Awarded “California Vineyard of the Year” in 2010 by the California State Fair, named one of the “Top 25 Vineyards in the World” by Wine and Spirits Magazine, and called one of the “Ten Best Vineyards” by Food and Wine magazine, the esteemed Bien Nacido Vineyards is something special.
The parcel east of Santa Maria off of Santa Maria Mesa Road, nestled against the San Rafael Mountains, not only has an extremely bright future, but it has history.
Bien Nacido was part of the 1837 Rancho Tepusquet Spanish land grant. In 1969, brothers Stephen and Bob Miller purchased the storied land, which surrounds the historic Ontiveros Adobe. The property had been the homestead of Capt. G. Allan Hancock.
The Millers were dedicated farmers who studied the soils and climate, sought out expert guidance, and followed their instincts when they carefully planted the vineyards in 1973.
“Our family’s history here has been, ‘It’s better to be lucky than smart,’” said fifth generation California farmer Nicholas Miller, Steve’s son. “Because when my dad and uncle planted it in the early ’70s, it’s not because they knew what was going to be. They rolled the dice and said, ‘We think this has potential,’ and time has proven that out.”
They named their vineyards Bien Nacido, meaning “well born.”
“It has a colloquial meaning; ‘Born with a silver spoon in its mouth.’ We want to convey with that name we’re spoiling these grapes—we’re giving them every advantage to succeed in life,” Nicholas explained.
The 600-plus acres of sustainably farmed, cool-climate vineyards are divided up into a few dozen blocks. Customers buy grapes by the acre or row. Bien Nacido custom farms sections according to customers’ preferences.
All of that is impressive, but it’s mind boggling when you consider that Bien Nacido has around 40 winery customers from across California who source their fruit every year, taking excellent wines to market with the words “Bien Nacido Vineyards” on the bottle.
Customers such as Au Bon Climat, Foxen, Longoria, The Ojai Vineyard, Paul Lato, Presqu’ile, Qupé, Sine Qua Non, Testarossa, Twomey, and the impressive list goes on and on.
“We’re the most vineyard-designated vineyard in the world,” Nicholas declared. “There’s no other model like Bien Nacido, so no other vineyard has as many single vineyard designates on wines. I can’t think of any other model that works with as many high-end customers as we do.”
Which means, Nicholas said, vineyard manager Chris Hammell “has to respond on a higher level than probably anyone else here in the state!”
Customers pay top dollar to get top-end Bien Nacido Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, and other grape varietals, and they do so because they have faith in the area and in Bien Nacido’s excellent team.
One example of why Bien Nacido has such a distinguished reputation is that the Millers were among the first to pick grapes at night, when there’s no chance of spoilage in the hot sun.
“That’s when the berries are at their firmest, they’re already cold. Often we can deliver to the North Coast even before their local vineyards are delivering,” Nicholas said.
The Miller family doesn’t sell their fruit to just anyone, they are highly selective. There’s a long courtship process to buy Bien Nacido’s prized grapes and even a waiting list for the sold-out vineyard. For years, wineries have been clamoring to get their hands on that fruit.
“During the Sideways craze everyone was calling all day long saying, ‘Hey, we want Pinot Noir!’ We got a lot of calls from people who had never made Pinot before,” Nicholas recalled.
“That’s not really our business style. We could have sold the fruit three times over for probably twice as much, but we really want to be committed to the customers that we have that are in it for the long haul—people like Jim Clendenen [of Au Bon Climat] and [Bob Lindquist at] Qupé being great examples, who have been here in good times and in bad. They’ve always been great ambassadors for us.”
Sales manager Michael Brughelli looks closely at potential clients, their reputations, and winemaking styles.
“We’re going to sell to folks that have a passion for quality and will take a stand on Santa Maria Valley and try to highlight the true potential that this area has for ultra premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay,” Brughelli said.
“You can grow the best grapes in the world, but if they’re not put in the right hands, you’ll never have credibility,” Nicholas added.
A couple of years ago, the family debuted their own wine brands called Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills, named after their Santa Maria vineyards.
They just released their 2009 Pinot Noirs and Syrah and 2010 Chardonnays.
Following my private tour through the vineyards with Nicholas, I met winemaker Trey Fletcher at the winery, where the men poured wines made from Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills grapes.
“We really want to take what each of those sites gives us and let the wines accentuate and express,” Fletcher said.
Bien Nacido Vineyards is not open to the public and they have no designs to build a tasting room. Their wines already sell out through distributors who place them in restaurants and wine shops.
Their goal is to produce age-worthy wines that taste brilliant. Fletcher described the Solomon Hills Pinot Noir as a serious but elegant, pretty wine. The Bien Nacido Pinot Noir has “deeper, spicier, sometimes gamier aromatics which are really intriguing,” he said.
The Solomon Hills Chardonnay, with its citrusy and flowery aromatics, is one of my favorite Chardonnays from Santa Barbara County. The Bien Nacido Chardonnay is “a lot more in the nose, grapefruit rind, cut straw, and chamomile, and in the mouth has a lot more structure, depth, and length,” Fletcher described.
It comes as no surprise that this family-run operation grows the finest grapes around and clearly has the magic touch with wine, too.
Sun food and wine columnist Wendy Thies Sell wants to hear about the county’s hidden gems. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2012.
