2/24/2024 - DFBW Likes this wine:

Second bottle from the case as the general view seems to be that these are showing well this young.Thought I would try another one blind with a bottle from my 2016 Cru Collection case - Ovello this time. Same result as last time, the straight Barbaresco won hands down. This is more down to the Cru wine being far from ready but also shines a light on how good this wine is right now. Three hour decant in advance and left the first glass sitting for a good half an hour in the glass. Fantastic depth with a beautiful rich aroma. On the palate there was plenty of rich earthy red fruit and tar with the tannins that were so prominent in the Ovello perfectly integrated but still showing enough to really compliment our Risotto dish. This wine will clearly age but one of the best young Piedmont wines to come out of my cellar. Note to self - leave the Crus alone...

5/23/2020 - karl.1480 wrote:

Pale, lemon green color.

The nose imidetly takes you to a Mediterranean shoreline with sea breeze, salty rocks, dusty Mediterranean herbs, lemon zest, citrus oil, unripe peach and chalk dust. With time in the glass and rising temperature aromas of yeasty lees and orange blossom. Lovely nose.

Bone dry on the palate with ripping acidity and impressive intensity to the flavors. Great weight on the palate especially considering the 12% abv. Very stony flavors with warm rocks, sea breeze, chalk dusty and some zesty citrus and floral components. Really long and mouthwatering finish with a distinct saline note to it.

Just an extraordinary wine that taste so much of the place. Easily top 5 of the best Italian whites I've had. I would love to see where this goes a couple of years down the line.

8/14/2022 - Edeon Likes this wine:

Best red wine I've ever tasted. Nose was sweet new oak, almost like a Penfolds Grange, but clearly not Shiraz. But the palette was an explosive sea of sweet red fruit and complexity with fizzling candy at the tip of the tongue. I've never tasted anything like it. Blown away.

11/23/2019 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine:

Nose: Floral, red fruits and sweet earth when swirling from afar. Some earth funk like deep, wet earth, mushrooms, some moss, wet bark, barn leather, a pleasant soft spice or pepper (not black) and a slight smokey dried meat scent. A little bit of dried herbs with some time in the glass.

Palate: A blend of deep earth, ripe red toned fruits, an underlying of similar wet bark from the nose, softly spiced, a slight lacing of oak, a slight mineral on the finish.. and I'm playing 'Name-that-note' on this one flavor.. it's some sort of clay? Maybe candle wax or just the forest funk, kinda hard to tell but very good.

Dark, clear medium ruby. Dry with medium to medium-plus amounts of chewy tannin. Medium body with medium to medium-plus acidity. Amazing finish of at least 26-27+ seconds. Full of flavors that are dense and concentrated but is somehow elegant across the palate (the body call was somewhat kinda hard because of the elegance). So well packaged together. This is really good now and obviously can stand the test of time, at least 7-8 years as the structure and acidity seems to suggest. So this is Northern-Rhone Syrah, eh? Oh.. I'm learnin'

Other notes: No decant, time in glass only and you shouldn't decant, the flavors seem delicate and too much air might change it some. Burgundy glass. Served ~60° and enjoyed over the course of 1.5 hours.. I tried taking my time but I couldn't. Really enjoyable.

3/18/2023 - ProfAvi wrote:

I wouldn't normally approach a 'grand' vin from a good vintage for 10 years.
However, having read the reviews on here, I was intrigued, so I did.

Decanted and left for an hour while Ireland beat England in the 6 Nations.

Deep ruby/ red colour and, with a swirl, dripping with legs.
On the nose graphite, smokey and spicy with ripe raspberries/ loganberries lurking in the background, but no mistaking a certain "greenness" from the cabernet franc.

Fruit more notable on the palate - merlot's plummy-cherry to the fore.
Noticeable tannins but not in a harsh way.

I'm no wine expert.
I'm surprised this is drinking so well now. Will see how it pairs with dinner - sausage with white beans.

For my taste a bit out of balance now, but with time the ingredients are all there, and can only assume that more nuanced flavours on the nose and palate will develop in due course.

I bought a case of this wine with some money left to me in my ex-mother-in-law's will. This was my first bottle.

With each bottle, I will think of her and what a lovely woman she was.

