For iconic Akron-born winemaker Jim Clendenen, friendship went both ways

Jim Clendenen was a worldwide icon who never acted like one.

An Akron native who grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Clendenen reveled in being a renegade award-winning winemaker and was unfazed by fame.

Everything about Clendenen was big — his heart, his personality, his vitality.

His hospitality knew no bounds. An expert cook, he invited visitors to his Au Bon Climat facility in Santa Maria, California, to enjoy lunches he prepared for his staff, complete with a table of perfectly paired offerings to sip.

He welcomed friends to stay at his ranch in Los Alamos, with a massive kitchen designed for hosting events. Some spent the night in the small house alongside. Not all had business connections. Students were welcomed to lunch to pick Clendenen’s brain as they tried to get their foot in the door in the industry.

A text Monday morning with the news that Clendenen had died at age 68 set my heart racing. Battling health issues for the past two months, Clendenen died in his sleep Saturday night after a dinner with friends. Twice-married, Clendenen leaves behind son Knox Alexander, who is studying in Japan, and daughter Isabelle, who works in sales for the winery.

Some of the best times of my life were spent with Clendenen. Not seeing him again, soaking in his passionate and ebullient spirit, talking about the NBA or his most recent trip to the Far East at the long, wooden table surrounded by barrels of wine seems unfathomable.

I first interviewed Clendenen in 2003 for a Beacon Journal story on winemakers with local connections. Akron native Drew Neiman of Neiman Cellars suggested Clendenen should be included, and I was fortunate to catch him on the phone as he was packing for a trip to France.

He detailed his early years, raised in Akron until he was 4 and attending school in Cuyahoga Falls through the ninth grade. Then his father, a chemical engineer at Firestone, realized he’d risen as high as he could on the corporate ladder and moved the family to Los Angeles.

Clendenen cooked in convalescent homes and restaurants and thought that was his future. He graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with high honors in pre-law in 1976. A junior year abroad and a trip to Burgundy in 1977 launched his path to winemaking.

But it was not the customary path, even after he co-founded Au Bon Climat with Adam Tolmach in 1982, took full ownership seven years later, and branched out with others, including Clendenen Family Vineyards.

Clendenen was a flamboyant personality rare to the business. During his 2003 interview, he said he’d just cut his hair for the first time in 25 years. He confessed he’d recently spent a month at a luxurious fat farm. He named a vintage sold in England "Wild Boy," and the label included his caricature. He did his own marketing, traveling constantly.

Called “the mind behind” Au Bon Climat on its website, Clendenen drew wide acclaim. In 2001, Food and Wine named him winemaker of the year. In 2004, Wein Gourmet, Germany’s leading industry magazine, tabbed him “Winemaker of the World.” In 2007, he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.”

He referred to Emeril Lagasse by his first name, making house wines for restaurants owned by Lagasse and Roy Yamaguchi, and participated in charity fundraisers with famed chefs.

Because of those connections, I initially hesitated to call Clendenen a friend. But when the references were reversed, he never did.

More than once he thanked me for writing the story that rekindled his Akron roots. He returned in 2004, driving by his old church and the house in which he grew up. In 2005 and 2017, he headlined the Akron Wine Auction, the Akron Art Museum’s biggest fundraiser. He hosted an occasional wine dinner at local restaurants.

One night a group of wine lovers gathered to welcome him at a friend’s house in Cuyahoga Falls where he was staying. It became a “Waiting for Godot” moment, all heading home before he rolled in. He ate the carrot cake I’d made for the party for breakfast.

As special as his visits to Akron were, they paled in comparison to the times we had in California.

Clendenen prepared my 60th birthday dinner on the Saturday before Easter in 2015, roasting lamb in the ranch’s outdoor oven. We toasted with a magnum of 2008 Chassagne-Montrachet champagne that bore a silver Sharpie message, a gift for his 60th birthday.

That took the cliched “would give you the shirt off his back” to a whole new level. But Clendenen did that with everything he touched, with everyone he met.

Second to the birthday feast was a 2017 dinner at the Hitching Post II, the Buellton restaurant made famous by the movie “Sideways.”

The busy spot is owned by his close friend Frank Ostini and Clendenen had no problem getting us a table at the last minute. He arrived with a bag full of his wines, and Knox opened them at his dad’s direction. With my three friends, we had Clendenen all to ourselves, regaling in his stories, discussing what we tasted, talking about the future with Knox, a teenager who could hold his own with adults.

We knew how lucky we were, how special that night was. That hit home hard again on Monday, when merely typing Clendenen’s name brought tears.

Miss you already, my friend.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.