"93 Vinous - Billy Norris, Vinous.com
The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Cruz Mountains) is a blend of fruit from the Monte Bello estate and a few neighboring vineyards (Bates, Vidovich and Fellom) aged for 16 months in 100% American oak. Taut and structured, the 2023 opens with dark fruit, cracked pepper, smoked meat, tobacco leaf and cedar, all enshrouded in firm, chalky tannins that lead to a long, savory finish. This is a very fine access point to the Ridge house style at a more approachable price. As a note, this cuvée has existed in various iterations in the past, and was the original designation for what eventually became Ridge's Estate Cabernet.
Drinking Window 2025 - 2033
75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot"
In 1886 the first blocks of the Monte Bello vineyard were planted and construction on the winery begun. The first vintage was the 1892. In the early 1940s, the last of the old vineyard was abandoned; in the late forties a few blocks were replanted. Those cabernet vines, now over sixty-five years old, produced the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until 1974. By then other abandoned blocks had been replanted and their fruit considered for use in the Monte Bello. A number of those consistently produced a more accessible wine that developed its full complexity earlier and these were combined as the 'Santa Cruz Mountains.' With the 2008 vintage the name of this stylistically distinct wine became the Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, stressing the principal varietal and the Monte Bello estate vineyard as its source.
