2008 Lytton Springs

The range at Ridge continues to expand with a number of vineyard-designate bottlings that offer something for every palate. The 2021 reds I tasted for this report are all terrific and worth seeking out. I found the 2020 Monte Bello and Estate Cabernet Sauvignon problematic. Both wines show clear signs of smoke taint. I can’t say I am terribly surprised. The Monte Bello was tainted when I tasted it from barrel, but that was during the COVID-19 lockdown. At the time, my hope was that I had received a less-than-perfect sample, but in the end, it was pretty representative of the finished wine.

Readers will find a number of terrific wines among these new releases from Ridge. Over the last few years Ridge has expanded their offerings, which means the highlights aren't always the usual suspects. I have kept drinking windows compact for the 2020s out of an abundance of caution. Other than that, there's not much left to say other than there's plenty to like.

Ridge manages to pull off the impossible, which is to excel in both larger-volume, commercial bottlings while also offering a number of small production, niche wines that will appeal to the nerdiest of wine lovers. The range continues to expand, which makes it a challenge to keep up, but a very fun challenge. “Over the last few years we have gotten more comfortable with smaller volume wines than in the past,” said John Olney, a Ridge veteran who spent more than twenty years running the Lytton Springs Estate before being promoted to his current role as Head Winemaker and COO.

There are a ton of compelling wines in this range beyond the obvious Geyserville, Lytton Springs and Monte Bello. The 2019 Zinfandel Pagani Ranch, Syrah Grenache Mataro Lytton Estate and Carignane Buchignani Ranch are all wines I would love to own. I do have concerns about some of the 2020s, including the Monte Bello, which has been problematic in two separate tastings from barrel. I would approach the 2020s with caution.

I tasted more wines than ever at Ridge this year. Not that I am complaining, as this collection is jam-packed with fabulous wines that will delight Ridge fans. Mild weather with no heat spikes created conditions for even ripening in 2018. As I have already written previously, 2018 is an absolutely magical vintage for Sonoma County. The 2018 Zinfandel and Zinfandel-based wines are off the charts gorgeous, with a level of purity I am not sure I have seen before. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, 2018 yielded wines that are gracious and silky, but also a bit restrained. Ridge’s 2017s are shaping up to be magnificent. It was a cold, wet year for much of the growing season. Whereas some regions in California struggled under the Labor Day heat spikes, Ridge really needed that final burst of heat to get ripe. The 2017s, the reds in particular, are breathtaking. Lastly, the 2019 Monte Bello is a wonderfully suggestive wine. Will all the 2019s be as compelling?

A visit to Ridge is always a highlight to any trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Among other things, Ridge keeps a fairly extensive library of older wines, some of which later become re-releases, which provides a great opportunity to see how some of the flagship wines develop over time. Speaking specifically about the wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains, Winemaker Eric Baugher commented "2017 was a really cool vintage until those Labor Day heat spikes. Frankly, we needed that burst of heat to get fully ripe up here." As for the wines, they are truly beautiful across the board. In whites, readers will find a new Grenache Blanc from the Adelaida estate in Paso Robles. The 2017 Chardonnay Estate is an intriguing pre-cursor to the Monte Bello Chardonnay, which is not released yet. The 2017 Zinfandel and Zinfandel-based wines are all incredibly delicious, with Lytton Springs leading the way. Among the Bordeaux reds, the 2016 Monte Bello is epic, while the 2017 is extremely promising and the 2018 young, but all finesse. The wine I want to call readers' attention to most, though, is Ridge's Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, the little brother of Monte Bello, which is also one of the single greatest values in California Cabernet Sauvignon.

This set of new releases from Ridge is full of highlights. For starters, the 2016 Zinfandels are outrageously beautiful and confirm my impressions from tastings earlier in the year. The 2016s are fresh, nuanced and deeply impressive wines. The flagship Monte Bello is equally compelling. Speaking of Monte Bello, Paul Draper and Eric Baugher opened a handful of older vintages going back to 1971 during my most recent visit. I have included notes on those wines here for future reference.

Winemaker Eric Baugher showed me an extensive range of new and upcoming releases during my most recent visit, including a handful of older Monte Bellos that I wrote about in my article Seven Classics from Ridge and forthcoming library releases of the Geyserville and Lytton Springs that are reviewed here. Despite the effects of drought, two thousand fourteen turned out to be an outstanding vintage for Bordeaux varieties, not just in terms of quality but also in production. Ridge bottled all of their small lot Merlots and Cabernets, which means that readers with an interest in exploring the nuances of the various ranches that make up the present-day estate will have many different choices with which to do that. All varieties ripened within a fairly compact time range, which meant most of harvest took place within just three weeks or so.

