Ridge Estate Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon, 750ml, California, USA

The Estate
Monte Bello is first and foremost a wine of place. That place – high atop the Santa Cruz Mountains underlain by decomposing limestone and Franciscan rock – produces a wine unlike any other. It is our belief that this vineyard with its very low-yielding vines (less than two tons per acre) is capable of creating a wine of great significance, depth, complexity and aging potential – but only if we take care in sustaining it. Our vineyard practices, therefore, do not intervene; rather they use and preserve the existing eco-system through techniques such as sowing cover crops and utilizing integrated pest management to nurture and protect the vines. We do not add anything to the vineyard that is not natural. We are currently pursuing organic certification for Monte Bello.
The Vineyard
The Monte Bello vineyard, located only 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean, is part of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California’s coolest cabernet producing area. It is our practice to let this unique vineyard site create the wine rather than try to steer it toward a particular style in the cellar. We accomplish this through a combination of natural, low-tech, hands-off winemaking techniques: keeping all grape varieties and all parcels separate, fermenting in small fermentors using only natural yeasts, and transferring the separate lots into air-dried American oak barrels to undergo full, natural malolactic fermentation. At many points along the way, we taste each lot and assess its individual qualities. This selection process is crucial to creating Monte Bello, a wine that consistently reflects the character of the vineyard and not the whim of the winemaker.
The Monte Bello vineyard ranges in elevation from 1300′ to 2700′ above sea level and is composed of unique green stone and clay soils layered over decomposing limestone. Limestone is not found in the well-known Cabernet producing areas of Napa and Sonoma Valleys, making the soil composition at Monte Bello a unique and important contributor to the wine’s distinctive character. The combination of elevation, cool climate, and soil produces a wine that is impeccably balanced and destined for long-term aging, with firm acidity and a consistent streak of minerality.
The Wine
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.
The Vintage
A dry, mild winter than resulted in limited yields, and a warm summer ripened the small crop evenly. On Labor Day an intense heat wave accelerated ripening for an early harvest. The wine showed appealing fruit and firm tannins. In tasting, the wines most typical of the estate styles were selected. This excellent vintage was barrel-aged for an extended twenty-two months to fully integrate the tannins. Enjoyable now, it will reach full maturity in ten to fifteen years. TG (4/24)
Winemaking
Hand harvested , estate-grown grapes; destemmed and sorted, fermented on indigenous yeasts, calcium carbonate, full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria, minimum effective sulfur (35ppm at crush,  120ppm during aging). In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions. 
Harvest Dates: 9 Sept - 5 Oct
Grapes: Average Brix 24.2
TA:7.08 g/L, pH: 3.36
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed and sorted, 100% whole berry fermented on the native yeasts. 
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (52% new, 20% one year old and 28% two years old; 56% Appalachian, 27% Missouri, 17% Virginia.
Aging: Twenty-two months in barrel.
Winemaker Tasting Notes
Saturated purples hues with our aromas of black cherries, blueberry, cola, dried herbs, cedar, juniper berry and sweet oak. Medium body with rich textures that coat the entire palate. Flavors of red and black fruit and exotic spice with layers of gravely and mineral notes. Long and complex finish. TG (4/24).