If you’d like to watch a Wine Expedition Webisode featuring RIDGE Lytton Springs winemaker John Olney, definitely follow this link:
Of particular interest is John’s explanation of “inter-planting,” “field blends,” and “single site” vineyard practices!
Over the past few days, all of us here at RIDGE have had occasion to hear wonderful stories about Donn Reisen; each revealing again and again how Donn was consistently and uniquely able to, put simply, make people feel good. I’d like to share one particular such tale. Michael Riese, a current member of the Monte Bello Tasting Room Staff whose association with RIDGE goes back decades, shared this with me over the weekend (and that wasn’t all he shared!). Apparently, “back in the day” as it were, and as Michael tells it, Donn instigated a lovely tradition during bottling days; if you had a birthday that fell on a bottling day, you got your very own special bottle, pulled right off the line, and personally signed by Donn himself in delightful black block letters. In 1980, Michael celebrated a birthday on June 26th, and to honor his special day, Donn presented him with a bottle of 1978 York Creek Cabernet Sauvignon.
The day after RIDGE held a memorial for Donn here at Monte Bello, Michael brought this tremendously important bottle with him to work, and out of the pure, kind, sweet, sentimental goodness of his heart, shared it with everyone on staff. This was a true gift to us, and a true extension of Donn’s original gift, and I am here to tell you the wine was delicious by any measure imaginable (tasting notes below the photo), and that nearly 30 years later, Donn is still making Michael, and all of us, feel good. Thank you Michael, for sharing this story and this wine with us, and thank you Donn for providing us with yet another ”Reisen” to smile.
Ridge Vineyards 1978 York Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
Wonderfully intact coloration, with a belly rich in black cherry and plum hues, limned by a lovely and mature amber-auburn halo. Quite elegant legs in the bowl, exhibiting only medium-weight viscosity. A fascinatingly complex nose redolent of currant, licorice, hearty autumnal broth, and tar, laced with a hint of garden herbality. Brilliantly supple mouthfeel, yet showing very present acidity; the tannins are silkenly beautiful, and the the wine coats the full wide expanse of one’s palate. Emergent mid-palate are notes of dried fruit, dried herbs, with a touch of lightly browned toast, and a particularly notable and pleasant trace of umami savoriness. The finish is long, slow, and warm. Apologies for the deployment of such a trite cliche, but if ever there was a “fireplace wine,” this is it!
William Matthews might not be a household name, but to people who read, write, and otherwise appreciate modern and contemporary American poetry, he was an intensely loved wordsmith, and a tremendous influence on so many writers. He mastered a conversational approach to narrative poetry that was deceptive in its approachability; he was neither deliberately obscure nor self-indulgently clever; he was meticulous without being off-putting, and his poetry walks the delicate balance of both entreating and challenging his readers. I could go on and on, but for my purposes here, Matthews was also, indisputably, a “foodie.” One could probably mount an argument that, in addition to jazz (perhaps his ultimate love and favored subject), food and all its attendant pleasures and mysteries was his other great subject. And not just food, but wine specifically. Matthews had a way of writing about wine that made one not only very, very thirsty for wine, but for life, love, romance, travel, sex, food, and yes, more wine. And even if he wasn’t writing specifically about wine, the way wine would figure in his poems made you yearn for a good glass and a good adventure all the more, even as your soul is aching from the poignancy and pathos of his visions.
Consider Matthews’ great poem, “La Tâche, 1962,” originally published in his second collection, Sleek For The Long Flight. The opening of the poem is, “Pulling the long cork, I shiver with a greed so pure it is curiosity./I feel like the long muscles in a sprinter’s thighs when he’s in the/block, like a Monarch butterfly the second before it begins migrating to Venezuela for the winter — I feel as if I were about to seduce somebody famous.” And later, he delivers the following; ” …the wine holds and lives by/whatever it has learned from 3 1/2 acres of earth. What I taste isn’t the/wine itself, but its secrets. I taste the secret of thirst, the longing of matter to be energy, the sloth of energy to lie down in the trenches of/sleep, in the canals and fibres of the grape.” And in one of the final lines, he writes (in reference to the wine of the title) that, “It is the emblem of what we never really taste or know, the silence/all poems are unfaithful to.”
