Paul Draper has made an incredible 45 vintages at his famous winery on the Montebello Ridge. In addition to his considerable winemaking responsibilities he continues to maintain a punishing schedule of tastings and visits in the US and abroad. He is aided and abetted by Donn Riesen who famously started out driving tractors for Ridge in the '60s. He travelled everywhere he could promoting the wines and is now President of the winery. The humourous interplay between the two of them, resulting from three decades working together, is one of the many rewarding features of any visit to Ridge.
In 1962, when the number of fine California white wines could be counted on one hand, Ridge made its first Monte Bello Chardonnay. Not every vintage produces a Monte Bello—recently, only 1999, 2000, and 2003. In 2004, after a wet winter, the vines flowered and set significantly earlier than usual. This, coupled with a mild summer, brought ripe flavors by early September—also ahead of schedule. Each of the ten small parcels and sub-parcels was picked separately and whole-cluster pressed. The lots were racked to barrel, then spent three months in our cool underground cellars, fermenting to dryness on their own yeasts. A natural malolactic followed, finishing in late spring, when we selected three small, ex-ceptional lots for this Monte Bello. Racked off the lees in August, the wines were returned to barrel and tank for six additional months of aging and settling, enabling us to bottle without filtration. This complex chardonnay is enjoyable now, but is still very young. It will develop more fully over the next five years. EB/PD (1/06)