1998 Ridge Monte Bello
Community Tasting Note
Cailles wrote:
Sunday, December 18, 2022 - 16x Right Bank Bordeaux 1998: Almost 25 years later, it’s a great time to check in on the wines of the much lauded right bank vintage. All wines tasted single blind. A few observations: A) most wines showed quite open with a melted tannin structure, but still good tension across the board. B) The highlight was rather on the structural side (elegance and finesse in most wines), than on the aromatic depth side, which was limited, also due to… C) …the fact that there is limited tertiary expression yet. Most wines will need at least another 5 to rather 10 years to reach their peak. D) An average rating of 91.9pts in my book and 92.0pts for the group shows that despite a few highlights, the reception was mixed overall. E) Best wines today were Angelus (group average 94.9pts), Valandraud (94.4) and Cheval Blanc (94.0). I would put L’Evangile (rated 95pts) in the top category too but the group (average 92.6) was less enthusiastic.
TN: Added as a ringer to the tasting (double blind). Intense, open nose displaying a sweet dark berries core with very pleasant minty notes to complement and giving away its Californian origin. In fact, I thought we might be drinking a Heitz Martha’s Vyd. On the palate very elegant, lots of finesse and at the same time loads of ripe dark berries, minty notes, herbs and crushed rocks. This was one of the best wines and although Californian, it is still well-behaved, not too ripe or excessive – typical Ridge.
Decanting: Decanted for probably 3-4 hours which worked well.
Group score: 93.5
Group rank: 6th out of 16 reds
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