done by the Mind Behind himself.
Those who knew him well
will say that the pandemic took its toll on Jim Clendenen in various ways. The
threat to his compromised health meant, by necessity, that he had to become
more reclusive. And a lifestyle defined by endless wine dinners,
meet-and-greets and journeys around the globe to promote wine coming to a
sudden halt – that was not an easy new reality for someone who thrived on the
human bond.
“Him passing away –
that was something he was afraid was going to happen soon,” admits Isabelle.
A
memorial for Jim Clendenen is being planned.
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