Santa Cruz Mountains

A retaste of the flagship wine, the 2007 Monte Bello (a blend from this famous estate of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 9% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc) reveals a dense ruby/purple wine with a floral, blueberry, and earthy cassis nose and elegant mid-weight flavors with impressive purity and classicism. There is good acidity, firm tannin, and modest alcohol (13.1%). This is not the most concentrated or powerful Monte Bello, but one built on finesse and elegance. According to the back label, only 41% of the production made it into this wine from the 103-acre estate vineyard. Give this wine another good 5-7 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 20-25 years.
Robert Parker - Wine Advocate # 193 - Feb 2011

Monte Bello 2008 is the first vintage with only Cabernet and Merlot in the final blend. 'We think press wines can really make all the difference.' Very firm and savoury with a trace of lively, savoury US oak on the nose at the moment. Beautiful texture, rich and round.
Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com - March 2010

Yields of just over a ton per acre have resulted in one of our most concentrated vintages ever. Intense black fruit, a pronounced mineral component, and subtle floral notes, combined with rich tannins, give the 2005 potential for greatness. Though it is difficult to identify another vintage of similar characteristics this early on, the exceptional 1996 might come closest.
Paul Draper - Winemaker - Ridge Vineyards

Ridge Vineyards makes wines that compete in terms of quality and desirability with Bordeaux First Growths and Grand Cru white Burgundies. Founder Paul Draper has practised and engendered a practical, hands-off approach to winemaking at Ridge, one that has resulted in an exceptional and highly sought-after range of wines.

This impressive 2006 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (71%), Merlot (27%) and a handful of Petit Verdot (2%) to impart a touch of exotic spice. This is an extremely concentrated wine with powerful aromas and an expansive palate bursting with black forest fruit, mocha, juniper and sweet spice flavours, whilst fine tannins provide impeccable structure. As perfectly demonstrated by the recent rerun of the Judgement of Paris, this wine should age for a further thirty years or so.

This fine blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot shows ripe red and black fruit, integrated barrel spice and elegant structure. Though enjoyable now, its tannins will resolve further as flavours mature over the next eight to ten years.

Ridge's 2011 Chardonnay Monte Bello is laced with yellow stone fruits, honey, almonds, honeysuckle and butter. A surprisingly rich, dense wine, especially within the context of the year, the 2011 should age beautifully based on its pure depth. The oily, textured finish suggests some presence of botrytis although there is none. In this vintage, winemaker Eric Baugher chose to give Chardonnay a little more time on the lees.
Antonio Galloni - vinousmedia.com - Jul 2014

Lovely perfume of Cassis and black plum fruit on the nose with a touch of earth, mocha, undergrowth. The palate is finely poised with a medium body, finely grained tannins and a very lifted acidity which gives an impression of a cool climate Cabernet and a lovely old world sensibility. A lovely well balanced Cabernet that will drink now perfectly with red meat but will keep another 3 – 5 years.
Stuart Rae - Private Account Manager

Ridge Vineyards makes wines that compete in terms of quality and desirability with Bordeaux First Growths and Grand Cru white Burgundies. Founder Paul Draper has practised and engendered a practical, hands-off approach to winemaking at Ridge, one that has resulted in an exceptional and highly sought-after range of wines.

This impressive 2013 is a Cabernet Sauvignon blend with less Merlot than usual, after the drought of 2013. This is an extremely concentrated wine, with powerful, seamless aromas of cassis and violet. A big wine, for sure, but drinking nicely from 2019 and onwards.

The great Ridge estate in California is justly renowned primarily for the sublime quality of its Monte Bello Cabernet, one of the world’s great wines. Less well-known, but equally worthy of note, are the Chardonnays produced from the estate’s vineyards grown high in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In exceptional vintages a Monte Bello Chardonnay is produced, but from the 2009 the main Chardonnay bottled here will be known as Ridge Estate Chardonnay. The cool climate and fractured limestone subsoil is highly evocative of Burgundy, and the Chardonnay from this location has a great resemblance to the great wines produced in that region. The bouquet exhibits a complex array of fruit aromas, including the tropical hints of pineapple and honeysuckle mingling with more temperate notes such as apple, pear and honeydew melon. On the palate there is a dash of butterscotch supporting the leesy, hazelnut-and-white peach flavour, with a touch of butterscotch from the oak. Five ages of barrel are used, with only 10% new to avoid imparting too strong a wood flavour, and the balance is 93% American oak and 7% French. Natural yeasts are used and the wine undergoes full malolactic fermentation, spending 15 months in barrel before bottling. One of the finest Californian Chardonnays on the market, brimming with lovely maturity and yet shot through with finesse.

