11/27/2010 - calicabnut wrote:

Given the high flying expectations of this wine, this is one of the biggest disappointments I can recall. This is my 1st bottle of Ridge Montebello and unless something changes I'm going to be really disappointed that I still have more.

Superb on the nose, its not worth the time to mention what all was there as it delivers nothing of what it advertises. Dense and purple on the pour .. up to this point it has you thinking 'this is gonna be a good one'!!

Alas, comes the tasting. Vinturi pour into decanter for roughly 1 hour. Sour, unripe plums fully qualified to become Sunkist prune juice. All of the qualities of a $10 bottle of Merlot. At this point it was headed for the sink drain but was saved by some wispy promises of cherry-chocolate. Waited another hour and while the prune juiciness didn't subside much at all, it did show a positive point of nicely subdued, integrated tannins but the whole experience was still overpowered by the sour tartness of cheap Merlot.

90 points is stretching it. I'm clearly influenced by "what it should be" somehow convincing me I'm wrong about it .. kinda like my ex explaining how it was that I was wrong all along. If I was rating a cheap bottle of wine that showed the same characteristics I'd give it a 76. I have to join Wine Drinkers Anonymous to get help to admit I paid a crispy c-note for this stuff.

Maybe Laube has this one right and it's just that it's not ready to drink until 2012. At least I can hope for that fairy tale to come true for the rest of what I have, but more likely they'll be Christmas gifts.