Wine Advisor
Ridge, Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Erin Brooks
Medium ruby in color, the 2019 Monte Bello is bursting with pure, expressive perfume! Red and black currants are layered with wafts of rose petals, charcuterie, fresh thyme and tobacco, graphite, vanilla and cedar. Medium-bodied, it's the definition of weightless intensity, with concentrated layers of floral perfume and spice, a silky, mouthwatering frame, and a very long, ethereal finish that calls you back to the glass for another sip. Delicate, complex and very easy to drink, it's an especially elegant expression of Monte Bello!
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2019 Monte Bello is a wild, exotic wine. Huge, soaring aromatics meld into a core of heady, exotically ripe fruit. Not a shy wine by any means, the 2019 is atypically opulent, and yet all of the classic Monte Bello structure is there, underneath all of that fruit. The 2019 needs time in bottle to shed its baby fat, but there is a lot to look forward to. I imagine it will always be a pretty exuberant wine. Inky red fruit, blood orange, espresso, sweet American oak, cedar and pipe tobacco leave a lasting impression. In a word: magnificent!
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2019 Monte Bello, tasted from barrel, is insanely beautiful. Vibrant, deep and pulsing with energy, the 2019 simply has it all. How will it turn out in bottle? I can’t say just yet. But this barrel sample shipped across the country is positively dazzling, so the wine’s potential is clear. The 2019 offers superb fruit density, with mid-weight structure, bright acids and plenty of tannin. It could very well turn out to be epic.
Reviewed by: Erin Brooks
The 2019 Monte Bello includes 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. It has a poised, graceful nose of fresh sage and lilac with savory, meaty aromas in the background. The palate is medium-bodied but with admirable stuffing and concentration, leading to a springboard finish of pencil lead, gravel and pleasing, refreshing acidity. The standard élevage in new American oak is still years away from fully integrating, as evidenced in the herbal, upright but pleasant posture of the finish. This is a confidently elegant, high-toned iteration of this iconic wine that should drink and develop beautifully over the next three decades.
About the Producer
Ridge Vineyards is a California winery specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay wines. Ridge produces wine at two winery locations in northern California. The original winery facilities are located at an elevation of 2,300 feet (700 metres) on Monte Bello Ridge in unincorporated Santa Clara County in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, south of Los Altos, California and west of Cupertino, California. The other Ridge winery facilities are at Lytton Springs in the Dry Creek Valley AVA of Sonoma County. Ridge Vineyard's 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon gained prominence for its fifth-place finish in the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" wine tasting. History Although Ridge Vineyards was founded in the early 1960s, wine production at the winery's Monte Bello location has a much longer history. Grapevines were first planted on Monte Bello Ridge by Osea Perrone, a doctor and prominent member of the northern California Italian immigrant community, in 1885. The first Monte Bello wine was produced in 1892. Following Prohibition, the vineyard at Monte Bello passed through the hands of several amateur winemakers until it was purchased in 1959 by David Bennion, Charles Rosen, Hewitt Crane, and Howard Zeidler, all engineers at nearby Stanford Research Institute. Ridge Vineyards was bonded and produced its first commercial wine, a Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon, in 1962. According to a 1987 New York Times article, Ridge Vineyards was acquired by a Japanese company. "The new owner is Otsuka U.S., a subsidiary of the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a producer of nutritional drinks and other pharmaceutical products. Otsuka operates an experimental wine-making center near Fuji, in Japan." The international reputation of the Monte Bello wine produced by Ridge Vineyards was established when it achieved fifth place in the "Judgment of Paris", against nine other French and California wines. Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon was acclaimed in subsequent competitions, including The Judgment of Paris 30th Anniversary, the 30th anniversary retesting of the same red wines evaluated in the 1976 Paris wine competition. In this blind tasting, held both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, judges in both countries ranked Ridge Monte Bello number one among all the wines judged. Ridge Vineyards produced its first Zinfandel in 1964. Beginning in 1966, the winery began sourcing some grapes for its Geyserville Zinfandel and other wines from vineyards in Sonoma County. In 1991, Ridge Vineyards purchased the Lytton Springs vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley AVA. The winery produces wine at both the Monte Bello and Lytton Springs locations, and operates tasting rooms open to the public at both. Wines Ridge also focuses on single-estate wines where the grapes for a particular label are all grown at the same vineyard. The signature wine of Ridge is its Monte Bello, a field blend of Cabernet Sauvignon mixed with varying percentages of other grapes grown in the same location, usually including Merlot, Petit Verdot, and occasionally Cabernet Franc. Ridge's Zinfandels (or mostly-Zinfandel field blends) constitute the bulk of the winery's production. Using grapes from selected sites from all over the state and bottling them each under their own label, Ridge Zinfandels emphasize the particular characteristics of each growing site and may show different aging characteristics than do other Zinfandels. Among the best known of the Ridge Zinfandels or Zinfandel-blends are those from Geyserville, York Creek, and Lytton Springs.