This is an absolutely stellar set of wines from Ridge. For starters, Ridge enjoyed what I can only describe as a sensational vintage in 2013, especially for the Bordeaux varieties. The Cabernet Estate and Monte Bello are both exceptional, while a number of wines in the Historic Vineyard series are compelling. Zinfandel fans will find much to like in the 2014s, a vintage that produced super-elegant wines. Of course, the biggest news at Ridge is Paul Draper's retirement, but then again, that has been in the works for so long that it was hardly a surprise when it was formally announced earlier this summer. As one of the foremost ambassadors of American wine, Draper leaves behind a rich legacy at Ridge going back to 1969 and a team that is more than capable of leading the winery into the next generation.

My most recent visit to Ridge was unforgettable, as I had a chance to taste a number of older vintages with Paul Draper, winemaker Eric Baugher and vineyard manager David Gates. Notes from that vertical, which went back to 1969, can be found here. The big news at Ridge is that the winery recently closed on a long-term arrangement with the New Peninsula Open Space District that gives Ridge agricultural rights in perpetuity to 40 acres of vineyard land encompassing old Monte Bello Blocks on the southern and eastern edges of the ranch that Ridge has previously not had access to.

As is my custom, I have included Ridge's Sonoma wines here for ease of reference. Readers should note that in 2012 Ridge did not produce their Historic Vineyard Series wines, as all the fruit was used for the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Monte Bello bottlings. Ridge fans can look forward to a number of special bottlings for the 2013 vintage, including a Monte Bello Historic Vines and Monte Bello Steep Terraces, both of which are shaping up to be magnificent. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the 2014 Lytton Springs on this visit, but I report back on that wine as soon as is practical.

Ridge remains one of the finest operations I visit anywhere in the world. The total commitment to quality, value and customer service simply has no equal in this country. Although the flagship Monte Bello, Lytton Springs and Geyserville bottlings get most of the attention, the Three Valleys Zinfandel is a reliably outstanding value, while the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is the finest California Cabernet Sauvignon in its price range.

Ridge remains one of the most consistent and brilliant wineries in the United States. This is a fabulous set of new releases from the winemaking team headed by Paul Draper and Eric Baugher. Once again, I tasted a number of wines from Ridge's Historic Vineyard series, small production bottlings that are essentially lots that did not make into the Monte Bello blend. For ease of reference I have also included Ridge's Sonoma wines in this article.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.

Ridge remains one of the most consistent and brilliant wineries in the United States. This is a fabulous set of new releases from the winemaking team headed by Paul Draper and Eric Baugher. Once again, I tasted a number of wines from Ridge's Historic Vineyard series, small production bottlings that are essentially lots that did not make into the Monte Bello blend. For ease of reference I have also included Ridge's Sonoma wines in this article.

If a formal Bordeaux-like classification existed for US wineries, Ridge would be at the top of the list. Endowed with a stunning set of terroirs, the vision of Paul Draper and the talent of winemaker Eric Baugher, Ridge is set to build on an extraordinary legacy of world-class wines. Ridge is one of the best and most intelligently run wineries anywhere in the world. In addition to this gorgeous set of current and upcoming releases, I am also including notes on a few library releases I tasted during my last visit. Prices remain exceedingly fair for what are world-class wines in every way.

If a formal Bordeaux-like classification existed for US wineries, Ridge would be at the top of the list. Endowed with a stunning set of terroirs, the vision of Paul Draper and the talent of winemaker Eric Baugher, Ridge is set to build on an extraordinary legacy of world-class wines. Ridge is one of the best and most intelligently run wineries anywhere in the world. In addition to this gorgeous set of current and upcoming releases, I am also including notes on a few library releases I tasted during my last visit. Prices remain exceedingly fair for what are world-class wines in every way.

Indiana Jones and I have one thing in common – a fear of snakes. That is why every time I see the sign in the Ridge parking lot that reads “Beware of rattlesnakes,” I get a little uneasy. So it's quickly into the tasting room for me. Winemaker Eric Baugher and his team have prepared a great tasting covering all of the Ridge classics, plus a few smaller-production bottlings I am tasting for the first time. This is a sublime set of new releases from one of this country's greatest heritage wineries. It's hard to know where to start, but the highlights are the 2009 Monte Bello, followed by the 2010, which will be released this year, plus some of the Zinfandels and Zinfandel-based wines. The 2010 harvest was not an easy one. The summer was very cold, as it was throughout California. Ridge was severely affected by August heat spikes that were crippling for Zinfandel. The wines that were bottled are the result of a severe selection of the best fruit that survived the heat.

Indiana Jones and I have one thing in common – a fear of snakes. That is why every time I see the sign in the Ridge parking lot that reads “Beware of rattlesnakes,” I get a little uneasy. So it's quickly into the tasting room for me. Winemaker Eric Baugher and his team have prepared a great tasting covering all of the Ridge classics, plus a few smaller-production bottlings I am tasting for the first time. This is a sublime set of new releases from one of this country's greatest heritage wineries. It's hard to know where to start, but the highlights are the 2009 Monte Bello, followed by the 2010, which will be released this year, plus some of the Zinfandels and Zinfandel-based wines. The 2010 harvest was not an easy one. The summer was very cold, as it was throughout California. Ridge was severely affected by August heat spikes that were crippling for Zinfandel. The wines that were bottled are the result of a severe selection of the best fruit that survived the heat.