The just-bottled 2010 Monte Bello combines pure structure and power in a rich, full-bodied style for this wine. Waves of dark red fruit, crushed rocks, flowers, mint and grilled herbs wrap around the long, insistent finish. Today, the 2010 is slightly more reticent than it was last year, but the wine comes to life the more it sits in the glass. Always classy, the 2010 Monte Bello impresses for its impeccable balance. Count me among those who will be thrilled to own this magnificent California classic. The 2010 is a decidedly virile, powerful Monte Bello, qualities winemaker Eric Baugher attributes to a year with a very cold summer and periods of heat that arrived only towards the tail end of the growing season. In 2010, the blend is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2040.
Antonio Galloni - Wine Advocate - Aug-2012

Ridge Vineyards makes wines that compete in terms of quality and desirability with Bordeaux First Growths and Grand Cru white Burgundies. Founder Paul Draper has practised and engendered a practical, hands-off approach to winemaking at Ridge, one that has resulted in an exceptional and highly sought-after range of wines.

A dry, warm winter prompted unusually early bud break; the small crop alleviated some water stress on the vines. Destemmed, the grapes fermented as whole berries, and were pressed on the seventh day. After barrel malolactics and fourmonths on their gross lees, the six lots were racked, combined, and returned to barrel; rich texture and intense mountain fruit supported a high percentage of new oak in aging. Enjoyable now, this superb vintage will develop further complexity to 2023.

In the words of Antonio Galloni of Vinous.com – “I don't think there is a finer California Cabernet Sauvignon today at this price, but if there is, I would like to taste it!”. Ridge vineyards has scored highly again at a London re-run of the Judgement of Paris, 40 years on from the original tasting. The 2005 Ridge Monte Bello came 3rd out of 11 wines beating the likes of Chx. Montrose, Mouton-Rothschild & Léoville las Cases.

The superbly crafted Estate Cabernet Sauvignon joined the range in 1979 to offer a softer, earlier drinking companion to the famed Monte Bello, produced from vines deemed to be too young for the Monte Bello proprietary red. 

The bonus with this wine is that it may be from declassified “Grand vin” grapes whereby affording the drinking a taste in the form of a “Baby Monte Bello” but at a 1/3 of the price. The wines of Ridge confirm that they can compete with the best in the world. 

A second year of drought led to a mild winter, and February budbreak. The unusually early start, small crop, and warm summer, moved the harvest from October to September for the first time in fifty years. Tannins extracted quickly, and we pressed at five days to maintain balance. We selected and combined seventeen lots which were then aged in new and one-year-old american oak for twenty months.

This fine vintage has intensity, firm acid, and a complex mineral element. Enjoyable now, it will develop fully over the next decade to 2026.
75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc

A great vintage for a perennially high class ‘Californian Cabernet’ has produced a wine of intense colour with ripe, dark fruit, well balanced tannins and a lovely seductive sweetness at the finish. Jancis Robinson goes so far as to describe it as “almost Lafite like in its raciness”.

The 2011 Monte Bello (87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc) emerges from the glass with tobacco, grilled herbs, smoke, incense and plums melding together in this soft, beautifully textured Monte Bello. The 2011 is a wine of exceptional textural finesse. The 100% new oak is totally integrated. In 2011, Ridge used a total of 18 of a possible 24 lots for the final blend. The presence of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon is the highest since the 1980s. I expect the 2011 to be a relatively early drinking Monte Bello, but time will be the judge.
Antonio Galloni - Wine Advocate - Issue#202 Aug 2012

Ridge Vineyards makes wines that compete in terms of quality and desirability with Bordeaux First Growths and Grand Cru white Burgundies. Founder Paul Draper has practised and engendered a practical, hands-off approach to winemaking at Ridge, one that has resulted in an exceptional and highly sought-after range of wines.

A dry, mild winter left the vines short of water. Fortunately summer fog cooled the nights, reducing stress. The grapes from each parcel where whole-cluster pressed and barrel fermented as separate lots. During malolactic, lees stirring added complexity. Fresh and wonderfully aromatic, this fine Chardonnay shows the elegance of the vintage.