New Scores From Vinous
Vinous
October 2024
In his fall 2024 Santa Cruz Mountains report, Billy Norris at Vinous, touts RIDGE as “the stalwart of distinctive, site-driven blends from across California” and awards several outstanding scores, including 97 points for our 2021 Monte Bello.
2016 Monte Bello
Santa Cruz Mountains | 100 Points
The 2016 Monte Bello is a masterful expression of this lauded site in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s powerful, broad and infinitely layered, but it also possesses an incredibly finessed tannin structure that speaks clearly and forcefully but yields dutifully. Saturated blueberry, gravel, eucalyptus, charcoal, cedar and India ink build gradually and steadily through the long and sizzling finish. Just beginning to soften and develop beyond the primary stage, it wouldn’t be a crime to open a bottle now, but this has many, many lives left to live and should be even better (if you can fathom) in a few more years. This is what Monte Bello is all about.
2021 Monte Bello
Santa Cruz Mountains | 97 Points
The 2021 Monte Bello is a top-tier wine from this reverential site in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The blend contains quite a bit more Merlot than usual (31%), which is a reflection of reduced Cabernet yields stemming from the drought-riddled 2021 growing season. Broad, infinitely layered and rooted in deep spice tones, the 2021 opens with a forceful kick of wild blackberry and orange peel, delving deeper into complex layers of black olive, new leather, violet and sweet pipe tobacco. Surprisingly giving and undeniably fresh, the 2021 is precise, laser-focused and propulsive, stationing the midline of the palate with an army of well-honed tannins and culminating in a finish that seemingly never ends. This is everything Monte Bello should be.
2017 Monte Bello
Santa Cruz Mountains | 97 Points
The 2017 Monte Bello is fully in the zone. You can pull the cork today without a single qualm or fear that you’re arriving at the party many years too early. The aromas and flavors have developed really nicely, and it’s in a beautiful spot for drinking. A more exotic, voluptuous, exuberant Monte Bello, it oozes with an array of spices and sweet black fruit, accented by toasted sugar, spearmint, cedar and crushed rocks. The tannins have laid down their swords and jumped in the pool with everyone else. Delicious.
2015 Monte Bello
Santa Cruz Mountains | 96 Points
The 2015 Monte Bello is still a well-protected fortress of a wine. A more red-fruited and tobacco-laden Monte Bello, it’s mouthwateringly juicy and stubbornly tightly wound, giving rise to the question of whether it will ever let its guard down. Even so, the stuffing is undeniably there, so you might as well just keep waiting. Of course, the risk is that this wine may outlast all of us before it ever truly gives up the goods. Check on it again in five years.
2021 Monte Bello Chardonnay
Santa Cruz Mountains | 94 Points
Rich, flinty and nutty, the 2021 Chardonnay Monte Bello is a voluptuous, curvaceous, rounded wine. It oozes with flickers of reduction, diving into ripe yellow plum, toasted hazelnut, sweet cream butter and a salty core of mineral tension. It could really use a bit more energy to help shoulder all that weight. Nonetheless, it’s admirable in its concentration and richness. The 2021 is an excellent, though not exceptional, edition of Monte Bello Chardonnay.
2022 Geyserville
Alexander Valley | 94 Points
A blend of 67% Zinfandel, 20% Carignane, 10% Petite Sirah and 3% Mourvèdre, the 2022 Geyserville is packed to the gills with purple fruit and a ridiculous amount of spice—exotic spice, brown spice, baking spice, you name it. Blueberry, black plum, new leather, menthol and tobacco explode from the glass, all wrapped up in forceful, imposing tannins. A kick of mocha/espresso-scented toasty oak rounds out the finish. This is a take-no-prisoners rendition of Geyserville that will definitely benefit from some sideways time in the cellar.
2022 Lytton Springs
Dry Creek Valley | 94 Points
The 2022 Lytton Springs 50th Anniversary is a characterful edition of this classic cuvée, notable for its élevage in only American oak. Exuberant cherry/berry fruit and licorice meet with grilled herbs, tanned leather, vanilla and dill, all energized by juicy acidity. This is a large-scale wine that will certainly stand the test of time. The clarity and precision here are commendable, especially packaged in such a broad-shouldered frame. Fabulous.
2022 Pagani Ranch Zinfandel
Sonoma Valley | 93 Points
The 2022 Zinfandel Pagani Ranch smells like the freshest orange juice imaginable. Dump that orange juice on a pile of smashed blueberries and pulverized rocks, then crush some rosemary in your palm over the top of the whole ordeal, and you’ll get an idea of the uniquely Pagani expression here. The old vines convey so much depth and seriousness. There’s ample nuance and energy to burn.
2021 Lytton Estate Petite Sirah
Dry Creek Valley | 93 Points
Comprising 100% Petite Sirah from Ridge’s Lytton Estate in the Dry Creek Valley, the 2021 Petite Sirah Estate is a brooding, savory, forbiddingly tannic red that clubs you over the head with power and intensity. Leather, oil-cured olive, lavender and sappy blackberry fruit run through this particularly rustic, animalistic edition of Lytton Petite. The fruit is plush and velvety beneath the monstrous structure, but it’s going to take a while to settle this beast down.
2022 Estate Chardonnay
Santa Cruz Mountains | 92 Points
Ridge’s 2022 Chardonnay Estate is full-bodied, deeply flavored and ready to play. Still reductive and overtly displaying American oak’s vanilla/dill hallmarks, there’s a tempting sweetness to its honeyed peach, chamomile and wood spice tones that makes this very satisfying today. Ample textural harmony rides through the finish, embracing the palate like a warm hug. That said, it lacks motivating energy and verve, falling ever-so-slightly flat on the close.
2021 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Santa Cruz Mountains | 92 Points
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and 16% Merlot, is tight and compact, boasting a stern mineral core and a truckload of spiced black fruit. Plum, blackberry, tar, eucalyptus and iodine all live behind a wall of searing tannins, but there’s a nice airy, floral lift and a balancing proportion of creamy oak that implies roundness For now, hands off, but this is a serious wine.
2022 Three Valleys
Sonoma County | 91 Points
A blend of 65% Zinfandel, 16% Carignane and 14% Petite Sirah, the 2022 Three Valleys is super-welcoming and disarming from the get-go. A superb introduction to the Ridge house style, it balances the savory and the fruity—tobacco, cedar, dark berry fruit and loads of spice, all hemmed in by fresh acidity and insistent but yielding tannins. It’s hard to go wrong here.
2022 Paso Robles Zinfandel
Santa Cruz Mountains | 91 Points
The 2022 Zinfandel Paso Robles is very aromatic and expressive, belying any heaviness, overripeness or heat one might expect from this warm region in a warm season. Spiced cherry, blood orange, tobacco, cinnamon and leather layer atop a tense, slightly edgy mineral core that keeps this abundantly fresh. Surprisingly, it is light on its feet, especially considering the inclusion of 5% Petite Sirah in the blend (mainly perceptible in the wine’s purplish hue), and it goes down easily. Drink it any time over the next six to eight years.
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