2019 Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA
Critics reviews
82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc, organically grown. Abundant winter rainfall followed by warm spring weather created ideal growing conditions. Except for Merlot, the vines set a big crop. A long, warm summer fully ripened all varieties in early October.
Harvest: 28 September to 20 October. Grapes destemmed, 100% whole-berry fermentation. 15% automated berry sorting. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Pressed at nine days. Natural malolactic. 17 months in barrel (all new, air-dried oak, 95% American, 5% French). During blind tastings, a record 41 separate lots were assembled to create this vintage of Monte Bello.
Firm crimson with a lively rim. Mid intensity sappy, appetising balsam – so different from the Napa Cabs I tasted last night! Lots of acidity and a certain herbal note. You definitely wouldn’t choose to drink this yet. Medium weight and still lean and long but with lots of restrained fruit just waiting to open out. Already great integration. It is impossible to discern the ingredients. Super-clean and fresh.
Drink 2026 - 2045
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (November 2022)
The nose of this youthful wine has great purity of fruit, with sweet, intense blackcurrant aromas. The attack is fresh, sleek, and bright, leading to a concentrated palate with high acidity and a lively, peppery tone. It's assertive but not aggressive, and the new oak is not yet integrated. Very long.
Drink 2023 - 2045
Stephen Brook, Decanter.com (October 2022)
About this WINE
Ridge Vineyards
Ridge Vineyards makes wines that compete in terms of quality and desirability with Bordeaux First Growths and Grand Cru White Burgundies. Winemaker Paul Draper has crafted 43 vintages at Ridge and his practical, hands-off approach to winemaking has resulted in an exceptional and highly sought-after range of wines.
Although a vineyard was first planted near the top of Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1885, it lay abandoned until four Stanford Research Institute engineers bought it in 1959. Ridge Vineyards was formed in 1962 and Paul Draper was appointed as winemaker in 1969. After stunning the world by their triumph in the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting, Ridge Vineyards shot to fame and gained cult status almost overnight.
Since then, Ridge has concentrated on producing fine Bordeaux blends and Chardonnays from Monte Bello's exalted terroir as well as renowned Zinfandels from the Lytton Springs and Geyserville vineyards in Sonoma County.
Ridge's ethos is simple: 100% dedication in the vineyards to grow the most concentrated and flavoursome grapes followed by 100% dedication in the winery with minimum intervention to draw all the fruit's natural richness into the wine.
Paul Draper has studiously dedicated himself to employing traditional Old World methods in the creation of his wines, resulting in silky smooth reds with fine tannins and glorious fruit. The wines are racked and fined but remain unfiltered so as not to lose any character before being matured in new American oak barrels.
Ridge Monte Bello, once pure Cabernet, has been a Cabernet-dominated blend since 1975 with varying quantities, depending on the vintage, of Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc to add complexity to the final wine. The Monte Bello Chardonnay, arguably California's most respected white wine, is elegantly structured and rivals the finest White Burgundy Grand Crus.
Since 1972 Ridge has also specialised in top-quality Zinfandel blends from the Lytton Springs and Geyserville vineyards in Sonoma County and in 1979 the Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet blend joined the range to offer a softer, earlier drinking companion to the famed Monte Bello.
Discover the story behind our Own Selection Zinfandel, made for us by Ridge. Read more
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains AVA is a Viticultural Area that is based around the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The appellation enjoys a large diveristy of micro-climates, affected by the mountain topography, the Pacific Ocean, and the nearby San Francisco Bay.
The wine appellation encompasses 1,500 acres of vineyards, dominated by mainly Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, with more smaller blocks of Cabernet Franc, Carignane, Dolcetto, Grenache, Malbec, Malvasia, Merlot, Mondeuse, Mourvedre, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Viognier, Zinfandel.
Notable wineries in the appellation include: Bonny Doon Vineyard, Ridge Vineyards , Neely
Cabernet Sauvignon
The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.
It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.
The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc, organically grown. Abundant winter rainfall followed by warm spring weather created ideal growing conditions. Except for Merlot, the vines set a big crop. A long, warm summer fully ripened all varieties in early October.
Harvest: 28 September to 20 October. Grapes destemmed, 100% whole-berry fermentation. 15% automated berry sorting. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Pressed at nine days. Natural malolactic. 17 months in barrel (all new, air-dried oak, 95% American, 5% French). During blind tastings, a record 41 separate lots were assembled to create this vintage of Monte Bello.
Firm crimson with a lively rim. Mid intensity sappy, appetising balsam – so different from the Napa Cabs I tasted last night! Lots of acidity and a certain herbal note. You definitely wouldn’t choose to drink this yet. Medium weight and still lean and long but with lots of restrained fruit just waiting to open out. Already great integration. It is impossible to discern the ingredients. Super-clean and fresh.
Drink 2026 - 2045
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (November 2022)
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