No, I most certainly did not bike up Monte Bello Road myself, but I stumbled upon a blog posting from someone who very recently did, and I wanted to share the link, because there are two extraordinary photos from the summit that this hearty and hale individual took that I find to be very beautiful, and very worth seeing. You can peruse the images, and read the tale of the climb and descent, by clicking here.
Archive for August, 2009
Regarding Biking Up Monte Bello Road
August 4, 2009Ghosts Of Monte Bellos Past -or- The Archeological Find Of The Century!
August 3, 2009There has been a bit of “country” renovating going on up here at Monte Bello, and this has involved the occasional churning up of dirt — lo and behold, can you believe what the gentlemen doing this hard but necessary work dug up from the earth today? What long-held mystery was induced to offer up its first and only clue? What low voice from the past found a mellifluous moment in its throat and raised a tone that we could hear here, up above?
It was an amazing find, the sort that sends the jumping electric tingle along the cobblestones of your spine, raises taut bumps up on your arms, gets your scalp to tighten and tingle, ties a highwayman’s hitch up in your stomach, raises a faint sweat line across your upper lip, makes you draw a breath in wonderment, whistling a tune unnamed or known…
My imagination runs away; I see sunny days, laughing couples, I hear the clink of half-full glasses, the sounds of popping corks … Or is it early winter, gray streaks in the sky, a faint mist hovering low? Determined, a small band of warmly dressed companions refuses the invitation to the warmth and light of the tasting room, preferring instead to feel the elements, the way a motorcyclist understands Highway 1 in ways a car driver never will … they huddle outside, fingers almost too stiff to work the auger deep into the solid husk of cork separating their chapping lips from the glorious liquid inside …
I like to think it was raining, small beads of moisture nestling into the augur’s austere coils…
Oh earth, what more secrets do you keep? Can you tell us who was last to use this offering from your altar to our memory? I know we’ll never know, yet we never knew you held this little artifact of time, not until the workers turned the proper turn of soil; and there it was …
And here it is …
Another Magic Misty Morning Moment At Monte Bello – or – Such A Spiderweb I Never Did See!
August 3, 2009What a morning at Monte Bello! Beautiful fogged in, misty, wet weather, sort of a wisps-on-the-moor/loch ness/sherlock holmes/irish ghost story/oenological gothic sort of a morning … And up in our Main Barn, just outside one of the large windows overlooking the brush line along the cliffs above the valley, such a spiderweb! Every strand wrapped in a thin sheaf of misty moisture, it hung there vaguely glittering in the mid-morning glaze of Payne’s country gray skies, above shrouds of trees and paths shimmering with dew … The backlight was so peculiary both muted and bright it was almost impossible to capture with a camera, but I’ve done my best; I hope the shots below do some form of justice to this most magical of misty morning moments …
Ridge Vineyards 2002 Geyserville
August 3, 2009I had a conversation with a wonderful guest recently, at our Z-List After-Hours event, and one of the things he asked me was whether I had tasted the ’02 Geyserville recently. I though I had, but as it turns out, I had misremembered myself. However, I was able to speak to our winemaker here at Monte Bello, Eric Baugher, and he had tasted it as recently as last April, and was able to provide some notes. For those of you wondering about current projections of longevity as regards the 2002 Geyserville, here’s the scoop!
“I have looked through my notes and found that I last tasted ‘02GY on 5 April 2009. It was showing impressive concentration of primary bramble fruit, loads of black cherry, jam, exotic spice, chocolate, and gravel earth. The palate was very rich, creamy in texture, fully ripe, fresh, well-defined elegant tannins, with long finish. In my assessment, it’s still quite young and needing at least another 3-5 years.” -EB
If you have a read of the back label text (click image above for full size), you’ll see that Paul Draper’s notes were penned in 2003, and that he estimated about a ten-year development spectrum, theoretically putting optimum pourability somewhere about 2013, which pretty much squares with Eric’s 3-5 as of 2009, so if you’re holding ’02 Geyserville in your cellar, you can start dreaming about 2013!
