2022 Ridge - Monte Bello (750ml)

Ridge Vineyards traces back to 1885, when Osea Perrone, a San Francisco physician, planted vines high on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains and built a winery of redwood and native limestone. The vineyard fell into neglect during Prohibition, but in 1949 a small block of Cabernet Sauvignon was replanted, becoming the source for the first modern Ridge Monte Bello in 1962, made by a group of Stanford scientists who later took over the estate.

The estate vineyard climbs from about 1,600 to 2,700 feet across four ranches, Klein, Rousten, Torre, and Perrone, planted in limestone soil not far from the Pacific. By harvest the fruit is split into dozens of separate blocks, picked and fermented individually. The 2022, a third straight drought year, brought small, tannic berries; the grapes were fermented as whole berries and the eighteen best lots, out of thirty-one, were chosen by blind tasting to make the final blend, then aged twenty months in new oak.

The wine shows dark currant, roasted fig, and dark chocolate, layered with anise, black licorice, and fresh pine. Silky tannins carry real power and minerality through a long finish built to age for decades. Pour it with rack of venison, aged Stilton, or dark bittersweet chocolate.