Calling all California Wine Bloggers!
(And, of course, Wine Bloggers who are not based in our area, but might be visiting!)
Are you interested in joining a fascinating and knowledgeable cadre of wine tasters for a regularly occurring Tasting Event here in the Monte Bello Tasting Room?
Let me know!
Well, I have to say, it was just a tremendous weekend up here at Monte Bello. We hosted members of our Monte Bello Collector Program for the 2009 Component Tasting, and this is absolutely one of my favorite events of the year. It’s such a rare and educational opportunity to experience the Monte Bello in this fashion; tasting all the components separately, prior to the beginning of assemblage. Not only is it a unique insight into the mystical mojo mad scientist magic of the winemaker’s art, but it’s a great opportunity to begin to learn the wine that will eventually be yours; a deep enhancement to the experiential hoodoo of drinking wine.
But enough of words, let’s experience the visuals; if you were here, this should be a nice opportunity to relive the joys of the weekend, and if you weren’t able to be with us, then hopefully these snapshots will act an inducement of a kind to encourage a future visit. Please join us! It’s magical …
Did you see yourself in there? I certainly hope so. And by the way, a special thank you to the members of our Production Team who participated in the event. I think the opportunity to speak with them is one of the truly excellent perks of the whole experience. In the pictures above, you can see the following members of said team:
Paul Draper
Eric Baugher – Vice President, Winemaking
David Gates – Vice President, Vineyard Operations
Shun Ishikubo – Assistant Production Manager
Caleb Mosley – Viticulturist
Karen Schmidt – Director of Quality Control / Chemist
And this post wouldn’t be complete without a HUGE hearty thank you to the Monte Bello Tasting Room Staff (& participating members of the Ridge Retail Staff!), who time and time again raise the bar with their formidable displays of knowledge, hospitality, and plain old hard work. Cheers to (in no particular order) Sam Howles-Banerji, Amy Monroe, Michael Riese, Sonja Seaberg, Karen Cai, Cecilia Aguilar, Chris Seguin, Zani Nesvacil, Karen Cai, Peter Yaninek, Samantha McMillan, Barry Campbell, Darren Gardner, Tara Einis, Howard Hickok, Jay Jensky, and Jane Occhialini!
The February 2010 Issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate has arrived, and in it is a wealth of commentary on a large portfolio of Ridge wines. And might I say, we fared rather well! Here are the scores:
| 2003 | Ridge Monte Bello | 95+ | |||
| 2004 | Ridge Monte Bello | 91 | |||
| 2005 | Ridge Monte Bello | 97+ | |||
| 2006 | Ridge Monte Bello | 94+ | |||
| 2007 | Ridge Monte Bello | 92 | |||
| 2008 | Ridge Monte Bello | (94-96) | |||
| 2005 | Ridge Santa Cruz Mtns Estate Proprietary Red | 92 | |||
| 2006 | Ridge Santa Cruz Mtns Estate Proprietary Red | 91 | |||
| 2007 | Ridge Santa Cruz Mtns Estate Proprietary Red | 88 | |||
| 2007 | Ridge Geyserville Proprietary Red Wine | 91 | |||
| 2008 | Ridge Geyserville Proprietary Red Wine | (90-92) | |||
| 2007 | Ridge Lytton Springs Proprietary Red Wine | 92 | |||
| 2008 | Ridge Lytton Springs Proprietary Red Wine | (91-93) | |||
| 2007 | Ridge Zinfandel East Bench | 90+ | |||
| 2008 | Ridge Zinfandel East Bench | (90-92) |
97 points for the 2005 Monte Bello! Wow … And overall, that’s an average score of about 92 points. Not so very bad at all!
And for those of you who might be in the area this weekend, please note that we will be pouring the 2007 Lytton Springs (“It is a fuller-bodied, richer wine with beautiful texture, purity, and length”) and the 2007 Geyserville (“Medium to full-bodied, elegant, and pure”) in the Monte Bello Tasting Room, as well as the 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate (“An attractive, round, rich, full-bodied mouthfeel, sweet tannin, and a long finish”), and should you wish to step up to our Monte Bello Tasting Flight, the 2006 Monte Bello! (“Well-balanced, dense, pure, layered, and rich”). That’s a 92 point flight right there …
AND, for those of you who are Monte Bello Collector Members who are planning to attend our member event this weekend, you’ll be tasting your newly-arrived 2007 Monte Bello! (And don’t forget the very special pre-release opportunity on the 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate!)