Unbelievable! Not only does he work this poem into a stunning evocation of wine and life’s true cojoined magic, he even turns it into an Ars Poetica by poem’s end; a treatise on poetry itself! I am just stunned every time I read this work.
Sometimes wine is not the subject of the work at all, nor even a secondary focus; in some poems, wine appears only as fleeting metaphor, but somehow, the intensity of deployment is still chilling in its power. Consider a stanza from Matthews’ poem “Living Among The Dead,” from his collection Rising And Falling. In an affectingly existential rumination on fathers, sons, the living, and the dead, Matthews writes the following:
My sons and I are like some wine
the dead have already bottled.
They wish us well, but there is nothing
they can do for us.
More on Mr. Matthews later, but I encourage you to seek out his poems. They’re wondrous.
We’ve got a great selection of wines on our tasting flights this weekend, and I thought I’d just run through a few of the wines on offer that I’m particularly looking forward to tasting and to showcasing:
2007 Geyserville
“As we blind-tasted, Geyserville’s unique character seemed clearest in thirty-nine of the lots. The exceptional quality of carignane and petite sirah argued for their full inclusion; percentages are comparable to the superb 1991 vintage. By year’s end, the blend was aging in air-dried american oak barrels. Sensuous structure and opulent fruit give this fine wine immediate appeal. Firm tannins and acidity assure its longevity over the next ten to twelve years. EB (10/08)”
(Both internal and industry respone to this vintage has been almost preposterously positive to date; this could be one of the all-time classic Geyservilles! –cw)
2004 Oltranti
“In 1987, Niccolo and Flora Oltranti purchased the old Mazzoni Home Ranch. Above the surviving nineteenth century vines were several abandoned hillside vineyards, which Niccolo and son Paul restored, replanting to zinfandel. These young vines have now matured, and make up eighty-five percent of the 2004. Oltranti is an exceptional site. Despite the vines’ relative youth, they have produced a wine redolent of exotic spice and rich, dark fruit. Enjoyable now, this excellent, full-bodied zinfandel will develop fully over the next five to seven years. EB/PD (11/05)”
(April’s ATP release, this will be the first weekend that this wine is available to the general public! — cw)
2005 Syrah Lytton West
“Pressed at six days on average, the free run wines completed a natural malolactic fermentation and were racked to barrel. Assemblage was determined in late spring by blind tasting of the eight possible components. The oldest parcels produced wine of exceptional depth and density; the younger yielded focused fruit and soft, balanced tannins. Five lots were chosen for this fine syrah, and aged for a total of twenty-one months in air-dried american oak. Enjoyable now for its forward, spicy fruit, it will develop greater complexity over the next ten years. EB (5/07)”
(see my previous post! — cw)
2005 Monte Bello
“Pressed at 8 days on average, 40% of the wine went through natural malolactic in barrel, the rest in small fermentors. Assemblage began in February. After several weeks blind tasting, we made a barrel each of 3 different blends. Petit verdot and cabernet franc were added immediately, another merlot and 3 cabernets in May, some rich first-press wine in December. 17 months in new air-dried american oak—from French and American coopers—has contributed spice and texture. This is a superb vintage. Beautifully balanced, it will continue to develop over several decades. EB/PD (3/07)“
(Undeniably still a baby at this point, but double-decanted out of a 375ml first thing in the morning allows for a pretty delectable sneak preview! — cw)
So, I was doing some reading on West Coast Wine Net recently (which, if you’ve not yet had a look at this site, is something I highly recommend doing!), and I fell into reading a series of comments and observations debating the merits and qualities of Californian syrah:
(http://www.westcoastwine.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=351251#Post351251
In one of the comments, someone made mention of the fact that they felt it was a very bad thing (I won’t quote directly, as I don’t know the individual) to blend viognier with high quality syrah. Given that Ridge has made any number of syrahs (and all of a very high quality, in my opinion) over the years that include a percentage of viognier, I was inspired to have a close and contextual look at one. Accordingly, we’ll be pouring our 2005 Lytton West Syrah in the Monte Bello Tasting Room this weekend; this syrah features 6% viognier.
