Ridge Winery

Off the beaten path in regards to California wine country; sits the Ridge Winery high up in the hills just outside of San Jose. This winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains has a long and distinguished history in California winemaking. The winery itself dates back to 1885 when a man by the name of Osea Perrone bought 180 acres on top of the “Monte Bello” ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco. His first vintage under the “Monte Bello” label was produced in 1892. The winery was later abandoned in 1920 due to prohibition, same as a lot of other wineries in California at that time, and did not really get going again until a group of Stanford Research Institute engineers started making wine in the mid 1960’s. They were making small amounts of wine but the wine itself was considered to be some of the best being produced in this time. Then in 1969 a man by the name of Paul Draper joined the team and with minimal experience they moved forward with a really “old world” or traditional method of winemaking. Today with Draper still in charge, Ridge is producing mostly Cabernet and Zinfandel and this estate continues to use this very minimal, all single vineyard approach to their winemaking. They also purchased a property in Lytton Springs; a vineyard site in Sonoma County. These are definitely some of my favorite wines produced domestically. By the way, this winery was involved in the “Judgment of Paris” wine tasting in 1976. Ridge came in fifth among the other California and French wines. When they had the 30th anniversary of the tasting in 2006, the 1971 and 2001 vintages of Monte Bello Cabernets came in first place in the original and new vintage categories.
Ridge uses the term “Pre-industrial winemaking” to describe their method of making wine. They have a great website that explains in depth what this term means, but in short it is just a very minimal, hands’ off approach to winemaking. They are essentially old school methods of hand harvesting site specific wines using native yeasts and minimal intervention in the winemaking process. The final product allows for great intensity and very different tasting wines although they may be the same varietals.
As far as the wines are concerned; their Great! The Monte Bello is such an iconic wine as far as domestic wine is concerned and it still delivers. Some of the best Cabernet I have tasted. I have to admit I am not usually a big California Zinfandel fan, but the options from Ridge are so different from typical Zinfandel and quite good to be honest. The different sites really offer great variety in flavor and the wines are really well balanced, not over the top,
This was a really great visit and believe me the wines are amazing. We do carry a number of Ridge wines here at the store and our selection tends to vary depending on availability.

Enjoy as always,

Nick
Wine Buyer, West Vail Liquor Mart