11/27/2021 - Paul S wrote:

Grange Vertical with Peter Gago (Goodwood Park Hotel, Singapore): A very strong wine. It took about an hour to get going, but was really solid when it did. This had a slightly deeper, funkier nose that some of the others on the flight, but it was really nice in its own way, with meaty, earthy, and ever so slightly sauvage notes laced through sweeter aromas of blueberries and plums, some creme de cassis maybe, then a burst of spice and violets, with maybe a bit of capsicum at the sides. There was a touch of VA on the sides, but I liked that nose otherwise - lots of little complex smells to pick through. The palate was very nice too. Full and generous on the attack, with blueberries, plums and a touch of cassis showing in a rather primary fashion, then giving a bit of way on the midpalate to some spice and dried earth. There was a lot to like here though, with its ripe depth wed to a fresh feel that gave a sense of energy and tension on the fruit. The finish had a rather drying, woody feel to it at first which I was not quite a fan of, but this too filled up and opened out after an hour or so, until it almost exploded across the backplate with interesting notes of dried lemon peel, savoury earth and hints of mint and menthol. It was still tight though, with chewy tannins aplenty that cried out for some food to tame. This needs a lot of time yet, but it is a very good wine indeed. I think this will be a superb drink in another decade or so.

4/22/2023 - chablis28 wrote:

Magnificent tonight w/ Nita's Memphis rubbed pork ribs! Paired alongside my buddy Mikes very tasty '07 Clos Du Pape! The Allemand has it all going. Semi translucent ruby w/ deep center but not opaque. Exceptional balance, intensity, fruit purity and concentration are the canvas for its fabulous spicey dark fruit aromas along w/ enticing favors of dark berries, cured meat, mineral and lovely harmonics just out of reach from my sensory. Incredible wine by any standard. 13.5% alc. Slow-oxed in Burg glasses & btl for 4-1/2hrs. Maybe even a smidge better the next day. With one left I'll wait at least till 2025+ Think there maybe some upside to waiting but outstanding now too.

5/20/2022 - tomlee wrote:

Purple in color. 14.4% ABV. Sublime nose of black fruits, anise, leather and pepper. Full bodied with mouth watering acidity. Rich and exceedingly plush with power and concentration in spades. Black cherry, blackberry, cocoa and pepper on the palate. Tremendous length on the finish. This wine will age well for years to come. Drink now through 2029.

12/26/2018 - dbkitc wrote:

(magnum) A monumental CdP. Ripe fruit, funky garrigue and a complete, complex personality that belies its youth. A complete wine that will thrill for years to come. Not for lovers of fruit bomb southern Rhône’s, but for folks that love the unique characteristics of the region. Inspiring. (98)

11/20/2022 - Djfermentation Likes this wine:

Phenomenal Zinfandel which should continue to mature gracefully. Sadly we have enjoyed our final bottle.

5/8/2022 - ChateauShiny Likes this wine:

Tasted from a PnP and heavily comparing it to the 2018 vintage.

Medium dark purple in color. Initially a lot of SO2 on the nose, which is very shocking for a Ridge wine, but quickly blew a way. Nose of dark cherries, cedar, a bit of star anise, a hint of pine and juniper, and a little bit of leather. Nose is somewhere between OR Pinot and Burgundy. Medium bodied, dry, very structured, and very Ridge like. Palate is on the darker fruit side of pinot yet is artfully extracted to not overpower everything. Dark red cherries, red currants, cranberries, a bit of star anise, cedar, leather, a bit of tobacco leaf, and just a hint of American oak spices. Heavier than expected tannin structure than I was expecting form a SCM PN. Finish is moderately long with cranberries, currants, star anise, thyme, vanilla, a bit of dill, and light black tea.

In my TN of the 2018 – I firmly stood by that the primary flavors did not stand up to the Ridge treatment. In this vintage, I can say that the primary flavors hold up. Reminds me of young 1er Burgundy right now. This needs several years in the cellar for the oak to integrate further. I can’t wait to see what Ridge does with future vintages of this. 91pts today, but I think this has the potential to score much higher once it ages some.

9/4/2022 - IvanLi Likes this wine:

Quality stuff here with black plums, earth, tobacco, spice and a characteristic Zin spice note on the nose. Quite succulent and sweet on the palate, rounded in that everything is in balance and nothing sticks too much, considerable finish.
Very good, actually, truly great expression of Zinfandel variety.

5/16/2022 - der Schmecker Likes this wine:

Superb! Will get better with time. Tasted at Historical Vineyard Society dinner May 14, 2022 hosted by Ridge at Lytton Springs.