Cheers to all, and a hearty toast to all at Mr. Parker’s publication for their kind words about our wines! And I would especially like to raise a glass to everyone on the production team here at Ridge; you make brilliant wines, and it’s wonderful to see the world responding with such positivity! Cheers! Cheers! Cheers!
Twas the night before the Grand Retrospective
And no one was left on the mountain but me
And the promise
Of wines to be poured …
Jon Bonné has penned an absolutely wonderful article about Santa Cruz Mountains wines in the San Francisco Chronicle, with a hearty portion of the text devoted to Ridge Vineyards. Here’s how the article begins:
Next week, Paul Draper and his team at Ridge Vineyards will pause from their work at the legendary Monte Bello vineyard and raise a glass to 50 years of winemaking, high above the streets of Cupertino.
Ridge’s half-century history is a testament to the improbable. Neither Draper nor any of Ridge’s founders, all Stanford scientists, were wine people by training. And Monte Bello is the exception that proves the rules in California Cabernet: made in American oak and not French; rarely exceeding 13 percent alcohol.
This would be reactionary if not for the fact that its style (with the exception of more new oak) hasn’t wavered much in more than 40 vintages – a tribute to the old-fashioned techniques that Draper pioneered after arriving in 1969.
You can enjoy the full article here.
I recently had the opportunity to enjoy an extraordinary quintet of 80s era Geyserville and Lytton Springs, and was particularly pleased to be tasting with my lovely missus, who contributed mightily to the quality and intensity of the experience. I’ll confess that I was rather swooned about the whole thing, and accordingly, if my notes below occasionally veer to the seemingly hyperbolic, I beg you to trust me, I was feeling it! It really was a wonderful tasting …
The Anatomy Of A Tasting
1981 Geyserville
Rich, earthy nose, with forest floor and pine notes; beautifully old-world tiers of aroma, yet unexpectedly exotic: bamboo shoot, mushroom, and cedar right out of the gate, underlaid with brine, japanese radish and burdock, as well as pipe tobacco. Pull your nose back from the glass, and there is even a halo of aromatic menthol on offer. Tremendously fresh acidity, and a plush mouthfeel at point of entry that rolls back, then flattens out, then returns to tip-of-tongue with bright citricity. The mid-palate expresses concentratedly exotic richness, conjuring mixed-tone olive tapenade and chutney. A trace of charred wood nearing the finish, joined by back-of-tongue tannin comingling with acidity, makes for a finish that begs for higher fat content dishes that can match this wine spice for spice; meaning, not so much butter or oil-derived fats, but more meaty and succulent offerings. At nearly 30 years of age, secondary and tertiary maturation character is leading the way, as opposed to any dominant and lingering fruit sweetness, thus while this may not be a gentle sipper, it’s a wild and winsome offering for a richly laid table.
