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2000 Monte Bello, bottled March 200175% cabernet sauvignon, 23% merlot, 2% cabernet francVineyard Production: 113 tons from 108 acresSelection: 43%For the first time in three years, the growing season began on schedule. In early June, however, cold wet winds directly off the Pacific caught the Monte Bello vines in bloom. Though this cut down the number of berries, it reduced berry size as well, improving the odds for ripeness and intensity at harvest. Despite several very warm days in August, and again in September, the season was cool. Merlot came in between the first and fifteenth of October, followed by the cabernet. After a natural primary fermentation, most of the lots completed a natural malolactic in barrel, the rest in tank. As part of our ongoing comparison, over ninety percent was aged in new, air-dried american oak, the remainder in new french oak. Twenty-one of the thirty-four parcels were chosen for this wine. In January of its second winter, a quarter of the barrels were heavily fined with fresh egg whites — the equivalent of five per barrel for the entire lot. The 2000 Monte Bello, one of the finest wines of this vintage in California, celebrates the end of a century and the beginning of another. Complex and beautifully balanced, its full promise will be apparent with six years of bottle age. PD (3/02)
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© 2010, Ridge Vineyards.