If you’ll be in the area, I encourage you to join us at Monte Bello to try this fascinating blend, and if you’ve tasted this wine before and have some thoughts, I encourage you to send in your comments! I’ll be posting a new version of RIDGE IN THE ROUND after the MBTR staff has had a chance to re-visit this wine.
To put it mildly, today was a great day. Today was a great day. There. That was nice. It just felt good to affirm it one more time. Why was today a great day? Because I got to engage in an 8-vintage vertical of Ridge Geyserville. That’s why. And it was great. Thus, making it a great day.
Now, I’ll disclaim the notes that follow by saying this wasn’t a particularly languid and relaxed tasting; rather, I moved through it pretty quickly, and accordingly, rather than trying to capture an over-arching full-blown profile of each vintage, I’ll instead be striving to identify the characteristics that, to my palate at least, differentiated one vintage from another; put another way, I’m after the mole on a woman’s lip (Marilyn Monroe?), the spice in a fusion noodle dish (Tarragon?), the one-note solo that somehow works (Neil Young’s guitar solo on “Cinnamon Girl”?).
So, let’s get down to business, starting with the earliest vintage in this particular vertical:
1992 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Remarkably intact for its age, with a full-bodied profile; plush fruit, still-vibrant acidity, and very supple tannins. Oddly enough, my first draw of the bouquet conjured up something along the lines of a home-cooked Minestrone soup! Meaning, I got some richly integrated, wine-infused, slow-cooked tomato sauce notes (nothing vegetal or stewed mind you, just a deep, rich, warm and sweet rusticity), along with the crisp snap of fresh peas, the slightly rooty spryness of unpeeled carrots, and a darkly burnished wheatiness. And that was just the aromatics! On the palate, the acids are currently reigning over the tannins, making for a vibrant yet elegant mouthfeel that has some excellently mouth-watering food-pairing potential, and the spices are in a close race with the fruit, with the virtuous ripeness of the fruit taking the tale of the tape at the back of the palate, leaving an almost sweet quality lingering down the finish. Overall, highly drinkable, right here, right now!
1993 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Unquestionably a dark knight sort of character (in terms of aesthetic range as regards metaphorical “coloration”), this very enjoyable vintage expresses aromatic notes running the gamut from the perhaps the more familiar plum, licorice and cedar, to the rather more obscure fudge, brownies, and blood orange. It has a beautiful dark cherry hue with undertones of ripe plum, and a deep crimson limn in the glass. As the wine moves from front to back of palate, it leaves in its elegant wake sparkles of sweet cherry succulence, and a counterbalancing eucalyptal spice. The mouthfeel is soft and supple, yet quite fleshy, almost plush, and the warm spicy second-tier layers are nicely counterbalanced by a slightly sandal-woody nose.
1994 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Notable for having the least alcohol of these first three vintages (I tasted this wine alongside 1992 and 1993 vintages), yet showing comparatively slightly more heat, or should I say warmth, essentially in the form of a long, warm, chest-filling finish. Not obstreperously so, not by any means, and I think I probably wouldn’t have noted it at all, save for the fact that I was tasting in context. But again, I did notice it as a structural component. As to the other architectural contributants, I would say that tannins have receded to a point of extreme subtlety, dare I say, gentleness, while the vibrancy on offer from the acidity is still youthfully prevalent; quite pleasantly so, in fact. And as is often the case with Geyserville, I find that the fruit is taking somewhat of a comparative backseat here, with the aesthetic emphasis being more on the secondary and tertiary layers of herbs, spices, and a fundamentally tempered rusticity . Overall, this makes for a slightly leaner, more elegant offering than either the ’92 or the ’93, but conversely, this vintage also begs for food pairing in perhaps a more insistent fashion than do either of the other two vintages; higher-fat-content dishes in particular will benefit from pairing with this wine: cheeses such as triple cream bries or goudas, cream or butter-based sauces, meats such as duck or sausage, or coconut-milk-based curries.