1988 Geyserville
Stunningly omnipresent call-up of berry pie on the nose; carmelized sugar, vanilla, warm wheat, baked berries (mixed harvest: boysenberry, blackberry, blueberry) and an ever-so-slight juxtaposition of sweet and herbaceous conjuring strawberry-rhubarb … Interwoven amongst the fresh sunny fruits is a singularly muscular set of tones that evoke a blend of chili beans, hearty broth, and stewed root vegetables and tomatoes marinated in balsamic … or is it cumin and pepper? (Or is that just what I want to eat with this wine?) Pure velvet mouthfeel spreading all over the tongue, from point-of-entry to mid-palate, introducing a fine spread of autumnal nutmeg and winter clove that’s been mitigated by hot whiskey and a squeeze of fireside lemon (wood and citrus) … The lushness carries through to the close, and the youthful vibrancy lights up the finish with a final display of baked fruits, though at the end it’s more apple than berry … remarkably, the tannins and acidity are both present and accounted for, and very much in balance. At 20+ years, this is a fresh as one could hope for, and more …
1989 Geyserville
Hints of the afore-referenced fruit pie on the nose, though the character is higher-tone red, and more fruit-centric with less reliance on the tangential ingredient list … the fruit here instead is counterbalanced by beautifully environmental components; most notably wet river stone, cherry blossom, and sweet meadow grass. Sweet earth here as well, but delicate, not cloying. A quick rush of Umami savoriness at point-of-entry, swelling into an even meatier mid-palate. The back-end, however, narrows again, as a river moving through a varying landscape; meaning the wine is narrow early on, but widens to wild rapids fairly quickly, expands to complacent width mid-palate, then funnels through the narrows at the close. Throughout, the forest presence remains constant, though it’s forest floor, and the attendant concentration, as opposed to a brighter herbaceousness, that limns the palate movement. The wine beguiles for the most part, though the kiss is more enticing than the prospect of a long relationship. Translated, it’s a brilliant sipping wine, a brilliant first-wine-of-the-night, but the skittishness of the finish means it’s less suited to the full committment of the table.
1987 Lytton Springs
The color of this wine! So deep, so dark, quite remarkable … Powerful pairing of woodiness and florality on the nose; succulently perfumed flower notes (violet and lavender) dancing on a floor of redwood and mahogany, partnering with faint strains of anise, menthol, and vanilla. Congruent to this is a strong herb character, led primarily by bay leaf … Lots of cherry and menthol point-of-entry, with a continuation of the bouquet into the palate experience; wood, flower, herbs … strong residual tannin presence, mostly front-palate, calling up black olive and tea leaf … the mouthfeel presence is more width than length, meaning the action is in the cheeks more so than the chest … a touch of fruit up front, then a strong and dark herb conclusion, with hints of pine and forest floor. Shorter all around, but worth it for the intensity of the approach, and the richness of the resin.
1989 Lytton Springs
Deeply menthol and eucalyptal-laden nose, with saturated cherry notes to boot, but not at all cloying, and even despite the sweet hint of vanilla, the nose is indisputably inviting, as opposed to saccharine; note the subtle strains of quiet campfire ember, and the evokement of a sun-warmed redwood deck, and the enticement becomes nearly impossibly fresh. Warmth is the overarching component to the front-palate, followed closely by a subtle and healthy decadence of concentrated fruit… Chewy through the first two-thirds, with sweet grain and dried fruit character leading the way, followed by fresh acidity and fresh fruit vibrancy next in line … What’s perhaps most singular is the brightness of the tropicality, most notably notes of banana and papaya, looming up in the finish. Given the briskness of the acidity at the close, this is a remarkably fresh and vibrant 20-year wine.
Well, this is a bit of a milestone post for what is still quite a young blog; it’s the 200th post! Accordingly, I want to do something a little special to mark the occasion, and this is what I have to offer:
I very recently had the astonishingly great pleasure of sitting at table with Paul Draper, Eric Baugher, David Gates, David Amadia, Nicole Buttitta, Karen Schmidt, and Shun Ishikubo of Ridge, and Guillaume Bienaime and John Sanders of the very fine restaurant Marché in Menlo Park, to taste through 15 vintages of Monte Bello! Needless to say, it was one of the more extraordinary tasting experiences of my life. My only regret is that we didn’t have all day to sip and savor! But this was work …
So, given the rigor and intensity of the tasting, combined with the unavoidable time constraint of a morning tasting on a workday, we had to move pretty seriously and rapidly through the offerings, and accordingly my notes are somewhat brief and a bit riffy, but I hope they give you at least a reasonably in-focus picture of what an utterly astonishing palate experience this was … sprinkled throughout are some observations from Eric Baugher as well, who very kindly gave me a copy of his notes as a resource.
We tasted the wines in groups, the first of which was a foursome comprised of the 2000, the 2002, the 2004, and the 2005 Monte Bellos. First though, for a proverbial wetting of the whistle, we sampled the 1999 Monte Bello Chardonnay. Mon Dieu! What a delicious wine!
