2006 Lytton Springs Vineyard, bottled 4/08
80% ZINFANDEL, 16% PETITE SIRAH, 4% CARIGNANE
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 Don Riesen who famously started out driving tractors for Ridge in the '60s. He traveled everywhere he could promoting the wines and is now President of the winery. The humorous interplay between the two of them, resulting from three decades working together, is one of the many rewarding features of any visit to Ridge.
The Ridge wines have long represented the very finest in both upper-end quality and value for money. The style of Paul Draper’s wines has always wowed fans of both classic European wines and big fans of the New World. Very few, if any, winemaker’s can lay claim to this. No surprise that Monte Bello Cabernet has been chosen as the greatest wine in the world in separate decades and Paul himself has been both winemaker of the year and Decanter Magazine winemaker of the year.
"After long, hard rains in March, budbreak came by mid-April. In late July, extreme temperatures sunburned the west-facing blocks. These are planted predominantly to petite sirah, which sustained the highest loss. Veraison was late, and light rains further slowed maturation. We thinned the damaged clusters, and harvested the remaining fruit, fully ripe, between mid-September and mid-October. As tannin developed we reduced pumpovers, pressing at dryness on day nine. After a natural malolactic, twenty of the thirty-four blocks were selected for the 2006. This classic Lytton Springs was barrel aged for fifteen months. Approachable now, it has the structure to be cellared and enjoyed over the next ten years." PD
Halves and Magnums on request.