2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

2008 ridge estate

Varietal Information

Monte Bello Vineyard
75% cabernet sauvignon, 20% merlot,
3% petit verdot, 2% cabernet franc
13.5% alcohol by volume

History

In 1886, the Monte Bello vineyard was first planted and construction on the winery begun. The first vintage was in 1892. In the early 1940s, the last of the old vineyard was abandoned; in the late forties a few blocks were replanted. Those cabernet vines - now sixty years old - produced the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until the mid-seventies. By then, abandoned blocks replanted during the sixties were maturing, and their fruit considered for use in the Monte Bello. A number of those consistently produced a more accessible wine that developed its full complexity earlier and these were combined as the "Santa Cruz Mountains". With the 2008 vintage the name of this stylistically distinct wine became Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, stressing the varietal and the vineyard as its source.

Vintage

Harvest Dates: 29 September - 21 October
Grapes: Average Brix: 24.5 degrees
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed, 60% full crush, 40% whole berries. Fermented on the native yeasts. Pressed at six days. Natural malolactic (half in barrel, half in tank).
Selection: Twenty-four Estate cabernet parcels make up this wine.
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak barrels; (40% new, 50% one year old, and 10% two years old).
Aging: Twenty months in barrel

Growing Season

Rainfall: 30 inches (just below normal)
Bloom: Early June
Weather: Moderate summer and fall

Winemaking

All estate grown grapes, hand harvested. Destemmed and sorted. Fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria. 24mg/liter calcium carbonate were added to two of the forty-three small fermentors to moderate very firm acidity and 36/100 of one percent rehydration (added to one fermentor of cabernet) during fermentation; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 180 ppm over the course of aging); fresh egg white fining to moderate tannins. Pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Winemaker Tasting Notes

Opaque garnet color. Layered cassis and blackberry, fennel, dark chocolate, limestone/mineral notes, toasty oak. Complex fruit, tannins, and oak are impressively balanced. Drinkable now, and over the next fifteen years. -Eric Baugher (2/11)

Tasting Notes and Reviews


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