Lovely - from the first sniff to the last sip. Bit of zing on the nose - a hint of the oxidative but clean. On the palate - light on its feet, acidity is there but in balance - some minerality, one of my dining companions said "iodine not anodyne" which i thought fit perfectly. One could happily drink a third of a bottle of this in very short order...

On pouring - some bricking, this looks old. The nose and palate tell a different story however - on the nose, "more than cigar box, the whole cigar" one of my dining companions said, which was spot on. Good acidity and a gorgeous velvety feeling in the mouth. At first i perceived a kind of gap in the mid palate - something almost tarry - but then it pulled itself together and was thoroughly lovely. This was a superb bottle - not sure how much it benefited from being sat alongside the other three bruisers but it showed itself well.

As a slight aside - I'm pretty sure this had the green, attractively glossy quality I associate with stems - would be interesting to know how far off the mark I am with that.

Woof. This is just outstanding - there's some real density to it, you can feel the weight on your tongue - but the acidity and fruit are there, it's a big wine, in great balance. There's a hint of honey and spice there (puts me in mind of the 96 Mouton) - I think that's the effect of the oak (although much subtler than the obvious American Oak in the 97 904 we tasted before).

With time - this just keeps getting better. Trying to figure out - how much is this to do with age, and how much is it just that 2006 was a really good vintage for Geyserville. Hard to know but I do feel inspired to hold onto all my Ridge zins for another decade or so...

This was lovely - although it's hard to imagine a Ridge Zin which wasn't lovely. Compared to the preceding bottle - a bit confected, I detected marzipan, although there was some discussion at the table as to whether the texture was more almond paste...Again, that trademark rich fruit backed up with good tannins and lovely acidity. In six years, will this bring as much joy as the 06 Geyserville did tonight? I think it might.

As i understand it, the conceit here is that this wine is made from grapes grown from Puglian primitivo clones, rather than the Zinfandel which has been in California for some time. Certainly this is a lovely, vibrant wine, although lacks the tannic backbone of the Lytton Springs and the Geyserville. Looking at the cepage - this does include a healthy dose of Carignan, but lacks the Petite Sirah that the aformentioned wines have. Is this the main cause of the difference? Hard to say - anyway - an enjoyable bottle, although not as serious as the two which preceded it.

What a lovely lift at the end of a delicious meal with some heavy reds. 5.5% ABV! Lovely spritzy and refreshing on the palate! I need to look for this in future - just the perfect way to end a wonderful dinner.