RIDGE Featured in “Santa Cruz Cabernet Proliferates”
JancisRobinson.com
June 2025
In his new article for JancisRobinson.com, writer Alder Yarrow talks about the history of the cabernet grape in the Santa Cruz Mountains and credits the longtime reputation of our flagship wine, Monte Bello, with introducing wine enthusiasts to the caliber of wines grown in this lesser-known California AVA. The article features his favorite “hidden gem” cabernets from the region, including two library vintages of Monte Bello.
“Thanks to the perennially outstanding wine from Ridge’s Monte Bello vineyard, California’s Santa Cruz Mountains have been associated with high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon in the minds of many wine lovers since at least the famous Paris Tasting of 1976.”
“The secret is out on these hidden gems, some of the best California Cabernet on the market today.”
The article goes on to share that since the first cabernet grapes showed up in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1940s, the area has become much more well-known for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir because of its cool climate and high elevation, in which Burgundian varieties thrive. Despite that, an increasing number of small producers are making “elegant, lower-alcohol, herb-inflected” Cabernet Sauvignon that harkens back to the style found in the late 1970s and early 1980s in California.
Cabernet Styles: Napa vs Santa Cruz Mountains
“Fifty years ago, the stylistic differences between Napa Cabernet and Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet were minimal. Today, a wide gulf separates them.” While Napa Cabernet has leaned toward a more opulent style with greater ripeness in recent years, Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernets are still characterized as lean and herbaceous with an “understated elegance” and moderate alcohol.
Hidden Gem Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernets
Yarrow features two vintages of Ridge Monte Bello among his top picks for Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet. “For now, these vibrant, fresh, claret-style Cabernets still qualify as hidden gems. But maybe not for long.”
2013 Monte Bello
“Very dark garnet. Smells of crushed nuts, coconut and whisky barrel. Beautifully billowy tannins provide a bed for gorgeous flavours of cherry, cedar and earth, overshadowed at first by the strong coconut and whisky-barrel flavours of American oak, which lessen with some air in the glass, revealing the sweet, gorgeous fruit and earth. The wine is tremendous, but will improve for the next ten years of cellaring, especially as the American oak melds into the wine. The harmony and balance of fruit, earth and acidity is undeniably fine and mouth-watering in its current state.” Rating: 19
2015 Monte Bello
“Aromas of wet earth, green herbs and a touch of coconut and liquorice. Flavours of cherry and green herbs are wrapped in a gauzy haze of fine-grained tannins and shot through with notes of dried flowers, a touch of gunsmoke and whisky barrel. The oak seems much better integrated in this vintage than in recent new releases, at least to my memory. Excellent acidity and gorgeous freshness make this quite appealing to drink even now, though we all know it will be so much better in a decade or more.” Rating: 19
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