3/29/2022 - Head4Heights Likes this wine:

55mm cork enclosure. 75% Zin, 17% Carignan, 9% Petite Syrah, 1% Mourvedre. Med garnet/ruby colour. Pronounced nose with blackberry, plum, vanilla spice, pepper and jam. It continued to evolve but the bottle didn’t have enough wine. This folks, is a very decent drop. High tannins but super fine and so well integrated one hardly notices. Medium acidity and full bodied. Wonderful balance and long finish. A real shame I opened it with a friend whose other half doesn’t do red wine, but made an exception here.

9/10/2022 - Vinnut Likes this wine:

Medium-dark garnet in color. Full, forward & attractive nose of ripe fruit aromas of dark cherries, blackberries & plums with briary overtones, spices, sage, dark cocoa, pepper, minerals & a hint of oak/vanilla in the background. Full bodied with a very good concentration of well balanced & smooth textured, plummy/jammy, ripe dark fruit flavors of cherries, blackberries & blueberries with spices, herbs, minerals, licorice, dark cocoa & a slight hint of vanilla. Long lingering finish. Drinks quite well at present with decanting & extended airing (90+ minutes) but has the fruit & structure to continue development with additional aging. A blend of 79% Zinfandel, 11% Petite Sirah & 10% Carignane; Alc. 14.6%

6/22/2022 - hadukla Likes this wine:

Tasted along with the 2019 with pizza. So very smooth, velvety and delicious. Good finish and balance, these wines are so much better after a few years of aging.

2/13/2022 - markydecker Likes this wine:

Best Riesling I’ve had (and yes I’ve had several vintages of Clos St. Hune). This is a masterpiece. Citrus, pineapple, peaches, slight petrol, crushed limestone, all in perfect balance with mouthwatering acidity. Full and wickedly complex, it’s very young and will benefit from further cellaring. Glad I have 3 more in the cellar. This is one of the world’s absolute best white wines. Totally delicious. Cheers to the skill of Olivier Humbrecht!

5/20/2020 - pclin wrote:

ESDD #19. Dark ruby in color and I mean really dark. Green and stemmy on the nose, whole bunch? Floral notes with a touch of gun powders. Mountain of tannins on the entry but relatively fine tannins, mouth watering acidity too. Rather spicy and with some warmth at finish even though ABV just 13%. Palate staining tannins, still way to young. To be honest I have no idea which way this will go. This has good structure and decent balance but strong stem notes are distracting. I am happy to just sticking with Graillot, Gonon, Clape, Jamet, Rostaing, and Chave as Northern Rhône regular lineup and occasional pinch hittings from Jaboulet, Sorrel, and Chapoutier. To be fair, another glass on the 2nd day, the stem notes are not as intrusive but still there.

10/20/2021 - trumpet60201 Likes this wine:

From a 375ml. Amazing wine. Left bank nose and presentation. Mostly very young and primary at this point, but already showing some more. Elegant and balanced. Has a long, wonderful finish. Very classy wine. Amazing on its own and also lovely with food (likely would be perfect with steak). This is incredible and has tons of time left. I'll open my next one in 5 or so years.

1/6/2022 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Opened for 3 hours. Color is deep garnet with some purple hues. On the nose: Pepper, cassis, violets, iron/blood and a myriad of spices. Very impressive nose. It fills the room. On the palate: Cassis, violets, lavender, pepper, blood , smoke and pomegranate . This is really good. The fruit is voluptuous and the mouthfeel is silky . This is true Cornas. I have half a case and boy am I glad I cellared it all these years. Time to drink. If you are a Syrah fan this is pretty good value for a real old world one.

10/3/2021 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Coming back to this after a about a year. Opened 3 hours. Color is dark garnet/purple. On the nose: Cassis, leather, something vegetal and graphite. On the palate: Very rich plums, green pepper, cassis, leather and a bit of sour cherry and dark chocolate at the end . Flavors are very concentrated, broad and long. This is a superb wine from a superb vintage. This will be good for decades.

9/6/2021 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Coming down to my last few bottles of a case. Opened for 2 hours. Color is dark garnet/purple. On the nose: Plum, Cassis, graphite, menthol, raisin and espresso. On the palate: Cassis, plum, graphite, dark chocolate, menthol, eucalyptus and hint of raisin on the finish. Long finish and sensuous mouthfeel. This is a wonderful Monte Bello. Lots of life in this.

