2017 Ojai Vineyard Syrah Bien Nacido Vineyard Santa Maria Valley

Bien Nacido Vineyard is the jewel of Santa Barbara wine country, and its rolling, wind-blasted hills produce racy Syrah that’s like nothing we’ve ever tasted on this side of the Atlantic. 

Especially in the hands of The Ojai Vineyard’s Adam Tolmach, whose 2017 Syrah inspired a 95+ point score and an excursion to these hallowed vines on our last trip south. Shivering as the foggy marine layer curled around our bare legs, we asked Adam what makes this vineyard so special:

“Simple,” he replied. “It’s California’s Côte-Rôtie.” 

If it seems like hyperbole to compare a Santa Barbara vineyard to the Holy Grail region for Northern Rhône Syrah, you haven’t tasted this wine. 

A layered, deep-violet powerhouse from one of the Central Coast’s finest sites, this 2017 Bien Nacido Syrah is indeed as texturally deep and impressive as the powerful, cool-climate Old-World Syrahs we’d expect to find among its $70+ Côte-Rôtie cousins. 

A remarkable testament to one of the most fabled sites in California, this Ojai Vineyard benchmark is a master class in the black fruit, cocoa, and peppery spice that define the world’s greatest Syrahs. The bouquet alone is intoxicating. A single swirl fills the room with mouthwatering aromas of blackberry, raspberry, smoked meat, cracked pepper, crispy bacon, flint, and allspice. Full-bodied yet exquisitely tense, this broad-shouldered beauty has the stamina to walk a thrilling tightrope between power and grace well into the next decade.

Located 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean on the northern end of the Santa Maria Valley AVA, the chilly influence of the sea certainly mimics the Northern Rhône’s cooler climes. Bien Nacido’s slopes are on the receiving end of one of the few east-west transverse mountain ranges in California, which allows maritime morning fog and cool afternoon breezes to imbue the Syrah grapes with their wild, earthy exuberance. 

Named one of the “Top 25 Vineyards in the World” by Wine & Spirits, included among the “Top Five California Vineyards” by the Wall Street Journal, and considered one of the “Top Grand Cru Vineyards in California” by Wine Enthusiast, Bien Nacido’s reputation is well-earned. The minerally complexity in this 2017 Syrah is a testament to the site’s inimitable diversity of gravel, sandy marine loam, and calciferous clay soils.

With a rich history that extends back to 1837 as a Spanish land grant, Bien Nacido Vineyard is the unofficial flagship vineyard of Santa Barbara County—commanding serious coin from wineries lucky enough to score the Bien Nacido name on their labels. 

Not that luck has anything to do with Adam’s access to this Grand Cru site. 

Ever-mounting critical praise—like this bottle’s outstanding 95+ point score—has made Adam’s extremely limited Ojai Vineyard Syrahs harder and harder to find. Only 191 cases of this 2017 Bien Nacido Syrah exist, and Wine Access members have given every Ojai offer in our history a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating… suffice it to say our allocation won’t last.

As one of the pioneers of the Santa Barbara wine scene, Adam founded the legendary Au Bon Climat with Jim Clendenen in the early 1980s, before starting The Ojai Vineyard to prove that cool-climate sites could produce the region’s best Pinots and Rhône reds. That point has long been proven, granting Adam ongoing access to the region’s coolest crème de la crème sites at under-the-table prices.  

Given the pedigree of this world-class vineyard, interpreted by a Wine Access favorite like Adam, this 95+ point 2017 Syrah is all but impossible to pass on.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 13.00%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2035
• % Syrah
• Serving temperature – 62°
• Cork