2015 Bien Nacido Vineyards Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley 750 ml

Gorgeous Pinot Noir From An American Grand Cru Site

The legendary, mist-shrouded Bien Nacido Vineyard has been hailed as “Santa Maria’s most famous vineyard” by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. Just six miles inland from the pounding Pacific, the fruit produces near-perfect, fantastically pure, seamless wines for the likes of Au Bon Climat, Ojai, Foxen, and the Bien Nacido Estate itself.

The Miller family that owns the vineyard—with Littorai-trained winemaker Trey Fletcher—make just a few hundred coveted cases off this famous plot, and the releases are now recognized as among the greatest in the country. Vinous’s Antonio Galloni called the recent bottlings “positively stunning” and proclaimed “there is no question the best sections of Bien Nacido are the American equivalents of grand cru sites.”

Today, Wine Access is first to market with the 2015 release that Galloni described as a “deep, dense Pinot endowed with striking depth,” awarding a 93-95 point score. “Excellent Pinot Noir,” raved Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, “framed by juicy acids and rich structuring tannins.”

The Bien Nacido Vineyard is set in the fog-cooled Santa Maria Valley at the western edge of the Santa Maria Bench, on alluvial terraces and hills above the Sisquoc River. Called “one of the best vineyards in the Central Coast” by Robert Parker, blue-chip California wineries and top winemakers have been making the pilgrimage out here for years to source fruit that is almost unequaled in its purity and clarity. Summer temperatures are moderated first by morning fog, then by stiff breezes off the Pacific. The soils are low-vigor deep, comprised of silty clay loam and shale.

Now with the best fruit in the brilliant hands of winemaker Trey Fletcher, the estate is taking things to the next level. “Simply put, Bien Nacido Estate is now one of the hottest wineries in California,” says Galloni. “Readers owe it to themselves to check out these superb, handcrafted wines.”

Trained at Littorai under the legendary winemaker Ted Lemon, Fletcher adopted his mentor’s low-yield, rigorous vineyard management practices, gleaned from Burgundy’s prized parcels. Applying those methods to the gnarled, 40-year-old Pinot vines in Bien Nacido has yielded miracles like this 2015 stunner—one of California’s greatest challenges to Côte d’Or perfection.