The Pleasures of Cool-Climate Cabernet
Ridge Vineyards proves that Cabernet can thrive in unlikely places
Posted: Jun 8, 2011 7:00am ET
Most Ridge fans are red heads, choosing the winery's Cabernets, Zinfandels or both. I'm in the minority camp. My favorite Ridge
wines are the Chardonnays.
But I recognize the Ridge Cabernets, grown at the estate Monte Bello Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, have a devout following. For me, the best of them are all about warm years versus cooler ones. I like the Monte Bello reds from the warmer years and found a nice bottle the other day in a regular blind tasting. It's the 2008 Ridge Estate bottling, which is a Cabernet-based blend made from grapes in the Monte Bello vineyard, but less expensive than the Monte Bello label. Still, the 2008 is the most impressive bottling of this wine I can recall.
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