Driving Miss Jancis

At Au Bon Climat winery, from left, Knox Alexander Clendenen, Sarah Atwood, Matt Kettmann, Jancis Robinson, Isabelle Clendenen, and Marc Piro. | Credit: Courtesy

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If you’re ever asked to chauffeur anyone through wine country for the day, it’s best to bring a car that you know how to drive and to ensure that you have enough room in the trunk for luggage.

Those weren’t my exact strategies last Sunday when I was in charge of shuttling renowned wine writer Jancis Robinson and her restaurant-writing husband, Nick Lander, to a few spots in Santa Barbara County. The London-based power couple — she’s considered the most impactful living wine journalist, especially when it comes to American wine’s acceptance in Europe — were on a grand California tour, from Los Angeles to the North Coast, including their first significant Santa Barbara exploration in many years.

But instead of taking my trusty F-150 on this excursion, I convinced my wife — by pleading that my dirty old truck was too dirty and too old — to let me take her brand new Mustang Mach-E. It’s a great ride, but I’ve barely driven it at all, so I don’t know how all the bells and whistles work quite yet — like the navigation, or the cruise control, or the self-driving option.

The luggage conundrum didn’t occur to me until I pulled up to the Hotel Californian, where Jancis and Nick awaited with tons of bags, as one tends to do when traveling for weeks. I briefly second-guessed leaving the F-150’s cavernous truck bed at home.

Kick On Ranch in the Los Alamos Valley. Credit: Matt Kettmann

Gratefully, the luggage fit snugly, and the driving went well enough, too. Without cruise control — and afraid to debut the self-driving with passengers — I mostly focused on not exceeding 80 mph (the car really wants to go 90), then, thanks to no navigation, missed one turn to pull into seeing Graham Tatomer at Kick On Ranch and took a slightly longer route at another crossroad to our epic Au Bon Climat lunch.

Easygoing as they are, Jancis and Nick found humor in our vehicular predicaments. They were far more focused on learning as much as they could about Santa Barbara wines — a task no doubt encouraged by the late October landscape looking as pretty as it gets, thanks to warm sunshine following recent rains. Amidst dropping the random roadside intel I give to anyone who’s interested, I spent most of the drive time answering a barrage of both basic and detailed questions from Jancis about the region, of which I know almost too much.

I’ve spent much of my journalistic life riding shotgun in someone’s car, scribbling on my notepad as they drive me around and peppering them with questions the whole time. But now I was the driver fielding questions, trying to provide accurate and updated information, and, on occasion, making sure Jancis knew which opinions were not for attribution. She was scribbling furiously just like me, providing a brief — albeit better dressed and more properly mannered — glimpse of what I must look like much of the time. It’s always insightful to have the tables turned on you, especially when it almost never happens.

A tour of Kick On Ranch with, from right, Tatomer Wines proprietors Graham and Emily Tatomer and journalists Jancis Robinson and Nick Lander. Credit: Matt Kettmann

I actually first met Jancis back in 2015 at World of Pinot Noir, where we were both moderating panels. Well, I should say that I was in her presence there, having gone to her room with a group of people to escort her to dinner.

Graham Tatomer and Jancis Robinson Credit: Matt Kettmann

I’d only just started my job at Wine Enthusiast, and wasn’t sure if she knew who I was, so I didn’t bother introducing myself. I’m rarely intimidated by anyone, but Jancis hit that pedestal for me a decade ago.

About six years later, I was asked to edit some of the Central Coast and Southern California sections of The Oxford Companion to Wine, of which Jancis is a primary author. It was a prestigious gig, which is good, because it didn’t pay anything. In fact, in order to even get a copy when it was published in 2023, I had to say I was reviewing the book. (I gave it a rather brief nod here.)

Then last year, Jancis herself reached out, having got my contact from Alder Yarrow. (I wrote about his book years ago, and he returned the favor a few years later for me.) She asked if I could contribute to a new edition of the World Atlas of Wine. I asked if it actually paid money this time, and she replied happily that it did. I finished my work on it earlier this year, after lots of correspondence with Jancis and her team on that project. (Actually, some of Sunday’s back-and-forth with Jancis was about lingering questions on that project.)

Due to that relationship, Jancis wondered if I’d like to go to dinner with her when she came through Santa Barbara last week. I said certainly, but then the Wine Institute, which was organizing Jancis and Nick’s California tour, emailed to inquire if I’d be able to drive them around Sunday. That would amount to more time with them, and I’d be welcome at the visits, and there was a fair fee involved. Even better all around.

Which is how I wound up hanging out with them and Emily and Graham Tatomer at Kick On Ranch, where we learned all about riesling and grüner veltliner. From there, we went to Au Bon Climat to taste with late founder Jim Clendenen’s kids Isabelle and Knox Alexander Clendenen and winemakers Marc Piro and Sarah Atwood.

Wines at the Au Bon Climat lunch of October 26, 2025. | Credit: Matt Kettmann

Then, in the longstanding Au Bon Climat tradition, we enjoyed an exquisite homecooked lunch of miso cod, butternut squash casserole, and more with numerous wines from across the vintages. Also in attendance was longtime ABC winemaker Jim Adelman (who’s retiring on New Year’s Eve), Lindquist Family Wines proprietor Bob Lindquist, and ABC cellar master Enrique “Kiki” Rodriguez, who’s also been the primary cook since Jim died. I’ve had the pleasure of eating lunch there a handful of times, but Sunday’s was probably my favorite to date.

Then Jancis and Nick loaded into a larger car for a ride to Carmel, where their adventure continued. I headed back home, this time letting the car get closer to 90, arriving just in time to carve pumpkins.