1996 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
At first sniff, I was hollering “Umami!” with this vintage; yes, there are a great many other components at work here, commonalities that thrive across all the vintages, but what really struck me about this particular offering was the savoriness of the aromatics; I got bacon, teriyaki, and tobacco right out of the gate. All this was counterbalanced with some nice cocoa notes on the palate, and definitely some raisin and currant characteristics as well. Can one say a wine is discordant in a good way? If so, that’s what I’ll say; I found this wine fascinating, if somewhat uneven, for its singular combination of ripe, mature fruit, and pleasantly youthful acids and tannins, all reconciled by the unmistakable yet intangible presence of the umami factor.
1997 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Ok. If I HAVE to, and I mean I don’t really WANT to, but if I HAVE to, I think, at least for today’s edition, this was probably my, and again, I don’t REALLY want to do this, but probably, this was my favorite. It’s ripe, it’s full-bodied, it’s supple, it’s smooth, it’s warm, it’s hot but not HOT, it’s complex but integrated, etc. There is a certain woodiness at work that escaped me in terms of trying to capture its relationship to the rest of the components, and the viscosity in the glass bowl is somewhat mysteriously intense for a wine that hits the palate in a decidedly medium-weight way, but overall, a very exciting wine to taste.
OK. That’s the 90′s. Now for a trio of 21st century offerings …
2001 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Such a deep, deep purple coloration! And what a beautiful raspberry limn! Just beautiful to look at … The aromatics are certainly notable for a sneaky little strain of smokiness, a little bit of char-grilled character, and a slight hint of tar. Oddly enough though, it’s elegant, and I couldn’t help but think that I ought to get myself home and grill some salmon for my missus! Meaning, it’s deep, but it’s gentle. A boxer with a heart of gold? Something like that … It’s also got some lovely sweet fruit, LOTS of chocolate tones, and the tannins are admirably intact.
2002 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville
Want to open a younger Geyserville tonight? This is your choice, I swear it! Try it, and if you don’t like it, bring the bottle in, and I’ll finish the rest for you! It’s got deep, red plum notes, gracefully applied hints of leather and black licorice, and there’s just a preposterously “pretty” layer of candied fruit on offer as well. I’d like to note that our president and COO Mark Vernon tasted this wine recently at Evvia (in Palo Alto, CA) in the company of rotisserie lamb, and he was, to say the least, rather infectiously enthused about the pairing! It’s just gorgeous, pure and simple, in that bright, playful sort of way; it’s ever-so-slightly exotic (mango chutney?), ever-so-slightly-on-the-edge-of-being-cloyingly-sweet (beautifully enticing viscosity on the early palate in particular), and yet it holds its own as a classically refined example of what makes Geyserville so unique.
2003 Geyserville
The baby of the bunch, to say the least. The vintage would lead you to think so, the taste will confirm it. One can almost FEEL the layers that are due to emerge over time, but they’re just not quite there yet. There is certainly one great dimension already on offer, and it’s a fine, fine dimension, but if you, like me, and like so many others, look to Geyserville for its masterful conflagration of multiple dimensions, then I would recommend patience with this vintage; the true rewards are yet to come.
Did anyone read the “Drink A Little Wine, Live A Little Longer” article from HealthDay that was posted on Yahoo the other day? Here’s the link if not:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090501/hl_hsn/drinkalittlewinelivealittlelonger
What a curious article! Two things come to mind right away; beer increases life expectancy? And, who on earth drinks HALF A GLASS OF WINE?