10/17/2020 - dbkitc wrote:

Um. I like this a whole bunch more than most. To me this is classic, traditional and full impact-monumental Cornas. Full, deep, rustic, animal, dark fruited and loaded with structure that will allow this to age gracefully for years. Inky but not in a new world, overripe way. So concentrated. Yet so balanced and together. In ten years, I think this will be head turner. Love it. (96+)

7/18/2020 - SirJ Likes this wine:

May have experienced one of the better barbecue meals in a very long time, labeled Entrecôte from Läckö Kött. Grilled on indirect heat to 58 ° C, corn salad with pickled red onion and roasted new potatoes with two different bernaise sauces. Bodegas Numanthia's wine Numanthia from 2015 was absolutely magical, fantastic tannins and a wonderfully powerful fruit scoop consisting of black currants, plums and blackberries, a really good wine that will be even better in a couple of years 👍🍷🙏.

1/22/2021 - Sundbyberg wrote:

This wine certainly has potential. Could it go all the way? Maybe.
A lovely nose, but still som unintegrated oak and som tannins even after a 10 hour decant and 2 double decants.
But everything is there and the fruit is just lovely.
Montebello seems to undergo gradual modernization, but it is done in a good way.

My fourth vintage of this wine: 97, 2012, 2013 and 2017.

6/17/2020 - progenitive Likes this wine:

Beautiful. My guess, based on tannins, could be aged many more years. But the classic Rioja softness, oak, spice, are all manifest now, and very drinkable. I wish I had bought more.

3/22/2020 - shadow wrote:

Sour funk on the nose that screams Cayuse rocks.
First sip, wet and balanced, says drink me.
Flavors suggest deep woods moss on a damp morning and braised short ribs.
Easy and enticing as each sip is better than the last.

2/11/2021 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Have been holding this bottle in my cellar for 10 years. Time to try. Opened for 2 hours. Color is deep ruby red. On the nose: Cassis, Pepper, violets, tar and smoke. On the palate: Cassis , lavender, violets, pepper, smoke, blood and licorice. Very complex flavor profile. Great breadth and length. This is fabulous wine.

2/11/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Matching the power of the fruit with the tannins and waves of complexities produces a wine that is equally concentrated, fresh and dense. The lift and aromatics shine here. The finish, with its multi-layered wall of stone, spice and red fruits goes on and on. But this demands at least a decade in the cellar before it is ready for its prime time drinking window.

1/12/2021 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Opened for 2 hours. Color is very dark red/purple. On the nose: Plum, vanilla, Strawberry, pepper. Cassis and violets. On the palate: Strawberry, dark chocolate , vanilla, baking spices, plum. A lot of very pretty flavors in the mix. Finish is a bit short. Mouthfeel is sensuous.

8/13/2020 - Niagara wrote:

By the eye of Odin! This stuff is the stuff myth is made of, the reward for slow alcohol poisoning in search of the perfect bottle. This has to come as close to perfection as I’ve ever known, and it’s still very young, vibrant, unrestrained, jumping around in the glass and on the palate. It’s not a beverage, it’s an emotional experience. You could wait, but why?

3/2/2019 - DickMull Likes this wine:

Opened for an hour before tasting. Nose has scents of dark red fruit and saddle leather, with hints of camphor and oak. Medium in body, the fruit was a bit blacker on the palate, along with notes of moist earth and vanillin. Nice long finish, with a slight dryness at the end. I think it is way too young and will definitely improve with age.

8/21/2020 - JustBreathe680 Likes this wine:

I first tasted this wine on 4/2/20. The wine on that day was from a 750 and it was shipped 2 day mail and received on 3/31/20. My original review notes the possibility of some potential bottle shock due to the quick turnaround time. I don't know if bottle shock was at play but the bottle I drank on 8/21/20 showed much better than the bottle on 4/2/20. However, there are a few differences to note between the 2 tastings.

4/2/20 tasting was from a 750. It was only in my Eurocave at 55 degrees for 2 days. The bottle was decanted for approximately 2 hours. It was consumed out of a Riedel SOMM Bordeaux glass.

8/21/20 tasting was from a 375. It sat at 55 degrees in the Eurocave for a few months. The bottle was decanted the same amount of time, approximately 2 hours. Final twist between the two tastings, the glass used was a Conterno Sensory which is advertised to be used with almost all wine varietals but it was designed and intended to be used with Barolo and Pinot Noir styled wines. However, it is also suggested for young Bordeaux, which is why I decided to switch up the glass on this tasting.

The wine showed much better on the second go around. It was more relaxed and not as wound up as it was the first time. There were more aromas this time. There were good scents of spices. The flavors were of black cherries, blackberries and red cherry. There appeared to be the added presence of red fruits this time, which may be due to the glass. There was a sweet tannin flavor, which I have noticed recently in several Ridge wines I've drank. I'm not sure if this is due to American Oak but it is a distinct taste of Ridge for me. The tannins were medium plus but they became more pronounced the longer the wine was in prolonged contact with air. There was good acidity (medium plus). It was just a bit tart.

