Archive for November, 2010

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Global Zinfandel Day in our Tasting Rooms! 11.19.10!

November 15, 2010

What is Global Zinfandel Day?

Global Zinfandel Day is a worldwide celebration of the Zinfandel grape variety, intended to give Zinfandel lovers around the globe a platform to express their passion for Zinfandel. As part of the festivities, Ridge Vineyards is extending special one-cent shipping on all our Zinfandels when you purchase before November 17.  What better way to celebrate this special day than with a bottle of Ridge!  Click here to purchase.

So how do I take part in Zinfandel day?

Easy, just buy a bottle (or several) of Zinfandel, invite over some friends, and enjoy great wine and company.  

Now, what if you’re in Northern California?  Then come visit one of our Tasting Rooms and join us for a live in-house celebration! Ridge/Monte Bello will be offering special Open Tasting Appointments (advance reservations required), and Ridge/Lytton Springs will be open from 11-4 (no reservation required, unless you’re with a large group). We’ll be pouring a special Zinfandel-only flight at both locations, and each will feature a special tasting from the Ridge library!

If you are social media inclined we recommend you participate and follow along by logging into your favorite social media site and use the #zinfandel hash tag when posting your comments about Zinfandel.  You can then also search the hash tag on social sites to keep up with your fellow Zinfandel drinkers from around the globe.

So let’s do it!

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, Social Media, Special Offerings, Tasting Flights, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Tales, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

Open Tasting Appointments at Monte Bello for Global Zinfandel Day! 11.19.10

November 15, 2010

GLOBAL ZINFANDEL DAY: SPECIAL OPEN APPOINTMENTS at MONTE BELLO
11/19/10!

In honor of Global Zinfandel Day, Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Tasting Room is pleased to announce a day of Open Tasting Appointments on Friday, November 19th, during which we’ll be showcasing a singular and singularly delicious flight of Ridge Zinfandels (including a little something special from the vaults!).

Seated tastings will be held at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. If you would like to take advantage of this very unique tasting opportunity, please e-mail reservations@ridgewine.com with #Zinfandel in the subject field, and indicate in your correspondence the following:

Name:
Wine Club Membership Affiliation (if any):
Telephone:
Time slot preference:
Number of guests in your party:

Alternatively, please call 408.867.3233, and a staff member can assist you.

Availability is very limited for these tastings, so please contact us at your earliest convenience if you are interested. If we have availability, a Ridge staff member will obtain your credit card information, tender your fees, and e-mail confirmation of your tasting reservation.

For more about Global Zinfandel Day, please visit
http://zinfandel.eventbrite.com/

or visit our blog and Facebook and Twitter pages:
http://blog.ridgewine.com/
facebook.com/ridgevineyards
http://twitter.com/ridgevineyards

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Monte Bello, Social Media, Special Offerings, Tasting Flights, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Tales, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

Postcards From Before An After-Hours …

November 13, 2010

Through wisps of untold futures found, he scours
For postcards from before the after hours

 

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Food & Wine Pairing, Monte Bello, Tasting Rooms, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Clubs | Leave a Comment »

Carpe Manana!

November 13, 2010

A lovely bit of vintage Ridge propaganda …

Posted in Viticultural Salmagundi | Leave a Comment »

Global Zinfandel Day!

November 12, 2010

This is it folks, the one you’ve been waiting for! Zin-heads of the world, unite!

Friday, November 19th is Global Zinfandel Day!

For some specific details from the creators of this fine event, please  click here.

And as to celebrating Zinfandel (or #Zinfandel, I should say!) with all your oeno-zin-fanatics here at Ridge Vineyards, we have options and opportunities!

First off, you can join us in our Tasting Rooms. Lytton Springs will be open to the general public from 11-4 on the 19th, and we’ll be offering special Open Tasting Appointments at Monte Bello (for more on this, please click here); each tasting room will be pouring a zinfandel-only flight that not only will feature contemporary and new releases, but will also showcase some gems from our library!

You can also participate via your preferred social media platform; if you’re using Twitter, just add #Zinfandel to your posts, and use that tag when following the dialogue and tastings on other social sites. As to us here at Ridge, we’ll be posting on our blog, on Facebook, and via our Twitter account, and you’re certainly welcome to join us there as well!

You can even have a meetup/tweetup and drink up! Click here for more info on that, and to see what we have already scheduled for Lytton Springs …

The main thing is you should really have some good zinfandel on hand, and you should really be in some good company (though of course it can truly be a joy to have some quite time alone, in the company of a fine bottle of wine!), and if you can do this on the 19th, then consider yourself a proud participant in Global Zinfandel Day!

Lastly, for those of you who may need to top up their zinfandel stock, dig this!

 



Yeah, that’s the stuff …

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, Social Media, Special Offerings, Tasting Flights, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Virtual Verticals, Wine Blogs, Wine Tales, Zinfandel | 2 Comments »

Wine Bloggers Tasting: The Final 2010 Edition!

November 11, 2010

Calling all wine bloggers! Calling all wine bloggers!

For those of you who who’ve been following along (and of course those of you who’ve attended in the past), you know that we’ve started a new series this year, quarterly Wine Bloggers Tastings. We’ve done three so far, and I think it’s safe to say they’ve been wonderful events; each different in their own way, but all equally special, and delicious!