Enquiring minds want to know!
First, the facts: My compatriots for this edition of RIDGE In The Round were Peter Yaninek, Sam Howles-Banerji, Zani Nesvacil, and Karen Cai; all esteemed members of the Monte Bello Tasting Room Staff. The wine we immersed ourselves in was the new 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate, a three-varietal blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. For the most part, we followed a sort of internal standard model for analyzing the wine (our custom Tasting Note “form” breaks the wine down into Appearance, Aromatics, Front, Mid-Palate, Finish, and concludes with a Summary). In discussing the wine’s appearance, the color was variously described by the others as “deep purple, almost inky,” “rich, inky burgundy,” “deep garnet,” and “deep red/violet.” For my part, I wrote “deep plum and blackberry hues, with a rich, garnet and rose limn.” Safe to say we all felt the depth and richness of the color! Regarding legs and viscosity, only one person besides myself made mention, describing the legs as “clear and firm.” I put them at “medium-strength,” moving at “medium speed,” concluding that the wine should be essentially “medium-weight/medium-bodied.” Regarding aromatics, the discussion initially centered around the fact that the wine seemed to still be showing its youth, meaning all concerned felt the wine to be pretty “tight,” and not giving off much in the way of aromas. As we talked, and swirled, and swirled, and talked, and swirled, certain notes did begin to emerge. Almost everyone noted black cherry at some point, and when sandalwood was suggested, everyone seemed to jump on board. There was also a lot of talk about chocolate-covered-cherries, and particularly the white cream inside. Black pepper was noted often as well. I tried to put in an argument for first cocoa, and then chocolate liquor, and then bittersweet cocoa powder, but I didn’t muster a lot of support for that assessment! Neither did the individual lobbying for cherry cola! In the end, I think we all agreed on black cherry, pepper, and sandalwood, with some version of vanilla interweaving about. Response to the “front” of the wine was pretty unanimous, all noted the vibrancy and youthfulness of the acid; one person even referred to it as “bracing.” I also noted that the acid profile was mostly centered in the cheeks and the roof of the mouth, as opposed to tip of the tongue. All were also in accord as regards the firmness and adhesion of the tannins that began to emerge mid-palate; essentially, we all agreed this was still tasting like quite a young wine, which it is. Fortunately, we also all felt that the acids & tannins, fruit & spice, were all in great balance, and all showing great strength. Much discussion followed about ageability, and all concurred that this wine shows great promise for development over time. About the finish, two people actually felt that the Petit Verdot really made its presence felt in the lingering after-taste, and both were quite positive and happy about this. I’ll confess to not noting this the first few go-rounds, but after a few more “investigations,” came to feel the same; there is a certain and singular herbality and herbaceousness that very subtly emerged in the finish, adding a very appealing couterbalance to the other complexities on offer. In the end, everyone’s summary was fairly similar; it’s a young wine with tremendous potential. I think one person said it best when they wrote “Can’t wait to try it in a year from a 375ml bottle!” And while I heartily agree, I also very much enjoyed drinking it last night, and would encourage anyone interested to give it a try now, AND in a year!
To borrow a phrase from Paul Draper, “We have had several requests for information on the 1971 Ridge Eisele Vineyard Cabernet.” Some strange zeitgeist afoot, to say the least! This has come up recently in e-mails, on the blog, and in the tasting room as well. Anyhow, as with many of these requests about rare back vintages, I like to go directly to the source for some “inside” insight, and again, Paul has very kindly offered some information:
“We have had several requests for information on the 1971 Ridge Eisele Vineyard Cabernet. This was the first commercial bottling of the Eisele, a vineyard now owned by the Araujo family and so named.
By 1970, we had replanted all the vineyard parcels, abandoned during prohibition, on the Monte Bello land we owned at that time. As the vines we planted were not yet mature, the Monte Bello was made entirely from the vines on the land that had been replanted in the 1940’s and the quantities were limited.
