Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 750ml

Professional Review

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate comes from the estate Monte Bello Vineyard on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. Hitting 13.8% alcohol, its deep ruby/purple color is followed by a brilliant perfume of blue fruits, scorched earth, tobacco leaf, and lead pencil. Beautifully balanced and medium to full-bodied, with building tannins.

Reveals a singed cedar frame around a core of gently steeped plum and blackberry fruit, with notes of violet, bay leaf and charcoal filling in on the finish. Structured and toothy now, but should round into form soon enough, as the fruit is very vibrant. Best from 2021 through 2030

Ridge collectors may remember the Jimsomare cabernets that Paul Draper made until 1997. They came from a property on Monte Bello Road that Pierre Klein had originally planted to cabernet in the late 19th century, and was replanted in the 1970s. When Ridge signed a long-term lease on the vineyard in 1996, the fruit became part of the Monte Bello blend. The 2016 is the first separate bottling from the site in two decades. The site is lower in elevation than others in the Monte Bello collection, with wider shifts between day and nighttime temperatures, generating a redfruited cabernet with an oceanic freshness and an acidity that feels pithy. It’s tight and reductive (a little youthfully stinky), needing five years or more to begin to show its best.