Ridge Vineyards was founded in 1959 when three Stanford Research Institute engineers bought an abandoned winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The vineyards had been planted in the late 19th century by a San Francisco physician who produced his first vintage in the original winery, called Monte Bello, in 1892. The first Ridge vintage was in 1962. John Olney is Head Winemaker at Ridge. Shauna Rosenblum was recently named the Winemaker at Ridge Lytton Springs.
Benito Dusi Ranch is situated in Paso Robles and the vines date back to 1923.
Crimson in color. 15.1% ABV. 100% Zinfandel. Sublime nose of red and black fruits, anise and pepper. Full bodied with mouth watering acidity. Rich, dark, earthy fruits in spades. Black cherry, black raspberry, toffee and pepper on the palate. Exceptional length on the finish. Always one of my favorites Zins in the Ridge portfolio. This will age well. Best over the next 3-5 years.
My rating: 93 points.
Ridge has been defined by their Zin program for as long as I can remember and in recent years these wines have soared to new heights.
The entire Ridge lineup is available at the winery and for the most part at retail as well. Exceptional wines that are fairly priced, well crafted and easy to find. Everyone is always looking for the latest and greatest when it comes to wine. Sometimes it pays to stick with the tried and true. There is so much to like here.
Ridge sent me some samples earlier this Fall which you can read about in New Releases from Ridge Vineyards.
Have been a Ridge fan since the late 60s. One thing I always liked is their very conservative use of American oak. Had a 2021 Geyserville last week and it was loaded with oak. Is this a one-off or is this a new trend with Ridge and the current wine maker?
I would say it is more likely a one off as I did not find the oak treatment on their recent wines problematic at all. Certainly some might have different tolerances for this than I do. Cheers and thank for reading.
I have noticed substantially more oak apparent in the Lytton Springs and Geyserville offerings, with restraint in the rest of the Zinfandel-heavy wines. This may be by design as those two are built for aging and the oak will likely recede. That said I gravitate toward the Paso Robles and East Bench labels. I used to be all in on Pagani but with the 2020 Ridge Pagani I got turned off. I also heard the grape grower reverted to certain fertilizers to boost production. This is strictly heresay on my part but it came from a Sonoma winemaker…