Very dense and dark with blackcurrant, jammy blackberries, ripe dark cherries, licorice and green herbs. A lot of vanilla in the background. Feels a bit too polished. Great depth and a beautiful overall complexity. Definitely too young for my palate in the moment. Give it at least 5-6 hours of air or even better, let it rest for some more years in the cellar and start drinking it from 2029 onwards. (IG)
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Extremely beautiful now. Rich and sunny but good freshness. Some tannin still of course but they are fine and ripe tannins. Beautiful balance. Came alive after 30 mins in the glass. Good future
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More approachable than I'd expected, with notes of plum, black currant, and mixed herbs commingling throughout. Maybe a floral hint too. Satiny mouthfeel already, with medium acidity keeping this elegant and fresh. Outstanding structure, long finish, and my favorite MB vintage in recent tastings.
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2012.. 2001, then 2006. So blessed that this baby of a Monte Bello is my 4th experience.
Thanks Joe Yee Wong for spoiling is!
Coconut aromatics, how unique. Rich and concentrated blackfruit palate. Love the sweet oak, and the amazing balance.
Ridge's Monte Bello vines are located on a mountain top overlooking the Silicon Valley. This is the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. One of the 2 founders is of course ex-Stanford's Paul Draper who is a self-taught minimalist intervention winemaker. Truly a legend!
Philosophy of minimal intervention here means... All estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, organically farmed, hand-harvested, destemmed and sorted; Fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria;
0.10 g/L calcium carbonate added to moderate the high natural acidity in two of the twenty-nine fermenters; Oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur 35ppm at crush, 92ppm during aging; pad filtered at bottling.
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed, 100% whole berry fermentation. Automated berry sorting. Fermented on the native yeasts.
Pressed at nine days. Natural malolactic.
Barrels: 100% new air-dried oak; 95% American, 5% French Aging: Seventeen months in barrel
Monte Bello 2017 blend: 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc.
Vintage 2017: Heavy winter rains saturated Monte Bello’s fractured limestone sub-soil, replenishing the vines’ water resources. Warm summer days, with unusually cold nights, slowly ripened the crop for an October harvest.
By early winter, as malolactics finished, the wines were blind-tasted for assemblage. The final blend was made in May. Showing beautiful fruit and serious complexity in its youth, it will develop greater secondary flavors over the next thirty years.
Yes.. 30 years yet beautiful now. Such a rare wine, where I could find pleasure in its young phase.. and can only imagine how it will blossom in the decades ahead.
Monte Bello looks like 1 of those wines with TWO drinking windows.. young and when aged too 👏 Such a treat to enjoy any vintage of Monte Bello!
And yes, Critics loved this too! 100 Points – Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com 99 Points – James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com 98-100 Points – William Kelley, The Wine Advocate 98 Points – Erin Brooks, The Wine Advocate
Flash note. First time tasted. Deep purple black hue. Excellent texture and structure. Needed a decant but it didn’t get one. Can’t wait to try it again when it’s not the last bottle of the night. Highly recommended
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This is young. Some green notes early. That mostly blew off after 7 hour decant but always remained. Menthol, eucalyptus, and dark fruits. The petite Verdot shines through (loved the old component tastings). This is very Napa like from a fruit structure. Usually far more like Bordeaux than Napa, but not this one. I can see why people love this, but this is a wait and see for me. Needs at least 10-15 more years to evolve, but based on the score, came up short and got smashed by the 2013 at same age. Actually the 2014 and 2016 were hands down better.
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Very young, tannins are biting and not yet integrated. Toasty black fruit notes dominate, some acidity to balance but the whole package needs to melt together w age. Now it's just a sum of parts for me
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Passive cellared since purchase. Decanted and enjoyed over 4 hours. Drinking nicely but it's pretty young. Still plenty of tannin and primary-ish fruit
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Black and blue fruit, cassis, hints of herbal notes, spice, chocolate, finishes with a bit of oak and supple tannins. Beautiful, touch of acidity. A+ (99).
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Might be the best bottle of wine I’ve had in the last year. Decanted 2 hours
Black and blue fruit, cassis, hints of herbal notes, spice, chocolate, finishes with a bit of oak and supple tannins. Beautiful, touch of acidity. A+ (99-100)
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Let me preface this by saying this wine is super young and will get better with time. Could easily be a 98 in my mind in less than 10 years. Medium to full bodied cab, wonderful red and dark fruit components. It is tannic and has good acid which will make it age beautifully for years to come. Has a slight leather note to it and I can only imagine having some tabacco and possible cigar smoke type flavors as this wine ages in the cellar. Ridge makes wonderful cabs but I find particularly due to tannin level they require an ample amount of aging before they can be enjoyed to their near “prime” status. Cheers.
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My third time with the 2017 and a lot has happened. Wonderful on the nose and the palate has also opened up. Great fruit, wonderful balance - tasty but not too much. This wine could turn out to be 100 pts wine, given enough cellartime, but if you have a small bottle it is already great to drink today. 95-96 pts. Doubled decanted three times, I was told.
