Welcome, Summer

To celebrate the Labor Day weekend and the true start of summer weather in San Francisco, I toasted at Ridge Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ridge prides itself on vineyard specific wines made in pre-industrial methods, including no irrigation. With careful vineyard selection and steep hillside plantings, the vines have to work for their nutrients and water, resulting in complex wines with good acidity and balanced structures. I've been a big fan of Ridge since moving to California, and it was nice to get back up to Monte Bello.

Ridge Chardonnay is always a welcome way to start, since theirs is quite Burgundian in style, with freshness balanced by creaminess. This one came from the Jimsomare property further down the mountain. Minimal new oak makes this a very approachable and refreshing wine, not your typical heavy California chard.

While traditionally focused on blends, a couple years ago Ridge decided to do a series of Monte Bello components - single varietal wines from the grapes that make up their famous Bordeaux style Monte Bello wine, a varying blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. These wines also showcase the vineyards from which they came. The Perrone Merlot comes from the Perrone property on the mountain and uses the grapes from the upper tier specifically, which is attached to a natural spring for a water source. The 2010 Perrone Merlot has a beautiful nose of black tea and red fruit, approachable on the palate now but with enough tannin to age several more years. We contrasted this wine with the 2011 Estate Merlot, which includes fruit from the Torre property as well, which contributes dry, dusty tannins and herbaceous flavors.

Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has tricked me before, and I'm always surprised how much I love this wine. While I find most young California Cabs to be too big, too jammy, too tannic, Ridge hits the mark exactly right, with an approachable, delicious wine with acidity and balance. The 2011 Estate Cab has a finer tannin structure that makes this wine very smooth, and the brambly, chocolate flavors cannot be beat. Even my sister, a Cab-hater, enjoyed this wine and bought a bottle.

Next we tried the Ridge 2011 Monte Bello, which did not have any Petit Verdot this vintage. The butterscotch nose and brambly fruit were delicious, and I can tell this will be a really enjoyable wine in several years once the tannins have had a chance to mellow.

On the Zin side of things, which mostly come from vineyards in Sonoma County, we enjoyed fruity Geyserville and East Bench and spicy Lytton Springs, plus their Paso Robles bottling from one of the oldest vineyards in that region, with beautiful strawberry characteristics and nice acidity.

Thanks to Aaron for a wonderful tasting during the busy Labor Day weekend!

The view over Silicon Valley

Ridge Bloggers Tasting #2 - A Monte Bello Vertical

Last Friday I was lucky enough to attend my second blogger's tasting at Ridge Vineyards, my favorite California winery. The theme is always a surprise, so I was very excited as I ascended the 4 mile hill to Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I arrived and almost walked in on another event in the same location as the last tasting, but I was quickly redirected to the brand-new Black Mountain Room, where our tasting had just begun. Cheeses and bread were ours for the taking, 2009 Chardonnay was poured in our glasses to prime our palates, and then the theme was revealed: an 11-year library vertical of Monte Bello! Recall that Monte Bello is Ridge's famous Bordeaux-style blend, based heavily on Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Merlot and small/varying amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

I was thrilled by this theme. The oldest Monte Bello I have had was a 1989, and I loved it. And then, a challenge was posed: order the wines from oldest to youngest. The wines were all in brown bags, lettered from A-K. We tasted them blind, 2 at a time, noting the color, sediment, aromas, and structural development. These are the things you should observe to deduce the age of a wine. Is it bright purple, or more brick red? Does the nose give off fresh fruit or more dried, stewed fruit, or none at all? Are the tannins grippy or soft, or is there heavy sediment where tannins once lived? I focused on these attributes. I am not an overly competitive person, but there was a prize for the winner! I love prizes.

So, 2 by 2 we went. Fellow bloggers tweeted while we tasted, and a "Twitterfall" was displayed on a large flatscreen TV behind, showing the tweets as they came in. (I was the only person not tweeting. Am I missing out here?) We were mostly silent except for the occasional comment on a tweet or about the wines' ages or flavors.With each pair, I made comparisons to the previous. A is younger than B, F is older than G, F and G are older than A and B, etc. It was like a puzzle. At the end, everyone recorded their final order and then Christopher unveiled the wines in the correct order. He asked who had the most correct placements. It was me! I won the contest, with 7 out of 11 correct!

And what was my prize? A bottle of the 2010 Monte Bello, a tank sample, not even filtered yet! I might age it for around 20 years, given that I tend to prefer the Monte Bello's from the '80s and '90s.

Not to generalize, but all the wines were amazing. The ones from the '70s were fascinating in their differences, with subtle changes in flavor and structure from 1977 to 1978. The 1981 and 1985 were beautiful, with fruit and softness and a complex earthiness. The '90s were bright and spicy, and 2000 and 2006 were vibrant and fruity, with grippy tannins. The 2010 barrel sample was in a class by itself, bright purple with inky dark fruit and firm structure.

I'm very grateful to be part of the Ridge blogger family. Thanks to Christopher for including me!

Check out Ridge's blog for more:

http://blog.ridgewine.com/2011/06/21/wine-bloggers-tasting-2-6-17-11-the-aftermath/

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner

Last night at my boyfriend's parents' house we had a decadent pre-Thanksgiving dinner, featuring rack of veal and 2 cellar treasures. Both wines were twenty years old and the corks were a bit soft. So, after they crumbled under the corkscrew we ran the wines through a coffee filter and into a decanter (and vase, as the case was for the second bottle!). I don't know if there is a gizmo out there to filter out disintegrated cork but if not maybe this is an invention waiting to happen. The filtering and decanting exercise was actually great for aerating the wines. Older wines tend to need a little time to open up so this was perfect.

The 1990 Ridge Monte Bello from California was a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. It was expressive and fruity with a little spice and really smooth oak. The 1989 Lynch-Bages from Bordeaux was more complex and richer, with deeper tobacco and coffee nuances layered over the dark fruit.

Both wines went great with the rack of veal.

Happy pre-Thanksgiving!