Ici la Bas 2009 Anderson Valley Chardonnay, Elke Vineyard "Victoria"

'Ici la Bas' translates as "Here & There", an apt name for this wine, as it was a joint venture between Jim Clendenen (of Au Bon Climat in California's Santa Maria Valley) and the Francois Freres family in France. 

By the time Jim passed away, he'd accumulated over 5,000 cases of wine in his personal cellar, some 4,000 of which he had made. Some of that wine was Ici la Bas, made in partnership with Mel Knox barrel broker and the Francois Freres family, one of the more renowned French cooperages. The partnership agreement included 120 bottles allocated to each partner.

The French partners, Jean and Noelle, served some of their wine to their French winemaking clients, and enjoyed the ensuing debate over whether the Ici la Bas Chardonnay was Puligny or Meursault. Jim was a bit of a pack rat and rarely touched his Ici stash.

This wine comes to us from Jim's perfectly stored personal collection, now being liquidated (pun intended) by his kids and successors at Au Bon Climat - Isabel & Knox Clendenen. I was recently presented a flight of wines from the early 2000s and this one stood out as one of the freshest and most youthful, but with the sage wisdom of 16 years under cork.

NOTE: I carried this wine from 2006-2010 while I was a partner in a wine bar down in Solvang, where we enjoyed an area exclusive on Clendenen's wines. We offer it here, some 16 years later, AT THE SAME PRICE I charged back then, when it was one of our priciest wines!