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Our host opened this on a PnP basis. Tannins were thick and chewy, though certainly enjoyable and evidencing the tiniest glimpses of what this wine is likely to be come. Like all the great Monte Bello's, this one is going to take some real time to show its depth of character, but everything was in balance and I expect this won't begin to hit is stride until at least 2035. Today's score is based upon what it is today, which is dramatically short of its potential.
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Ridge powerful tannins, starting to mellow but needs another 5 years to really bring out the tertiary flavours. Was a great partner to the marbled entrecote and chimichurri sauce during a blustery spring California evening
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My second time with the 2017 and quite a lot has happened since my last try of this vintage one year ago. Wonderful fruit and impecable balance. Probably needs another 5 years or so, but this is a potential 100 pts wine. From a small bottle.
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Decanted for 3-4 hours and it was open for business. Everything you could want… lots of great fruit, a little vanilla and cedar, some floral notes, well balanced and smooth. Fantastic.
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Ethereal, wonderfully balanced wine. Clean black and blue fruit, with a spice note that all of us found hard to place, but the closest we could get was paprika mixed with menthol.
Was worried about the smokey vintage but could not detect any taint here at all (whew!).
Drank it early due to evidence of a cork leak. This wine is amazing. An hour in the decanter and this wine is simply incredible. I’m so excited to let this age for a few years and try it again. So much berry and dark fruit. It is delicious and incredible.
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Great potential and already enjoyable. But, Montebellos are made for aging in the cellar, and I think my next drinking of this vintage will be in 5 years. Even after decanting, it's still tighter due to its youth.
Really like Monte Bello as you probably can tell from my cellar. Very accesable but still with a depth and some conplexity. Very fresh, young and lots of fruit. A wine that everyone likes.
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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.
Far too tight from the bottle. After decanting and several hours on the counter this opens nicely into an excellent, earthy, left bank style wine. But, still too young for now. This could use several years in the cellar.
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Drank this as the finally to a “wines of Monte Bello” line up - Estate Merlot, Perrone Merlot, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Rousten Cabernet Franc, all 2017. The Monte Bello was not planned to drink, so unfortunately did not get enough time to open. Decanted for about an hour and then let sit in the glass for another. Definitely a wine with tremendous potential, but was quite closed at the moment. The Rousten Cab Franc was definitely the wine of the night. I’ll wait at least 5 years before I even think about opening another bottle. Not giving a score at the moment.
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I noticed some herb on the nose with a touch of aged oak. Additionally there are some violet or floral aromatics at play in the back end. In mouth the wine is lively and filled with tannin and unbalanced acidity.
Flavors include bright cherry, violet and a dusty earth so familiar to me for wines from valley floor. It is just weird to be present in this Santa Cruz mountain fruit. Way way way too early to open. This wine will really benefit from some age. Maybe 5-10 more years.
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I was curious of the potential of this wine so opened a bottle admittedly way too young (and thus no point rating). Decanted for 2 hours. Lovely nose with mint/eucalyptus consistent with other MBs I’ve had. Complex flavor profile - red fruits complemented with spices, oak, and floral notes. What surprised me was the acidity. In terms of drinking now, I actually preferred the 17 Ridge Klein Cab, but clearly this will evolve into something special
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Bought on release, decanted for 3+ hours. Many others have described the flavor profile well so I won’t repeat that. I will say that this is a delicious wine, dark fruited and youthful, loaded with spicy notes on the nose and palate, with a long finish. Impeccable balance and showy without showing off, just a bit of tannin but fine with tri-tip.
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Really deep and wonderfully aromas with really nice fruit of blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, tobacco, leather, licorice, sweetened espresso and clear spices. Pretty full-bodied and really deep wine that really impresses with this dense and really concentrated little delicious berry feeling of blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, violets, cool spices, leather, licorice and light vanilla. Really tight finish with hints of cool concentrated plum and spices. This wine has everything in the vintage. Lovely acidity and great tannin structure. A keeper!
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This took about an hour to open but then really started to sing. Exact same blend as the 2017 Ridge Cab from the same vineyard but opened up way better in side by side tasting with a steak
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From 375. Shows a ton of American oak. Loads of dill and hints of dry oak tannin. Despite that—this is tasty but best to hold and wait for integration. Deep concentrated black fruit, quite polished and quite textured for a wine this young. Quite strong. I don’t typically open MB this young so no real comparison to other vintages for me.
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Decanted at cellar temperature for 3 hours. Purple in color. 13.7% ABV. The final blend was 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Breathtaking nose of cool blue and black fruits, creme de cassis, espresso and graphite. Immensely concentrated and powerful with a sense of finesse. The classic iron fist in a velvet glove. Black currants, blueberries, truffles and tobacco on the palate. The finish is long and seamless with ever so silky tannins. Thrilling wine that threads the needle between old and new world. A Monte Bello for the ages. This should hit it’s stride in about 10 years and drink well to 2050.
