4/19/2024 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

This had darker fruit than the 1996 Haut Brion we had the same evening, and it was immediately more approachable than the other wine. However, it was slightly less powerful and faded a bit, but it was more balanced right out of the bottle.

4/19/2024 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Still powerful. Strong graphite, cedar, tobacco to start. After a couple hours some more fruit showed through, but more body, grip, and concentration than the 1995 Latour we had alongside it. However, it was a bit one note at first, so maybe it needs a bit more time to show more balance.

4/10/2024 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Hazy, orange(?), great citric acidity and depth/pleasing bitterness from potential skin contact. nice finish. an excellent, non-standard expression of albariño from rias baixas.

2/23/2024 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Concerned that it is smoke tainted. Bitter, gritty finish, some unpleasant smokiness. Have not encountered it before in this wine or their other wines, so it might also be bottle variation.

2/29/2024 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

On pop and pour it was dominated by cedar, tobacco, and other oak-driven notes, with some more red than dark fruit and a hint of spice. Very drying tannins, with moderate acidity.

After a couple of hours it integrated a bit more, the fruit was still muted and more red than dark, but was less disjointed with the cedar notes than it was initially.

A very fine wine with decent length, but it seems the fruit has gone into hiding and the strong secondary notes haven't shown up to the party yet.

2/20/2024 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Simple, but excellent in what it does. High acid, lime, lemon curd, decent body to help give it fullness. Very pleasing finish, but straightforward.

1/20/2024 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Tasted blind.

Excellent, great value. Flowers, citrus, peaches, rocks on the nose; honeyed lemon and slight buttery, nutty-ness and oak presence on the palate. Balanced with wonderful acidity that had me thinking of both riesling and high quality burgundy from a warm vintage at half the price.

1/16/2024 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Delicious. Savory, carbonic character with tart fruit. Potting soil. M- acid and just a hint of tannin to provide some structure but the palate carries the complexity here.

11/7/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

This is a gem of a wine. It is the perfect execution of citrus driven albariño with a hint of bitterness and lively but not overwhelming acidity. Not the most complex wine, but excellently executed and wonderful on its own or with food.

9/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

tart red fruit, light bodied, some floral notes, signs of whole cluster, very tasty.

9/7/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Umami, berries, texture. A little funk that blew off.

So, so good. One of my absolute favorites of the year.

8/24/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Probably at its peak right now. Excellent fruit, savory notes, length and structure. Can probably go for 5 more years but why wait

8/19/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Profound fruit and length. Not exactly my favorite style but an excellent, delicious wine.

8/19/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Great acid and balance. Good QPR with varietal characteristic and not overly ripe

8/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Good structure (M/M+ tannin; M+ acid), tart dark fruits, some animal (definitely on the nose), mineral.

A really good wine with very good length.

8/8/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

rich, honeyed fruit, white flower on the nose. high acid and more tart fruit on the palate. A little too peaky acid at first, but great with food and an excellent finish.

7/25/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Tiny bit of petrol on the nose. Then rounder, floral and fruity on the nose, but the palate is overwhelmingly citrus and minerality with m+/high acid at first. Some of the roundness and richer fruit returns on the finish but I felt it was a touch too simplistic at first.

Great with food, however.

7/20/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Red fruit, minerality, acid. Very nice, light. Excellent at a cool temperature.

7/18/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Does not like this wine:

I do not like this wine. At first I thought that maybe I just didn't understand it, or perhaps the style didn't appeal to me, but now I also believe that this is not a particularly good wine. If you've got time to waste, allow me to explain my relatively inexperienced, but strongly felt, opinion...

As a relatively new Ridge Montebello member, I've tasted from the winery and from personal bottles the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Ridge Estate Chardonnays. On all three I have gotten nothing but toasted/burnt buttery popcorn on the nose and very little else (other than some relatively pleasant structure) on the palate.

Most of the time I thought "fine, this just isn't my preferred style." However, I recently had the chance to semi-blind taste (I knew the bottles, but not which were which) some quality west coast and Côte de Beaune chardonnay. In this tasting, I found some wines with citrus notes, florality, pleasant oak, flintiness, even some other buttered popcorn notes akin to those I found in the Ridge on previous occasions. But one stuck out as a sore thumb. This "flintiness" and "matchstick" quality, or, as it appears to me, overcooked buttered popcorn note, dominated one wine. I could get nothing else; no fruit, no minerality, limited oak other than what appeared via the buttered popcorn sensation. It had to be the Ridge. I called it as such, and I was right. I don't think I'd ever call this wine incorrectly blind.

Also in the blind tasting was the 2020 Vincent & Sophie Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Baudines". This had the same matchstick note, approaching some popcorn aromas, but it backed it up with fruit, florality, and minerality! Tasting this (and other chardonnay of similar and differing styles) alongside the Ridge made it so obvious to me that the Ridge Chardonnay completely lacked complexity, nuance, and any sense of restraint.

The Ridge Chardonnay is one-dimensional, consistently overbearing in its style, and is outclassed by other wines in a similar price bracket with a similar style. To make matters worse, I don't like it.

Side note: I give it 86 points, and not less, for three reasons: 1. if I liked that aroma, this would deliver it in spades, and in a package that has nice structure and a long finish; 2. because wtf are points; and 3. because maybe this evolves with age, and I'm opening a baby. But even in this case, you gotta make wine that's quality in its youth. I could open a 2019 Montebello and have a great time, even though doing so would be a misallocation of funds.