1999 Monte Bello Chardonnay
Warm and nutty on the nose, with hints of caramel, butterscotch and vanilla, and a rich and complex tropicality. Mouthfilling and pleasantly viscous without being at all cloying. Mid-palate weight is intensified by strong minerality and a hint of bread-y yeastiness. The finish is long and woody, yet shows lots of bright acidity. Starting to develop secondary and tertiary maturation characteristics, but still delightfully youthful …
Ok, back to our inaugural foursome: 00, 02, 04, and 05 …
2000 Monte Bello
Elegant and playful, yet deeply concentrated, exhibiting bright notes of pomegranate and cranberry layered over a compellingly dark sub-strata redolent of cocoa, leather, fennel, and cigar-box; notable for the juxtaposition of weight and beauty, deep coloration and vibrant concentration …
2002 Monte Bello
Muscular, viscous, and tannin-forward, with rich notes of tar and earth coating a core of crisp bright red fruits and spicy dried fruits; cherry on the red side, black currant on the dried side … definitely youthful and fragrant, but notable for depth of both strength and length …
2004 Monte Bello
Minty and eucalyptal, with strong hints of cherry and menthol; very vibrant and herbaceous, with deep layers of cassis, leather, and tobacco … very elegant and complex, resolving nicely, and showing classic Monte Bello minerality …
2005 Monte Bello
Big, fruit-forward, and intensely structured, with a vast and complex array of fruit profiles brimming away in the bouquet and infusing the body … loads of mountain fruit character, led by a rich blueberry layer and followed by a delightful violet-laden florality … hints of cassis and blackberry, with a saturated peppering of clove and cardamom over nicely chalky tannins …
Not a bad way to lead off a flight, not by any stretch of the imagination! From there, we proceeded to our next foursome, this time a close look at some key vintages from the nineties: 1991, 1992, 1995, and 1997.
1991 Monte Bello
I’ve waxed rhapsodic about this vintage many times before, sometimes to almost embarrassing effect (dig this post!), and this tasting did nothing to dissuade me from the very firm conviction that my affections are most decidedly not misplaced. It’s just wonderful, a fully completed circle, every component perfectly placed, a ballet of integration, reconciliation, and harmony; ripe but tempered, complex yet approachable, dark but fruitful, buoyant yet earthy. A treat to taste …
1992 Monte Bello
Astonishingly complex aromatics, very expressive, with a rich perfume. Elegant but well-structured, with very juicy, concentrated fruit. Nicely compressed juxtapositions of licorice and violet, and cigar and pine. Very present acidity and lively fruits transition from a dense middle through to a long and enticing finish …
1995 Monte Bello
Very firmly structured, and defiantly structure-forward. A nice touch of earthiness, and big fruits paving the way for controlled and subtle acidity. Nice blend of forest floor and wet stone co-mingling with hints of cola and black licorice, making for an overall powerful and complex offering …
1997 Monte Bello
Showing remarkably youthful still, and still opening up accordingly. Fully structure-forward, and still flexing its impending complexities … Starting to develop deep mountain fruit characteristics amongst the already present Monte Bello minerality, and clearly heading for a deep and seductive mid-palate around a nicely earthy core …
This foursome was followed by what I think we all collectively agreed was the surprise grouping of the bunch, a five-wine vertical of 80’s era Monte Bello: 1981, 1984, 1985, 1988, ands 1989. I say surprise because this decade as a whole has suffered some disparagement in the past, but to our collective palates, this was easily the most difficult group to pull favorites from; they all showed magnificently!
