58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot
A late winter held the vines dormant longer than usual. During bloom, northern California was hit by a particularly strong weather system, disrupting fruit formation, and the estate yielded its smallest crop since 1996. Warm summer weather helped to avoid a seriously delayed harvest; picking began on schedule in early October, and was complete by early November. Small berry size resulted in rapid color and tannin extraction. This, in turn, required special handling - as the whole berries fermented on their natural yeasts, only a limited amount of juice was circulated through the cap. Early pressing - at day six, on average - helped maintain balance. press wine was aged separately, allowing excess tannin to precipitate, then added at eighteen months. Abundant fruit and richness permitted us to use a greater percentage of new and one-year-old air-dried american oak in aging. Twenty-one months in barrel and six racks off the settled lees have brought integration and clarity. Elegant structure and the rich, briary fruit typical of our Santa Cruz Mountains estate combine to give the wine immediate appeal. An excellent vintage, it will continue to develop over the next twelve to fourteen years.
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.