7/19/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Very good. Aromatic, floral and fruity, but with good acidity and a touch of pleasant bitterness that gives it complexity. Not the finest finish detracts from what otherwise would be an excellent wine.

In honor of the TdF being in the area.

7/13/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Indeed pretty concentrated, golden straw color, the 13.5% alcohol is present but not out of balance. Citric acidity, maybe honeyed, definitely more red than green apple. Good on its own, but would love to trade a tiny bit of the lingering bitterness for a touch more acidity, so long as it remained in balance.

7/12/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

round, ripe, and fleshy, clean, the acidity is a bit lower than I would have expected. nice on its own for the price.

7/4/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

This bangs. Strong core of fruit and m+/h acid are pretty dominant, but there's complexity and length here that will develop nicely. strong recommend holding for ~5 years at least, but it also tastes great now.

7/4/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Drinking great. Dark fruit, pepper, intensity without being overwhelming.

7/4/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

drinking really well right now. a round chardonnay with classic citrus but also rich peach (?) notes, a bit of reduction on the nose, and, despite the vintage and the (slight bottle) age, enough structure to hold it together.

6/24/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Nice mild structure, refreshing acidity and the palate you'd expect from this style of wine but BOY there is something wrong. Either brett or some kind of other farty fault.

Don't swirl too aggressively and it's nice, otherwise, yikes.

5/29/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

really good value. berries, minerality, earthiness. crushable but not too simple.

4/3/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Not my favorite. Starts off as mostly an acid bomb with a bit of the classic Chenin texture. Improved on the second day, actually.

3/20/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Very nice, lime, mineral. Some rich fruit complements these notes on the nose but doesn't translate to more complexity on the palate. good acid, fine, but not overly complex.

3/17/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

ehhh we enjoyed it more at the winery.

I think it has a variety of minor faults (perhaps some brett, some va) that I normally don't mind unless they are overpowering, but there's not enough here to work well with them. It's not bad though with a little bit of time, just not what I want.

Happily will return to their orange field blend.

3/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Really nice forest floor, red fruit, and spices. Light in color, and gentle on the palate. I could drink tons of this on its own, with food, any time.

3/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Yeah dude. Ripeness, acid, and minerality that are all in very good balance. Maybe not the most complex, but pleasing and well structured.

3/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Super promising nose; candied watermelon and grapefruit, but surprisingly bitter on the palate, and seemingly for no reason. Fine, though.

3/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Smells like Gruner. Nice acidity, not bitter on the finish. Simple, uninspiring, but good.

3/11/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Nice, dry, poundable, but with time acquired some almost warm hay aromas that were out of place.

3/10/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Rich and full fruit. Balanced green and spice notes. Pretty good as always, but not earth shattering.

3/9/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

M+ tannins at most, with fresh dark fruits and roasted herbs. Very nice. Might be better if the acidity softens in a couple of years.

3/7/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Tart red fruit, a bit like cranberry juice. Not bad, but not great. More depth than other "simple, juicy, natty" wines, but honestly I wish those other aromas and flavors had more place in the wine other than something that gets totally drowned out by "tart".

3/2/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Banged.

3/2/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

tart red fruit, somewhat perfumed and earthy, like a flower in a bed of fresh dirt. acid and tannin are present and pleasant. definitely feels like a wine in the natural tradition, but that could also just be the wax top leading the witness. very good value.

2/25/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Really pleasing oak spice on the nose, but at first mostly acid and wood tannin on the palate. With time and air some dark, tart fruit balanced the leathery, spiced wood notes.

I see where AJB is coming from, but I wouldn't be as harsh as he found the wine.

2/27/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine:

Savory game notes, peppery, and good acidity still with some lingering, but diminished fruit.

2/18/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Agree it could last a couple more years and perhaps soften the structure, but a very nice wine with a mix of tart red and black fruits and some dark wood on the palate (but not harsh oak).

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: This is a fine, balanced wine. Medium bodied, smooth, with a great balance of red fruit, florality, and oak spice. However, it seems a bit closed right now, and may need time to really develop, but is not unapproachable (just probably not great value in its youth).

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: At first, I loved this wine. It was floral, it had some brine on the nose, and the fruits were tart and perfumed. With an hour or so of time to open up, it seemed to evolve into an oak bomb. Maybe this kind of structure is appealing to some people, and with age the oak treatment may lend itself to interesting secondary notes, but for now it strikes me as out of balance.

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: This wine stood out from the rest in the tasting due to the candied, juicy red fruits. I swear if I had this (actually) blind I might have called it a white wine on the nose. The tannins would push me away from that, but it was still fresh and juicy on the palate, with richer spice notes appearing later.

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: I love this wine; it is fruit-forward with moderate complexity, but the spice and florality are integrated with the fruit and it is a joy to drink. I don’t think you’d need to cellar it for a long time, but with most Barolo, it could probably evolve in interesting ways for a while.

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: Dirt on a concrete road and red fruit. Nice enough, but this wine left me wanting more. Well composed and enjoyable, but lacking in complexity and length, at least compared to the other wines in the tasting. Probably would score better on its own.

2/16/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Young, Serravallian Barolo: A somewhat straightforward wine, it leads with tart red fruits on the nose and the palate, with some earthy and rocky notes complementing them. Simple and with a bitter finish, but mostly pleasing.

2/14/2023 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

Very.... vinous on the nose at first, with some juicy red fruit and wood tannin. Would be fine if that was it, but some VA on the finish really hurts it. Overall, fine for the price, but I wouldn't buy it again.