Fall Release Weekend, Monte Bello Picnic Area
Fall Release Weekend, Monte Bello Tasting Room
Archive for September, 2010
Fall Release Weekend, Day II Pics!
September 5, 2010Fall Release Weekend, Morning Pics!
September 4, 2010It’s Fall Release Weekend folks; new vintages of Monte Bello chard and cab, plus new vintages of Lytton Springs, Pagani Ranch, and York Creek! And I tell you what, it’s BEAUTIFUL at Monte Bello, and it’s BEAUTIFUL at Lytton Springs!
Fall Release Weekend, Monte Bello!
Fall Release Weekend, Lytton Springs
Today with Paul Draper, More Monte Bello! #cabernet
September 2, 2010#cabernet again, eh? Why, yes I am!
And here’s the layout, post-tasting, of a tasting, in which 2007, 1995, 1992, and 1984 Monte Bellos were, well, tasted!
MB, PD, and Me!
Monte Bello Vertical, 375ml-style, #cabernet
September 2, 2010The #cabernet thang Jes’ Grew, no? (Ishamel Reed fans, are you out there?)
Anyhow, Round Two #cabernet, recently tasted a glorious Monte Bello vertical out of 375 ml …
Monte Bello 375ml Vertical
@jamessuckling,@ridgemb,#cabernet
September 2, 2010Man, I have been on a Monte Bello tasting rampage of late! In rather timely fashion I might add, given all this #cabernet business afoot … So, as a first entry, I recently tasted the following with Paul Draper and James Suckling …
Preparing for James Suckling's visit with Paul Draper, at Ridge/Monte Bello
2007 Buchignani Ranch Zinfandel: Tasting Notes!
September 1, 2010Here at Ridge, we’re literally counting down the days until the new ATP wine gets released; it’s the 2007 Buchignani Ranch Zinfandel, and I’ve just had the great pleasure of tasting it, and jotting down some notes.
2007 Buchignani Ranch Zinfandel
For those of you who are members of our ATP program, you’ll be getting this wine in the mail in about two weeks, or alternatively, you’ll be joining us for either First Friday (this Friday!), or at the ATP After-Hours on September 18th.
And of course, in about a month, this wine will be available in our Lytton Springs and Monte Bello tasting rooms.
And now, some tasting notes:
Right away, this wine presents nearly text-book Northern Sonoma zinfandel aromatics; perfectly ripe fruit, with loads of berries, briar, and spice … the spiciness intensifies on the palate, introducing wild carignane-derived acidity, and making for a lean yet vivid early mouthfeel … Predictably enough, given its youth, the movement from front to back of palate is still a little discordant; the wine is pleasantly and even surprisingly supple at point-of-entry, yet shows a tad angular on the back end … the finish is both elegant and muscular, in the way of an Olympic skater perhaps, the acidity flashing bright blades of flavor across the wide rink of your palate, a small yet powerful spectacle of beauty and athleticism … to carry the rink metaphor even further, my culinary zamboni, if you will (i.e. palate cleanser) was (unintentionally) in this case the seemingly inappropriate incongruity of rich Thai peanut sauce. Oddly enough though, the wine actually matched up quite well spice-for-spice, but in the end, the stridency of the acidity structure in the zin was a bit much for the dish in question … truth be told, despite its comparatively lighter mouthfeel, this is (at least currently) a wine seemingly destined for pairing with heartier, higher fat content pairings; I’m thinking a round of Redwood Hill Farms Camellia (a goat-milk camembert) would be wonderfully appropriate … hmmmm, I think I’ll have to have that very, very soon …
Redwood Hill Farms Camellia