I tasted a breathtaking array of wines during my recent visit with Paul Draper at Ridge. Draper is a true American icon, so it's great to see him doing well after a bout with illness. I also tasted a number of older wines, including several Monte Bellos going back to the 1970s. Heretical as it may sound, I think the wines Draper is making today will prove to be far superior to the wines of decades past, many of which are rightly considered legendary. For ease of reference I have also included notes on all of the Ridge wines made outside the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Chardonnays are fermented with native yeasts and go into barrel with their gross lees, which are stirred once a week. The malos usually start the following spring. The wines are assembled just before the following harvest and go back into neutral oak. Aging is about 15 months for the Estate and 17 months for the Chardonnay Monte Bello, with a maximum of 25% new barrels. The reds are fermented with ambient yeasts, undergo malolactic fermentation in tank (except for the Monte Bello which is mostly done in barrel) and stay on their gross lees until the following spring.

Winemaker Eric Baugher showed me an extensive range of new and upcoming releases during my most recent visit, including a handful of older Monte Bellos that I wrote about in my article Seven Classics from Ridge and forthcoming library releases of the Geyserville and Lytton Springs that are reviewed here. Despite the effects of drought, two thousand fourteen turned out to be an outstanding vintage for Bordeaux varieties, not just in terms of quality but also in production. Ridge bottled all of their small lot Merlots and Cabernets, which means that readers with an interest in exploring the nuances of the various ranches that make up the present-day estate will have many different choices with which to do that. All varieties ripened within a fairly compact time range, which meant most of harvest took place within just three weeks or so.

I tasted a breathtaking array of wines during my recent visit with Paul Draper at Ridge. Draper is a true American icon, so it's great to see him doing well after a bout with illness. I also tasted a number of older wines, including several Monte Bellos going back to the 1970s. Heretical as it may sound, I think the wines Draper is making today will prove to be far superior to the wines of decades past, many of which are rightly considered legendary. For ease of reference I have also included notes on all of the Ridge wines made outside the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Chardonnays are fermented with native yeasts and go into barrel with their gross lees, which are stirred once a week. The malos usually start the following spring. The wines are assembled just before the following harvest and go back into neutral oak. Aging is about 15 months for the Estate and 17 months for the Chardonnay Monte Bello, with a maximum of 25% new barrels. The reds are fermented with ambient yeasts, undergo malolactic fermentation in tank (except for the Monte Bello which is mostly done in barrel) and stay on their gross lees until the following spring.

A visit to Ridge is always a highlight to any trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Among other things, Ridge keeps a fairly extensive library of older wines, some of which later become re-releases, which provides a great opportunity to see how some of the flagship wines develop over time. Speaking specifically about the wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains, Winemaker Eric Baugher commented "2017 was a really cool vintage until those Labor Day heat spikes. Frankly, we needed that burst of heat to get fully ripe up here." As for the wines, they are truly beautiful across the board. In whites, readers will find a new Grenache Blanc from the Adelaida estate in Paso Robles. The 2017 Chardonnay Estate is an intriguing pre-cursor to the Monte Bello Chardonnay, which is not released yet. The 2017 Zinfandel and Zinfandel-based wines are all incredibly delicious, with Lytton Springs leading the way. Among the Bordeaux reds, the 2016 Monte Bello is epic, while the 2017 is extremely promising and the 2018 young, but all finesse. The wine I want to call readers' attention to most, though, is Ridge's Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, the little brother of Monte Bello, which is also one of the single greatest values in California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.

Ridge Vineyards was one of the earliest champions of single-vineyard Zinfandels from ancient vines. Their top two estate bottlings have admirably withstood the test of time.

This double vertical had two objectives: first, to make the point that these are seriously nuanced, balanced wines that age slowly and gracefully, and second, and perhaps more important, to demonstrate that they are distinctly different wines that accurately reflect their terroirs (“they’re from two totally different climates,” noted Paul Draper) despite the fact that the two sites are only a few miles apart as the crow flies.

To highlight the differences between these two bottlings, Draper presented each pair blind, beginning with the 1973s, now 45 years old, and asked the tasting participants to guess which was which. But he provided us with a few helpful clues before we began, first calling on John Olney, Chief Operating Officer and longtime winemaker at Lytton Springs (where Olney oversaw the construction of a mostly solar-powered straw bale and vineyard clay winery beginning in 1999), to fill us in on the Lytton Springs bottling. Then Eric Baugher, a microbiologist and Ridge veteran who is now winemaker and Chief Operating Officer at the company’s Monte Bello winery, followed with a capsule description of the Geyserville wine, which has been made at Monte Bello since the outset.