I enjoyed this wine much more than I did a few months ago. It has plenty of room to improve over the next decade but if you have the itch to open this bottle young, then a long decant will serve you and the wine well. I had no intentions of opening this bottle as early as I did after my first experience but I only wanted to open a 375 and this bottle was front and center. I'm glad I grabbed it against my better judgment. Enjoy!

7/25/2020 - Brian of Mull Likes this wine:

Time to try the next bottle of my old case of this. Opened 2 hours. On the nose is ripe plum with a bit of cherry. On the palate: wonderful rich concentrated plums, cherry, dark chocolate, mushroom and some funk/smoke at the end. This is delicious, world class and elegant wine. I scored 2 higher than 1.5 years ago. The wine is in great place right now and I am very happy I have the rest of the case to enjoy in the next years.

10/3/2020 - Tonyboons33 Likes this wine:

Absolutely loved this and pretty much anything Ridge puts out. Wish they let me buy more than 3 of these. Great QPR

2/11/2017 - Billigan Likes this wine:

After a two-hour decant, this was tremendously expressive, with deep aromas of smoke, coffee grounds, pungent BBQ spices, and fresh flowers. Same level of depth on the palate, with its rich, smoky, and incredibly pure fruit with a sweet and spicy tingle on the long finish. Just a masterclass in what great syrah is all about.

2/7/2020 - jocelyng Likes this wine:

- Wife:98 !
- me:ARE YOU SERIOUS ???
- ok...96 !
- What ?!
- I had a tough week: but.... 95 at least !

For me: 93-94. So good. Ripe and oaky of course but there is complexity and finesse rarely seen in a zin. Excellent lenght.
Paired well with duck magret served with porto, blueberry and thyme sauce.

5/26/2011 - Paul S wrote:

Dinner at Pierre Gagnaire (Pierre Gagnaire, Rue Balzac, Paris): From a 375ml - still really young and a little tight though, it took the good part of half-an-hour to start opening up. Yellow-gold in colour, this had a beautiful if slightly subtle nose that showed little drops of kerosene, wafting scents of apricots, peaches and red apples, a whiff of white flowers and lots of steely mineral scents. I really liked it. The palate echoed the serious minerality on the nose, opening with a steely edge with a nice lemony hit. Really elegant, lots of finesse, but also with a lovely integrated freshness that made it fun to drink. I just though it missed a bit a depth and length at the back-end at first though. Thankfully, it opened up with time to show dried figs, lemons and flowers drifting alongside a really intense, stony minerality - almost like drinking crushed rocks towards the long, clinging finish. With even more time, the wine started to take on deeper flavours of beeswax, honey, lime and spice. Not the most profound Clos St Hune, but this had a nice weight and heft to it wed to typical precision and focus, so that it was a perfect foil for our lobster and prawn dishes. I wish we had caught this a few years down the road, but nevertheless, always a nice wine to have with a meal.

3/15/2019 - Satoshi Nakamoto Likes this wine:

Drank with the lovely Lily.

A beautiful Zin with a bouquet of aromas like dark red fruit, white pepper, and boysenberry/raspberry puree. A lovely and elegant wine that is more balanced and pleasurable than the '14. This wine's peppery notes continued to increase significantly with more air and began to dominate the wine (but not overly so). This evolution reminded me of the complexity of a 2006 L'Aventure Optimus I had in 2013, which was my epiphany wine, so this was just a beautiful thing to reminisce over.

Fantastic wine and a truly great effort from Ridge. This is why I'll always be a buyer of their Geyserville.

11/2/2019 - NostraBacchus Likes this wine:

This seems a little closed at the moment and will probably need another few years to open up. Still there is that signature Lytton Springs combination of richness, structure and fruit/spices, that is so appealing, but a little muted for now. Notes of plum, dark cherries, sweet spices, licorice, cloves, also some leathery notes, espresso roast and lavender.
It‘s medium-full bodied, with medium-high tannin that is almost hidden under the wealth of fruit and super silky in quality, there is also some medium+ acidity providing nice freshness. Good length. Another winner by Ridge and probably my single favorite Zinfandel (blend) of California. While I generally drink very different things, this always puts a smile on my face and is just absolutely delicious, while being serious and structured enough to age and develop effortlessly for many years. (93+)