August 24, 2019 - Rustic, short,
October 31, 2013 - Deep and dark-red. Garnet.
Dense, vital and powerful colors with no signs of aging.
Play of Dark Berries- mostly Cassis. Some Black Cherries and Fruit in Rum. Multilayered secondary & tertiary characters of Earth, Tar, Tobacco and Oak come with beautiful hints of Lovage and Fresh Herbs. Some Eucalypt.
Soft and fresh Aromas with nice harmony and intensity!
Flavors of Cassis and other Dark Berries. Cedar.
Dark Chocolate. Smoky traces, Leather and Oak. Mild Spices and Exotic Perfume. Vital Freshness with decent Green Notes. Minerality (!)
Finishes long and beautiful with Dark-red Fruit, Coolness, Soft Tannins, Little Acidity and Peppery Spiciness.
Nicely integrated structure with great complexity and pleasant mouthfeel!
Very alive wine with a perfect integrated structure!
Intensely colored, complex, harmonious, concentrated and fresh Cabernet from a very good year with great play of ripe fruit and secondary (tertiary) characteristics.
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July 25, 2011 - Still vibrant in the glass. Nuanced layers from dark cherry center to pink hue. Fine, warm bouquet, spreading kirsch fruit, Christmas spices, wonderfully integrated oak. Palate is big, still tight, packing good acidity and fine tannins. Finishes with cherry and a spectrum of tertiary aromas. Long. Superbly balanced. Another classy effort from Ridge. Drink now or keep for another five to ten if you have a cold cellar. 90+
March 6, 2010 - wonderful; still has great flavor
March 8, 2009 - Absolutely wonderfully aged, even though it probably was even better a couple of years ago. There was still some vibrant fruitiness, but not enough by a stretch. Lots of dark toned cedar berry, mellow well-integrated tannins and a long almost chocolate heavy aftertaste.
May 18, 2008 - This took a while to open and fill out on the mid palate and finish but it just kept getting better all night. It presented rich black fruits framed by spicy tasty cedar and other dark spices. It received a 100% new oak treatment with 80% being American. Wow! 80%! It's a good thing that No Spit has traveled off the continent because this much oak would put him in a coma. Actually, Greenblanket can picture him as we drank this - sitting on the beach in Maui doubled over by the pain caused by the massive disturbance in the force. But Greenblanket digresses . He loved this wine and was impressed that it was made with the stuffing to wait for 100% new oak to integrate into a lovely complement to the dark flavorful mountain fruit. Very Bordeaux like Greenblanket thinks. And outstanding.
April 9, 2007 - Pop and pour .. paired with grilled ribeye. A bit understated with fruit component fading. Perhaps bottle variation, but this one is certainly passed its prime.
July 14, 2006 - Deep ruby, narrow rim.
On the nose, intense, luscious, sexy ripe black fruits, hints of chocolate, some spice.
A full bodied wine, with intense ripe black fruits, plum, some spice, with a nice shot of balancing acidity and hints of chocolate coming through on the lingering finish. Decent complexity here, but still plenty of tannins which would be a little intrusive on the finish without food.
Very enjoyable now with a rare sirloin steak, this is still on the way up.
February 11, 2005 - I drank this wine with some parmesan reggiano cheese...at first it was very closed and not rich or fruity but opened up after roughly 60 minutes and offered scents of chocolate, mint, leather and berry. It got more creamy as time went on as well. It also included some sediment. Very nice wine.
November 14, 2003 - At $25 this wine is a steal! This is just terrific. Don't remember the last time that I had a $25 bottle this good. Pleasant, round, balanced and refined this was just perfect with steak. Maybe a bit hard to get a lot of scents out of the glass. And, of course, lacking those final dimensions and complexity that wine 3 times the price posses. To me, though, this is a real stand-out wine... price considering.