January 19, 2024 - Fleshy, dark fruited.
December 25, 2023 - 92 points but a loving 92. Last bottle 3 years ago was a surpise with how good it was. This bottle was a bit flat-ish. No flaws, and balance was great - what you would hope for at 30 years.
July 26, 2023 - Simply beautiful. Rich, complex, lots of life left.
December 20, 2022 - More primary dark fruit than expected. Recommend slow ox for 2 hrs to get to a more integrated texture given the heavy fruit. Or can let it age for another 3-5 yrs. Paired well with ribeye.
November 6, 2022 - More black currant fruit to it. Not too savory. A bit more savory and beautiful on the palate. Serene and a just a touch savory. Beautiful. 20 years is not enough for monte Bello! The tasting group notes. 30 years!
November 2, 2021 - Ridge Monte Bello Retrospective (Porter House): One of my favorites of the flight. This is more black fruits and freshness and mint and tea leaves and just really lovely. Maybe some black dahlia? Very vibrant and just jumps out of the glass at you.
June 19, 2021 - The Society of St Tryfon Dinner (The RAC, London): From a beautiful magnum, decanted for a good 2 hours and served side by side with a magnificent magnum of 1995 L’Evangile ( Papies 97)
We compared these two like two non identical twins. Granted the cepage is different still the style was very much the same, classic, elegant and not pushed. This beautiful Monte bello was as expected the riper and bigger wine, full of dark fruits and frankly 28 years young and with another easy 15 years of great drinking . 1993 being a softer vintage lends well to the elegant side of the wine, the oak is fully assimilated , light secondary feel but really the fruit still is. Dry much on the fore front, soft spice, soft herby side too. A superb bottle of wine and a great testament to classical winemaking of 90s Cali Reds , and really this felt like a classic Bordeaux well aged but wih an extra dollop of ripeness coming from the Californian sunshine. 96
March 25, 2021 - Always really love this wine and this producer and especially with age. It's a real treat to get to drink one of these. Celebrating the last night with the parents before they head back north. Wine is very precise, good acid, darker fruits and a bit of shrubs. Drinking very well but also not going anywhere anytime soon. Pnp.
February 5, 2021 - a little tight at this point (or maybe the fruit had faded)... anyway, I would do more than the two hour decant that I did
January 8, 2021 - No tasting notes. Wine was decanted for 2 hours. Moderate/light sediment. Surprising youthful ruby color all the way to the edge with the glass sideways. This bottle stood out vs previous ones. Just hitting peak maturity?