1981 Monte Bello
Deep, deep notes of fudge, chocolate, and cocoa, below an nearly-as-dark-layer of tar and chipotle, sewed together with a decadent chord of umami notes. Loads of black fruits, firm tannins, and still-lively acidity, and showing secondary and tertiary characteristics redolent of balsamic and molasses …
1984 Monte Bello
A very pleasant mintiness on the nose, with lots of red fruits and a hint of menthol and eucalyptus. A near feral intensity to the fruit layers, dominated by an almost sweet cherry character. Intense, pungent, and powerful, with great structure and length …
1985 Monte Bello
Woodsy, and very complexly so, with hints of caramel, vanilla, and cream blending with a slight citricity to almost evoke a caramel apple, wooden stick and all … Tremendously bright and youthful acidity, very fresh and young, with a subdued yet complex bouquet followed by a creamy blue-fruit laden middle and an herb-and-spice laden finish …
1988 Monte Bello
Archetypal “old-world” aromatics showing a concentrated mosaic of black cherry, cola, cedar, leather, and earth, with a concentrated mid-palate blending wild mountain fruit and exotic spice; perfectly resolved and structured, with still-youthful acidity and tannin …
1989 Monte Bello
Lots of fascinating structural components on offer, including dried currant, olive, and tobacco on the nose, and cedar, clove, and anise at entry. Complex without being weighty, with multiple layers of mineral, spice, and sweeter fruits mid-palate, closing with a firm and structure-forward finish …
The final grouping was a two-wine group, and this was really the treat of the bunch, both for the rarity, and the caliber! We first tasted the 1978 Monte Bello, and then the 1968! Unbelievable …
1978 Monte Bello
Decadent hints of stew, blood, and iodine simmering in the aromatics, meaning meaty, but not in an umami way, more Wellington-esque … Wonderful second and third tier characteristics on display, including clove, sandalwood, tobacco, and cedar, modulating sweet and concentrated fruits into an earthy and complex body, finishing very lively and vigorous …
1968 Monte Bello
Just astonishing, a 42-year-old wine, and yet still showing so much power, complexity, and concentration. Lots of classic mountain minerality, dried fruits, and sweet sauce notes (plum and balsamic), with a structurally enticing duskiness foreshadowing a rustic mid-palate, and closing with a completed-circle reappearance of marrow-like notes couched in a wrap of sandalwood and cigar …
And that was it for the tasting. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. And while I recognize that the purchase of an older-vintage Monte Bello is not an every day investment, I heartily encourage you all to find a way to sample some of the these older vintages, whether through purchases, or via one of the special tastings that we host in our tasting rooms., It’s an experience that will not leave you for a long, long time …
And thank you to the powers that be for letting me be a part of such an extraordinary tasting!
I’ve certainly written about Haiku before, and certainly about wine as awareness ritual, and the following is for me a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the cojoinment of both in a single set of 17 glorious syllables. Unfortunately the source remains unknown to us today, so we’ve no one to thank for this elegant pearl of insight, but this does not dampen in the slightest my appreciation for the sentiment. The Japanese is as follows:
Sake nakuta
Nan no onore ga
Sakura kana
Which can be translated as:
Without flowing wine
What good to me are lovely
Cherry trees in bloom?
Let the wine flow, friends, let the wine flow …
Hmmmm … well, as most of you probably know, the various services out there that provide hosting for blogs usually offer some statistical information as part of the package; how many visits you’ve received, what posts were read, which links were clicked, etc. One of the features that WordPress (our host!) offers is a list of Search Engine Terms; these are the words and phrases people have entered into various search engines that led them to our blog, and boy, is this a weird and wonderful list! In no particular order, here is a short list of some of those terms:
zoot muppet
baked beans wine match
history of women dressed as men
caprese
chinese ancient poem beautiful
plymouth reliant
abstract wine and jazz art
georgia o’keeffe cow head
chinese wine dipper
open fire panini grill tongue
“difficult job”
bee gees
fancy wine quotes
7-eleven winery
black musicians born in february
poems about seducing someone to have sex
wine aroma wheel questions
drink wine poem unfaithful
thank you for attending
And perhaps the weirdest and wonderfullest of all:
porno griller
For this week’s quote, we turn to an ageless wisdom culled from a vast repository of anonymous Latin Proverbs carried down through the ages to our present times. And lest ye doubt the sageness of said wells of wit, do recall the following icons of insight as having had similar origin:
“Art has no enemy except ignorance”
“By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.”
“All the hours wound you, the last one kills.”
“Every madman thinks all other men mad.”
And of course the very well-known “In Vino Veritas,” which is rather on-point for our purposes here. But it’s not our quote of the week, rather, I submit the following:
It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend, one’s present or future thirst, the excellence of the wine, or any other reason.
Cheers!
