2007 Geyserville

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 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.