Wine Talk --- $400 Bottle's Too High? Try Its $18 Cousin
2001 THREE VALLEYS
New York Times 09-2003
Frank J. Prial
Correction: September 17, 2003, Wednesday
The Wine Talk column last Wednesday, about winemakers that sell cheaper lines in addition to their premium labels, gave an erroneous name at one point for a premium zinfandel made by Ridge Vineyards. As noted elsewhere in the column, it is Geyserville, not Geyser Peak.
$400 Bottle's Too High? Try Its $18 Cousin
September 10, 2003
By FRANK J. PRIAL
WINEMAKERS have reacted in a variety of ways to the
continuing economic downturn. Some have simply ignored it.
The 2000 vintage Bordeaux, which sold at record prices, are
gone with the exception of a few leftovers, like Cheval
Blanc at $800 a bottle or Leoville-Barton at $235. Cult
cabernets from the Napa Valley still command $200, even
$300 a bottle and $100 a bottle, once a shocking excess, is
now commonplace. Restaurants, the top ones anyway, roll
blithely on, their wine lists seemingly recession-proof.
Just the other day, in a moderately expensive place in New
York, I discovered a Corton-Charlemagne at $1,300. A good
fish wine.
On a more realistic level, prices have indeed dropped.
Newsletters and magazines for wine fans are vying with each
other these days to offer the best lists of "wine bargains"
or "wines under $10." Grape surpluses everywhere have made
it easy to offer wines at rock bottom prices. Witness the
success, however ephemeral, of the $2 California wine from
Charles Shaw, better known as "Two Buck Chuck."
Premium wine producers, mindful of their reputations, have
been pressed to find more ingenious ways to move down the
economic ladder. Some, like Robert Mondavi or the big
Australian winemakers, already have separate labels at
different price levels. For a smaller prestige producer the
problem can be trickier. Ridge Vineyards, in Cupertino,
Calif., is an interesting example.
For almost 40 years, Ridge has managed to combine tradition
and innovation. It is a cult winery with fiercely loyal
fans who collect its great cabernet sauvignon-based wine
called Monte Bello and its zinfandels like Lytton Springs
and Geyser Peak [sic]. At the same time it is known for its
steady output of intriguing, often unique wines made from
unusual grapes or blends of grapes bypassed by others.
This year, to reflect the current emphasis on economy,
Ridge has introduced a zinfandel-based Sonoma County wine
called Three Valleys. The grapes come from young vines in
six vineyards in the Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River
valleys in northern and northwestern Sonoma. Two of the
vineyards are owned by Ridge. The wine has a geographic
rather than a varietal or grape name because there is not
enough of any single grape in the blend to qualify it for a
varietal name. The varieties in Three Valleys are 50
percent zinfandel, 15 percent each of petite sirah and
carignane, 11 percent mataro (called mourvedre in France),
and 9 percent grenache. By law a wine must contain 75
percent of one grape variety to bear its name.
Most of these grapes were planted in recent years. In
better times they would be permitted to grow to maturity
and become part of Ridge's "site specific" wines. In other
words, wine identified by the name of the grape and the
vineyard, a Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel, for example.
Like many premium California wineries, Ridge has several
tiers or levels of quality. The top wines come from
cosseted older vines - some of them more than 100 years
old. These vines often produce the best fruit but very
little of it, making the cost of the wine produced from
them correspondingly high.
Along with Monte Bello, which is an ever-changing blend of
(mostly) cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot and
cabernet franc, these wines include zinfandels from Lytton
Springs, Geyserville, Pagani Ranch, York Creek and Paso
Robles.
Second-tier wines also come from the best mature vines but
not from the best batches. A wine like Monte Bello may be
put together from 30 or more separate lots of wine. The
grapes from different parts of the vineyard are vinified
separately and blended later. Just as in Bordeaux, some
lots of wine, even from the best grapes, fail to make the
cut and go into a second-tier wine. "In a perfect world,
the whole crop would be worthy of the final blend," said
Donn Reisen, Ridge's winemaker, "but this never happens."
Grapes meant for but ultimately excluded from the Monte
Bello, mostly end up in Ridge's second-tier - and less
expensive - cabernet blend called Santa Cruz Mountains.
Sonoma Station is the name of a second-tier predominantly
zinfandel blend made at Lytton Springs in Sonoma. It is
composed of mature vineyard lots that failed to make it
into the best-known Ridge zinfandels. As a blend, it
resembles the new Three Valleys, which is a third-tier
wine.
In some vintages, the top wines may not appear at all.
Almost since its inception, Ridge has made a small quantity
of chardonnay with, again, the best going under the Monte
Bello label. In 2001, not enough was thought to be of Monte
Bello quality so it came out as Santa Cruz Mountains
chardonnay.
Prices reflect a wine's place on the Ridge quality scale.
Most of the single-vineyard zinfandels range from around
$25 to $35. The most recent Sonoma Station is $20 at the
winery; the New Three Valleys is $18. The 2000 Monte Bello
is $120 at the winery but so rare in the open market that
it can sell for $175 or more in retail shops. Older Monte
Bellos are extremely hard to find and their prices reflect
as much. The 1978 sells for $400 a bottle and up; the 1981
for $350 or more.
None of Ridge's wines are made in huge quantities but wines
like Sonoma Station and Three Valleys should not be
difficult to find. Most good shops carry at least a few of
the top zinfandels as well. Ridge has long been a proponent
of ripe, powerful, high-alcohol wines, a style widely
adopted in California in recent years. Many of the newer
versions of these wines resemble ungainly ports more than
they do table wines. Not so Ridge wines. At their best,
they are big but elegant, intense but nuanced. And, thanks
to clever resource management, at least some of them are
quite affordable.