(If you’re not familiar with our series, you can click here and see a whole host of posts about it …)

The most recent event was held up at our Lytton Springs facility, and it was quite an affair; on a 100-hundred degree day, nearly 20 of us huddled down in the comparative coolness of the crush pad and tasted a 10-vintage vertical of Lytton Springs stretching all the way back to the 1987 vintage (which was stunning), plus a trio of back-vintage Monte Bello out of 375ml bottles (you can read about it here). What a day!

For the fourth and final Wine Bloggers Tasting of the year, we’ll be returning the event to my home turf of Monte Bello, and if you’re a wine blogger who will be in the area, please write me and let me know!

Provisionally, pending final confirmation, the tasting will be held on Friday, December 10th, here at Monte Bello, so again, if you can be in the area, let me know! In addition, we’re going to continue/expand the virtual component of the event; we’ll be inviting a select roster of wine bloggers from outside our area to participate via twitter using our #RidgeVineyards hashtag, so even if you can’t come to Monte Bello, you can still play ball! Meaning, write me if you want to attend!

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Wine Blogs | 1 Comment »

The Lunary Juju Of Saving Daylight At Monte Bello

November 11, 2010

When you work 4 1/2 miles up the side of a mountain, and you’re often the last one to leave, evenings can be solitary, strange, and strangely beautiful.

When the time change kicks in, and darkness invades so swiftly, the mountain can be downright haunting.

I took two photos the other night, and they’ve been haunting me since; remembrance of the moment, and the continuance of feeling.

I wanted to write a haiku in response, but per the mojo of the method, an appropriate one was just not forthcoming. (Dennis Nurkse, absolute genius poet, once described Eastern and Western poetry editing roughly as follows: in the Western Tradition, you start a poem, and then you work on it, revise it, re-start it,work it,  revise it again, and so on, until eventually, you achieve an acceptable version; in the Eastern Tradition, you spontaneously create 1000 Haiku, then pick the one good one. That’s Eastern editing.)

So in the spirit of the above-noted tradition, I didn’t want to force the lines, nor edit them. I just wanted them to happen. And while in no way would I posit this as a Haiku of high value or insight, I will say it does what I hoped it would; it remembers the moment to me …

Times and vines change
hearts; moon in the sky like a
fingernail clipping.

 

Moon Over Monte Bello

 

Moon Over Monte Bello - Detail

Posted in Monte Bello, Wine & Poetry | Leave a Comment »

Wine & Food Affair: The Picture Show!

November 8, 2010

Wow! What an AFFAIR that was! Our Lytton Springs Tasting Room saw over 1300 people in two days! THAT’S an affair!

By all accounts it was a tremendous event, and proved to once again be a tremendous showcase for the region. We’re very proud to be a part of such a fine community, and this was, for us, a delightful and delicious opportunity to engage in some serious community building, and some serious community celebration.

If you’re not familiar with the whingding that is Wine & Food Affair, please feel free to check a previous post (found here) for some specific details, and otherwise, stay tuned for when next year’s edition rolls around, this is something you just don’t want to miss!

If you did miss it and want to see what it’s all about, or if you were in fact there and just want to do some old-fashioned reliving of the magic, check out the following pics; it’s #WAFA10 in action!

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Food & Wine Pairing, Lytton Springs, Special Offerings, Tasting Rooms | Leave a Comment »

Harvest 2010? OVER!!!

November 5, 2010

Deep and sincere congratulations to our vineyard team for staying so strong through one of the most challenging growing seasons we’ve ever seen. As of about mid-day today, the last grape came in off of Monte Bello, rendering the 2010 Harvest officially over! Great, great job gang, you’re the very best!

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

My 1940s Royal Typewriter, and My Wine!

November 4, 2010

I’ve added a new item to my arsenal of tasting tools; a vintage, manual Royal typewriter from the 1940s!

My Royal and My Wine!

 

I’ll confess, I actually have quite a few old typewriters, and I love every one of them, and they’ve been and will continue to be a big part of my writing life.

(Should you actually be so interested, an essay of mine was published some years back about my affection for, and use of, manual typewriters. It was published on a vintage typewriter website, and it’s essentially a typewriter-centric story about my time as Writer-in-Residence at the Jack Kerouac House. You can find the essay here.)

But this is one is special, because I acquired it specifically for use at Ridge Vineyards.

My first work on it is tasting notes for the 2007 Old School. This will be December’s ATP offering, and I’ve been really, really, really eager to taste it. Here is what I typed; first-pass, unabridged, un-edited …


Here is a translation, in case you’re having trouble reading; my ribbon needs replacing! And, my fingers are a bit out of practice …

2007 Ridge Vineyards Old School

Rich garnet in the bowl, with a passionately glowing ruby limn and an even and elegant viscosity in the glass.

Aromatics rich with compressed mid-tone red fruit, hints of anise and kirsch, and a rounding-out woodiness that gleefully supports the rich fruit.

Borderline sweet at front-of-palate, with a decadent and round mouthfeel speaking clearly that this is zin, zin, and nothing but zin.

Opulence, ripeness, concentration; these are all words winemaker Eric Baugher uses in his label text, and they all apply. Add to this rhetorical roster the word succulent, and you’ve pretty much covered the spectrum.

There is a pleasantly dark undertow that re-emerges in the finish (echoes of the anise in the nose) and this lends a sense of structure that enhances the bodyweight, and reinforces the focus.

All in all, less of an at-table wine proper, and more of a private indulgence; this wine is sexy, decadent, and destined to be free-flowing.

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Tasting Notes, Varietals & Blends, Video, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine & Poetry, Wine Blogs, Wine Tales, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

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