Ridge Tasting with Eric Baugher

This tasting featured nne Ridge wines and was hosted by Eric Baugher, the winemaker at Monte Bello. Eric made four of the wines, the other five came from his co-winemaker.

• 2012 Ridge Three Valleys 86 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Light color, fresh nose, lighter in the mouth, a little briary. Decent tannin adds balance. Best thing about this wine is the nose, very floral. Drink up.

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• 2012 Ridge Zinfandel East Bench 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Reticent nose with a bit of alcohol. Deep ruby color. Very fruity on the palate, followed by good acidity. Fine tannins. Overall a briary wine with a good bit of heat, which needs food to calm it down a bit. This would do nicely with a piece of bloody beef.

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• 2012 Ridge Lytton Springs 92 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Bright ruby red. Fantastic nose, plummy fruit there and on the palate. Solid tannins evident in the long finish. Good acidity provides excellent balance. Plenty of structure here. Does show a little heat at the end, but nothing out of character for the wine.

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• 2012 Ridge Geyserville 93 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Dark ruby. Fantastic nose with elements of dark chocolate. Blackberry on the palate, terrific fruit, very concentrated. A lot of power here. Medium long finish, very good acidity. Classic Geyserville.

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• 2012 Ridge Petite Sirah Lytton Estate 87 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Deeo color. Very closed, rough tannins dominate. Heavy wine with moderate heat from the alcohol. Straightforward effort.

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• 2013 Ridge Chardonnay Estate 92 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  Pale yellow. Rich nose with a bit of lemon, a little vanilla. Medium body and mouthfeel, bracing acidity in the finish, which lasts for minutes. Still a baby, but beautifully balanced. 100% American oak, 10% new, but I never would have guessed - the oak plays a counterpoint to the powerful fruit and never intrudes.

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• 2012 Ridge Merlot Estate 89 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  Bright red, toast and coffee on the nose. Fruit forward wine with decent balance, strong grainy tannins in the finish. Floral and round with a bit of herbal quality to it. Drinkable now, a couple of years probably helps this out.

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• 2012 Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 91 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  This was a big, big wine. Classic cab nose, pencil box, dark fruit. Deep color. Closed on the palate for the most part, dominated by the fine tannins which persist for a fairly long time. The fruit is there, lurking, but it took quite a bit of swirling to get it to peek from behind the curtain. Needs a minimum of 3-5 years and should hit the prime window at 7+.

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• 2008 Ridge Monte Bello 95 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  Classic cab nose leaps from the glass. Violets, dark fruits. Can spend a long time just inhaling this. Deep red in color. Very full bodied, deep and rich cab. Long, long finish with superfine tannins. Wonderful balance here, power, structure and depth. Built for the long haul but delicious today. Impressive effort.
  (Side note: Eric noted he was not happy with the minor blending grapes in 2008, so he declassified them, making this Monte Bello all Cab and Merlot).

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An excellent tasting. I've seen quite a few winemakers talk about their wines, and Eric is among the best I have encountered. He gave a ton of geek detail that thrilled people like me, while never getting so far in the weeks that he lost the casual attendees. His methods are non-interventionist (natural yeasts, stir the free run and let it go) and at the same time traditionalist (he will never use anything but corks, and had selects the corks for the large format bottles). The wines shoed very well, and his bottles were outstanding. Bravo.