Archive for June, 2010

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Ridge Monte Bello Chardonnay & The Luxist Awards!

June 21, 2010

Lovely, lovely article on our 2006 Monte Bello Chardonnay (Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Chardonnay: Relying on Nature and Tradition), and it comes in the context of us being nominated for an award from the good folks over at Luxist. How’s this for a mission statement?

Welcome to Luxist, a web site dedicated to covering the best the world has to offer on a variety of luxury and fine living topics. We feature real estate, trends in travel, the art world, shopping, fashion, gourmet food, wine and the spending habits of the rich and famous.

Well, what company we’re running in! In all honesty though, Luxist does a wonderful job of seeking out a wide array of fascinating subjects, their roster of writers reads like a veritable who’s who of the form, and mainly, it’s really quite an honor to have been nominated, since it’s in fact a Reader’s Choice Award!

You can read the article here:

http://www.luxist.com/2010/06/16/ridge-vineyards-monte-bello-chardonnay-relying-on-nature-and-tr/

And you can vote here:

http://www.luxist.com/awards-vote/wine-awards/

Cheers to you Luxist, and cheers to your readers!

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Posted in Chardonnay, Monte Bello, Press Reviews, Varietals & Blends, Wine Blogs | Leave a Comment »

Hey Dads, Come On Down!

June 20, 2010

Got a lil’ something special for the father’s out there, so if you’re anywhere near either Lytton Springs or Monte Bello, and you’re a dad, or you’ve got a dad amongst ya, then COME ON DOWN and enjoy our Father’s Day Estate Swap!

Father's Day Magnum, 2005 Lytton Springs!

Near Lytton Springs? Try Monte Bello! Sandy’s got a great trio of Monte Bello Half-Bottles for you to taste. Near Monte Bello? Try Lytton Springs! We’re pouring magnums of 2005 Lytton Springs (sold out except for what we’ve got on hand!), and it’s tasting phenomenal!

So join us! Cheers to the Dads!

Posted in Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello | Leave a Comment »

TasteLive: The Line-Up!

June 18, 2010

As previously announced, we’re doing a TasteLive Event this Saturday evening (you can read the post announcing the event here), and I’d like to share with you our plan for the wines we’ll be showcasing ; in honor of the new vintage of Buchignani Ranch Carignane being released, each tasting room will be pouring a trio of small-production Rhone varietal offerings (including the new release!), so if you’re in attendance, we’ll be looking very forward to your tweeted tasting notes!

For those of you who will be participating virtually, go raid your cellars for any Ridge Rhone offerings, and tweet right along! Got an 05′ Lytton West Syrah? Join the fun! Back-vintage of Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah? We wanna know how it’s showing! How ’bout an ’03 Pato Mataro? Brilliant!

Looking forward to tasting with you tomorrow night!

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Posted in Carignane, Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, Rhone varietals, Tasting Flights, Tasting Notes, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Blogs, Wine Clubs | 1 Comment »

Summer Evening Coming Down

June 18, 2010

There are any number of annual signs that say the growing season is upon us; most of them vineyard-related, a few occasionally not. One of my favorite latter-category harbingers is the return of the hummingbirds to the gardens. I snapped this one on the way out of my office last night:

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Posted in Monte Bello, Viticultural Salmagundi | Leave a Comment »

1999 Geyserville, New Tasting Notes!

June 17, 2010

One glance at the label sends me sailing headlong into the Sea of Smiles; 68% Zinfandel, 16% Carignane, 16% Petite Sirah. Wonderful.

With 43 vintages under the belt, there is a substantive amount of compare-and-contrast on offer as regards our Geyserville. As with any of our single-vineyard designations, there is, by design and of necessity, a certain amount of pendular aesthetic swing on a vintage-to-vintage basis; the wines wouldn’t be honest to their respective terroirs if there wasn’t: Mother Nature does not repeat herself, neither should a wine. (That said, Geyserville always tastes like Geyerville, making it always unlike any other wine. One man’s semi-humble opinion!)

Anyhow, the point being, different vintages have different personalities, and in terms of my personal aesthetic preferences, I tend to prefer the years where the supporting cast of mixed blacks has a larger role, so to see a full 16% of both Carignane and Petite Sirah in the blend just flat out makes me happy.

So, on to the wine itself:

 

Lovely aromatics: a great spread of North American  autumnal spice & a more exotic international spice spectrum; notes of cardamom in particular. All this juxtaposed against rich, ripe fruits and a succulent hint of honeysuckle … perfectly round mouthfeel at point-of-entry, with an unexpectedly dark underlayer supporting an architecture of utterly vivacious acidity and winsome yet strangely present tannins … mid-palate shows a mitigated robustness that expresses more refinement than muscularity, and is permeated through and through with multi-tiered complexities redolent of spice-box herbality and coarse-ground pepper; both white and black …  the finish is almost polite, asking little of the palate other than genuine appreciation for time spent in fine, witty, and urbane company; in short, elegance, refinement, class, integrity, and complexity. Geyserville, perfect company for a perfect evening.

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Posted in Carignane, Geyserville, Petite Sirah, Tasting Notes, Varietals & Blends, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

TasteLive with Ridge Vineyards!

June 16, 2010

This Saturday, our two tasting rooms (Lytton Springs & Monte Bello) will be hosting members of our ATP Wine Program for an After-Hours Event, celebrating the launch of our new 2008 Buchignani Ranch Carignane. Every vintage, this 100% solo-varietal old-vine Carignane is one of our most highly anticipated releases, and based on our own preliminary tastings, this is a vintage that should exceed every expectation.

