Please note: The Monte Bello Tasting Room will be closed the weekend of March 9th and 10th for a private Monte Bello Collector Member Event. We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we look forward to hosting you at another time!
If we might be so bold as to make the suggestion, a great alternative this weekend would be to attend Barrel Tasting at Lytton Springs! For more, please click here.
(photo by E. Grivas)
Were you in Sonoma yesterday, enjoying barrel tasting weekend??? Fantastic!
Did you go to Lytton Springs???
If you did, I bet you had a dyn-o-mite time!
Did you take any pictures? I’d love to see them!
I’ve got some for you too!
Let’s look …
Wait!
I should say first, that if you missed yesterday’s rampant delightfulness, that’s ok; not only is the event on again today, but it’s on next weekend as well!
Want to know what’s on offer in the way of barrel samples?
This weekend: 2012 Buchignani Ranch Carignane & 2012 Lytton Springs
Next weekend: 2012 Ponzo Zinfandel & 2012 Lytton Estate Petite Sirah
For full event details, please scroll to the end of the post. And in the meantime, pictures!
Yeah, that’s the stuff …
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And here are the event specs:
Barrel Tasting @ Lytton Springs
35th Annual Barrel Tasting Weekends
March 2-3 and March 9-10, 2013
11:00 am – 4:00 pm each day
We are very excited to again be participating in the Wine Road’s Barrel Tasting weekends! This is a fantastic opportunity to sample wines from the barrel, talk to winemakers and explore the beautiful Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys.
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(all images in this post courtesy of E. Grivas)
My boss is … shall we say … aware of college athletics. So March Madness means something to him.
He is not, on the other hand, a male European Hare. March Madness means something entirely different to a male European Hare.
And then there is working at Ridge, where March Madness means something altogether again.
Consider the events:
At Lytton Springs, not one but TWO concurrent weekends of Barrel Tasting!
Barrel Tasting @ Lytton Springs
35th Annual Barrel Tasting Weekends
March 2-3 and March 9-10, 2013
11:00 am – 4:00 pm each day
We are very excited to again be participating in the Wine Road’s Barrel Tasting weekends! This is a fantastic opportunity to sample wines from the barrel, talk to winemakers and explore the beautiful Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys.
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And at Monte Bello, the first of three Monte Bello Collector Events, the legendary Component Tasting!
Date: 3/9/2013
Ridge Vineyards is happy to welcome Monte Bello Collector members to attend the first Assemblage event of 2013!
Saturday & Sunday March 9th & 10th
11am-4pm
Monte Bello, Cupertino, CA
Please note that our Monte Bello Estate will be closed to all NON Monte Bello Collector members for this very special event.
Join us for our 12th annual Component Tasting on March 9th & 10th. This event is an exclusive opportunity for Monte Bello Collector members to meet the winemaking team and taste barrel samples of the separate varietal components. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to participate firsthand in the assemblage process and sample Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc from the Monte Bello Vineyard.
This is also a great opportunity to pick up your 2010 Monte Bello (which was purchased in 2011) and experience the Monte Bello estate. We look forward to seeing you at this special event.
An RSVP is required and must be received by Thurs, Feb 28th. This event is for Monte Bello Collector members only (a total of 4 attendees per membership). To ensure availability to all Collector members, please RSVP for only one day. There is no fee to attend.
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All of which makes for a fly slide into the next tier of our March intensities; meaning, consider the Membership offerings:
For the ATP tine of our fine vine trident, we’ve the March Seasonal:
-2009 Buchignani Ranch Zinfandel
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And for the Zlist branch of the Big Z Tree, it’s the ring-a-ding bling of the Spring:
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And for our Monte Bello Collector Members (those who began reserving allocations at the time this vintage was on offer) the new vintage of Monte Bello:
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Madness.
No, definitely not THAT Madness. Try again.
Ok, WAY cooler, but still no. Madness.
Definitely not. Madness.
Yes, Madness.
It was, and still is, that time again; Barrel Tasting Weekend on the Northern Sonoma Wine Road!
It was, and still is, the 34th annual edition of this very fine and remarkable event, and Lytton Springs was, and is, a very proud participant!
For more about the event, please click here.
And what’s with all this WAS and IS business? Well, I say WAS, because last weekend was the first weekend! And I say IS because next weekend is the last weekend!
Which means if you dig drinking this …
While doing this …
Or this …
In a place like this …
Then I strongly encourage you not to miss a weekend of tasting from this …
(Special thanks to our inveterate shutterbug Brandye Alexander for capturing such lovely images!)
Brandye Alexander: International Woman of Mystery. Intrepid Spy. Shutterbug. Viticultural Weegee. The Ansel Adams of the Barrel. The Diane Arbus of the Vine.
Call her what you will, but Brandye Alexander takes a good picture, the kind of picture that puts YOU in the picture, the kind of picture that makes you involuntarily reach out to try to touch something in the picture; the kind of picture that translates life to legend.
She makes you, for lack of a more singular way to put it, feel as if you were there.
And we’re very fortunate that she was there for Barrel Tasting Weekend at Lytton Springs, because of what she’s preserved for us; the beauty, the excitement, the passion. The flavors of the days.
Were you there? Please share with us your experiences if you were; your thoughts, sensations, photos, imaginings.
And if you weren’t, then join Brandye in a short trip into the mystic.
Are you on our e-mail list? If so, check your inbox! There is RidgeNews afoot!
EXTRA! EXTRA!
And if you’re not on said list, well, I’ll cheat in your favor THIS time, but you might want to consider signing up for the future; we don’t send a lot of e-mail, but the ones we do send are Chock Full Of Ridgerly Goodness!
Say what? You want to sign up? Diggity Dig Dig Diggee Dig! Click here, put your e-mail address in the SUBSCRIBE field, and you’re In Like Flynn With A Fin For Gin! Or should I say, Fine Like Cline With A Line For Wine!
Now, on to the good stuff:
First off, the new 2006 Lytton Estate Syrah/Grenache is now officially available for sale to the general public at large! To see some recent tasting notes on this blog, please click here.
And to dig a crazy food & wine pairing from Sondra Bernstein, proprietor of the award-winning restaurants Girl & the Fig and Estate in Sonoma, read onwards, hungry mendicants!
Braised Lamb Shanks over Mashed Potatoes
Click here to recreate this pairing at home.
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Secondly, it’s SAVE THE DATE time! Here is a list of some upcoming calendrical Ridgentstances you sure-as-shoeboxes don’t want to miss:
March
April
These are all general public events; nothing is required of you ‘cept to come!
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Finally, for those of you who are members of a Ridge Wine Club, there is some serious exclusivivaciousness blowing in the viticultural winds right now; if the words DYNAMITE HILL mean anything to you, you best better bet bring your mouse to move your cursor to just exactly right about here.
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That’s all for now folks, but stay tuned for some VERY UP TO THE MINUTE BREAKING MEMBER EVENT NEWS in the next day or two, as well as a SERMON IN PRAISE OF ZAP!
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And yes, my spell-check did indeed red-flad Ridgenstances and Exclusivivaciousness, thank you very much!