We felt that our use of traditional methods (naturally occurring yeast, no processing, no chemical additions except minimal S02) had historically made the finest wines. We wanted to make a wine from the Napa Valley where more technical winemaking was typical in order to see what level of quality we could achieve with our traditional techniques. We looked around and in 1971 Milt Eisele offered us the grapes from his small parcel of vines near Calistoga. At 25° Brix the grapes were riper than anything we had yet harvested in our cool region. I fermented them in small, one ton fermentors with the cap held submerged by a grid. To make sure the wine would be full and intense, I did not press until the biblical “40 days and 40 nights” had passed and the caps had fallen to the bottom of the fermentors. The wine was very structured but with time it integrated fully and has shown beautifully over the years. We will open a bottle this next week to see how it is doing.
Paul”
And that’s the scoop on the 71! And by the way, regarding the conversations around whether there was a ’73 Eisele, I’m wondering if the confusion might have to do with bottling dates and tasting notes? Although the ’71 was the only vintage made, the wine was in fact bottled in 1973, and this is also when Paul wrote the first tasting notes, which are featured on the original label (see below).
(click on the graphic above to see the full-size image)
As discussed in a previous post, I’ve been looking forward to a re-visit of the 1993 Ridge Monte Bello, and I’ve just had my opportunity this past Sunday. And I must say, I was in particularly good company for the visit; I was with Harris Davidson, from our brilliant Canadian distributors Rogers & Co., and four Toronto Wine Buyers: Bronwen Clark, Taylor Thompson, Jason Ernst, and William Predhomme. This was a supremely gifted and insightful group of tasters, and I was beyond happy to host them.
Prior to the ’93 Monte Bello we tasted the new 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Chardonnay, the new 2007 Geyserville, the new 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, and the not-yet-released 2006 Monte Bello, all of which seemed to be met with great satisfaction on the part of our Canadian guests. And then came the ’93 Monte Bello. I served out of a 375ml bottle, single-decanted, and out of the decanter itself. What followed was some great and fascinating conversation about the ’93 specifically, and Monte Bello in general. In the end, what we found ourselves discussing more than anything else was the “Bordeaux” factor.
It’s probably clear testament to the pervasive influence of wines from the Bordeaux region on the calibration of international palates that the term is thrown around as often as it is. In the worlds of the various creative arts, I see a great many reviews that start with the disclaimer, “The term ‘genius’ gets inappropriately thrown about these days with far too much regularity, but in this case …”. I see the same thing with “Bordeaux” in the world of wine. In a great many circles, it remains the highest of compliments to say something to the effect of, “In a blind tasting, I would have thought this was a Bordeaux …” The Monte Bello has certainly benefitted from just this sort of critical comparison, and of course we’ve taken it as high praise every time. Jancis Robinson has compared the Monte Bello to great Bordeaux wines in her writings, Slate has called the Monte Bello “California’s First Growth,” and the very eminent Stephen Spurrier has oft made the comparison in various ways, as have Robert Parker Jr., Stephen Tanzer, and more.
Anyhow, when tasting the ’93 MB, my Canadian guests and I did indeed find ourselves discussing the Bordeaux factor, and in the end, collectively agreeing that the ’93 in fact did seem not only distinctly “Bordeaux-esque”, but in fact, and quite possibly, one of the most so of the past 20 years of Monte Bello vintages. If I may speak for the group, I think it’s safe to say we found it (and admittedly, I am making a collective generalization here!) rustic, lean, elegant, low in alcohol, with intensely deployed acidity and supple tannins, showing a great array of herb and spice combinations. And yes, the term did come out: “barnyard.” We had a bit of conversational fun with that one, and then of course checked ourselves, but recognizing no trace whatsoever of brettonomyces, we again simply concluded that the ’93 Monte Bello really did just have a touch of that old-world rustic funkiness so often associated with the Bordeaux style.
Perhaps a post on what exactly the Bordeaux style IS would be fun to discuss? Something to ponder for the future …
