The Bien Nacido vineyard in Santa Maria, CA year after year produces some of the most sought-after pinot noir fruit in California.  Only winemakers who have mastered the temperamental pinot noir grape are even considered as candidates for vineyard manager Chris Hammell’s coveted allocations.

The Ojai Vineyard’s 2005 Pinot Noir should make Jim proud.  It is highly extracted and offers aromatic blast of musty red raspberries and cherries during the initial swirl-n-sniff.   It has a full and rich mouth and finishes with a pleasant bite of tannin and acid.  This is a great Pinot Noir and ranks up there with Sanford’s Barrel Select and Lane Tanner’s Bien Nacido creations.

It paired perfectly with my German Sauerbraten and cheese course.  It cost $47.99USD when it was released.

Bien Nacido has not been considered a top tier syrah vienyard, however it is one of the best kept secrets in the Central Coast of California.

This wine was the second vintage harvested after Chris Hammell took over the vineyard management duties in 2001.  It shows.

This Syrah required time to come into its own. Tasting notes from 2004 indicate this wine was tight, spicy and exotic with no forward fruit when it was released.

Fast forward seven years and this wine proves my point about Bien Nacido syrah grapes.  This  is a big chewy wine with balanced black fruit flavors and round soft tannins.  It paired nicely with Wild Ginger’s Black Pepper Scallops, Lamb Satay, Fragrant Duck, Seven Flavor Beef, and Panang Beef Curry.  Wine list price: $112USD