 

This particular event is going to have an extra-special twist; it’ll be a TasteLive event! Meaning, you, and you, and you, and you, and you, are encouraged to tweet along in real-time while you taste with other Ridge fans in the Virtual Ridge Tasting Room online. Have an iPhone? Bring it along, and tweet from your own device! No smart phone? No problem! We’ll have a way for you to tweet on-site! Can’t make it to the event in person? No problem! Our very own social media maven and brand-new-momma Melissa Baker has made it easy for EVERYONE to join in the fun! Here’s what she has to say:

You can taste along with us at www.tastelive.com/ridgevineyards. Once you create your free account with TasteLive you can post your tasting notes and questions directly onto our page and see what others have to say!

Following the conversation is easy– You can either log onto www.tastelive.com/ridgevineyards (do this before the event starts) and follow and tweet from there, or just mark / tag your tweets with the hashtag #ridgewines . Then follow the tag on your twitter application of choice.

So if you’re an ATP member, and you’re going to be anywhere near Lytton Springs or Monte Bello this Saturday evening, make sure to join us in our tasting rooms, and be ready to TasteLive! And if you won’t be nearby, or if you’re not yet in the ATP program, just follow the instructions above, and join us in the TasteLive Wine-O-Sphere!

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Posted in Carignane, Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, Tasting Rooms, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Blogs, Wine Clubs | 1 Comment »

Vine Watch 2010, Week II!

June 15, 2010

So wonderful to have received all the positive comments for our lil’ vine friend last week, thank you!

In said comments, one of the matters raised was a request for larger-context shots, so here’s a look at our lil’ trooper in week II, from a few different angles:

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Monte Bello, Vineyards and Oenology | Leave a Comment »

Eric Asimov on “Natural Winemaking”

June 15, 2010

It’s a hot-button topic in the world of wine, that’s for sure, and it goes by many names; non-interventionism, minimum impact, or perhaps the most familiar: natural. Natural Winemaking is a subject that comes up often these days, and it appears to be a rather polarizing one. But perhaps the real conundrum is the seeming lack of a definition. Just what is “natural winemaking?”

Eric Asimov, on his blog The Pour, has just published a really interesting article on exactly this subject, and if this is a topic of interest to you, I heartily recommend you check it out. And perhaps even more fascinating is the comment feed; proof for sure of just how ticklish the issue is.

Give it a read, read the comments, maybe post some thoughts of your own, and please feel free to share some perspective here as well. Our own Paul Draper makes an appearance in the article, and Ridge has of course weighed in on innumerable variations of the subject over our many decades of our engagement with the land, and the practice of winemaking.

You can read Eric’s full article here.

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Posted in Paul Draper, Press Reviews, Vineyards and Oenology, Wine Blogs, Winemaking | 1 Comment »

It’s Not All Wine & Glamour, Continued …

June 14, 2010

I mean, there are certain days when you look around and realize, I do NOT have a normal job! To borrow a line from the previous post, just because we get paid to pour Ridge wines, and talk about Ridge wines, and taste Ridge wines, and do all the above with other people who love Ridge wines …

Anyhow, what I’m really trying to say is that it REALLY isn’t all wine & glamour. For example, here is how my morning started:

Snake Handler Watkins!

I’m just saying, it’s not all wine & glamour …

Posted in Events & Photographs, Monte Bello, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Tales | 2 Comments »

It’s Not All Wine & Glamour!

June 14, 2010

Admittedly, it’s sometimes hard to elicit sympathy from a non-wine-industry person when you’re trying to explain that, in the wine industry, it’s not all wine & glamour. I mean, just because we get paid to pour Ridge wines, and talk about Ridge wines, and taste Ridge wines, and do all the above with other people who love Ridge wines … well, I suppose you get the picture.

Anyhow, I’m here to tell you it really isn’t all just wine & glamour! For example, here’s the line-up from a tasting we recently hosted:

Champion Tasting/Ridge Vineyards/June 2010

 

Now, sure the 2008 Santa Cruz Chard is buzzing with fresh citricity, extraordinary minerality, and youthful, bright acidity! Sure the East Bench is a fantastically welcome new edition to our single-vineyard zinfandel portfolio! Sure, Geyserville & Lytton Springs are the twin pillars of our Zin program! Sure, the ’95 Monte Bello out of half-bottle is like gently trailing a metaphysical velvet blanket sewn from love, theology, jazz, zen buddhism, the feel of baby lamb’s wool under your creek-washed hand, and really, really good plums across your tongue! But I’m telling you, it’s not all wine & glamour!

For example, consider what goes on behind the scenes:

It's Not All Wine & Glamour!

 

In the background, superstar Monte Bello Tasting Room Host Darren Gardner labors over foils that must be cut to perfection, corks that must be flawlessly extracted, wines that must be elegantly double-decanted, wines that must be tasted, lest a single flaw go un-noticed! And in the foreground? Other superstar Monte Bello Tasting Room Host Sam Howles-Banerji is hard at work muscling his way through 20 pencils that need to be sharpened! Pencils that will be used for the tasting, to record vital tasting notes! These guys are working!

I’m just saying, it’s not all wine & glamour …

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Geyserville, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, RIDGE Staff, Tasting Flights, Tasting Rooms, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Tales | 1 Comment »

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