I buy MB every year (I’m a MB “Collector”) and this is distinctly the darkest and most obviously American-oaky MB in recent memory. Not that is super ripe, but the fruit is curiously dark, closer to licorice/coffee than the pure cassis I associate with MB. Loads of vanilla and dill. Not the strongest MB vintage for my palate.
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What a difference a month makes!! Last month I tasted the first assemblage of the Monte Bello and I was not too impressed with the strong coffee note that was present. One month later and the wine tastes completely different. The very strong coffee note is now almost gone. There is still a slight hint of it, which I don't mind at all. It is now well balanced with good flavors of dark fruit, tannin's and some coffee. I have to say last month I was questioning the direction the wine maker was taking. Now I am convinced that they absolutely know what they are doing. This wine is designed to age well over several decades to come. And I am sure it will only improve further with age.
Went to the first assemblage tasting where you can try the 4 components separately that make up the 2017 Monte Bello, and then you can taste the first blend itself. The Merlot was excellent. Great fruit, great color. I'd buy it as a standalone item. The Petit Verdot was also very good. As expected it was a strong red-purple with fantastic fruit. I was really disappointed with the Cab Franc and the Cab Sauvignon. The Cab Franc by itself was not very impressive, although I can see where it adds dimension in the final blend. The Cab Sauvignon has strong notes of coffee, both on the nose and on the palate. That same coffee note was ever present in the blend itself. Other years of Monte Bello did not have such a distinctive coffee note and one can hope that it will diminish over time for the 2017 as well. The blend itself was smooth and despite being very young it did not overpower with tannin's, which is good for now, but may impact longevity of this particular vintage. I can't say enough good things about Monte Bello's in general, but this particular vintage left something to be desired - so far. The wine is not done, it is still being refined and we'll see over the next few months how the next blends will compare.
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Ridge Monte Bello Components Tasting (Ridge Monte Bello, Cupertino): 1st assemblage. For the components, the merlot was weak, the petit Verdot was excellent, the Cabernet franc was particularly ripe with plummy fruit, and the cab sauv was balanced but riper fruit. The blend is complex aromatics with spice, red and black fruits, no hint of green; palate is full bodied, medium-plus structured tannins, medium acidity, balanced fruit; medium finish. Approachable younger than most Monte Bello. Excellent, but maybe younger drinking? 91
Tasted at the 1st assemblage event, all 4 components and the first proposed blend. I get some herbaceous and freshly fermented grapes aromas on the nose, almost VA but not quite. The palate is lovely even at this young age, sweet ripe grapey fruit. Well balanced with very refined fine grained tannins. Drying on the finish. Should be another strong Monte Bello.
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3/9/2024 - Harold91 wrote: 93 Points
Big big wine. Monolithic and needed at least 5 hours. Lots of black fruit, tar and cigar notes
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2/11/2024 - DrZett wrote: 92 Points
Very dense and dark with blackcurrant, jammy blackberries, ripe dark cherries, licorice and green herbs. A lot of vanilla in the background. Feels a bit too polished. Great depth and a beautiful overall complexity. Definitely too young for my palate in the moment. Give it at least 5-6 hours of air or even better, let it rest for some more years in the cellar and start drinking it from 2029 onwards. (IG)
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2/11/2024 - jmoon wrote: 96 Points
Extremely beautiful now. Rich and sunny but good freshness. Some tannin still of course but they are fine and ripe tannins. Beautiful balance. Came alive after 30 mins in the glass. Good future
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2/2/2024 - ziavino wrote: 97 Points
More approachable than I'd expected, with notes of plum, black currant, and mixed herbs commingling throughout. Maybe a floral hint too. Satiny mouthfeel already, with medium acidity keeping this elegant and fresh. Outstanding structure, long finish, and my favorite MB vintage in recent tastings.
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12/27/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 92 Points
2012.. 2001, then 2006. So blessed that this baby of a Monte Bello is my 4th experience.
Thanks Joe Yee Wong for spoiling is!
Coconut aromatics, how unique. Rich and concentrated blackfruit palate. Love the sweet oak, and the amazing balance.
Ridge's Monte Bello vines are located on a mountain top overlooking the Silicon Valley. This is the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. One of the 2 founders is of course ex-Stanford's Paul Draper who is a self-taught minimalist intervention winemaker. Truly a legend!
Philosophy of minimal intervention here means...
All estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, organically farmed, hand-harvested, destemmed and sorted; Fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria;
0.10 g/L calcium carbonate added to moderate the high natural acidity in two of the twenty-nine fermenters; Oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur 35ppm at crush, 92ppm during aging; pad filtered at bottling.
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed, 100% whole berry fermentation. Automated berry sorting. Fermented on the native yeasts.
Pressed at nine days. Natural malolactic.
Barrels: 100% new air-dried oak; 95% American, 5% French
Aging: Seventeen months in barrel
Monte Bello 2017 blend:
73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc.
Vintage 2017:
Heavy winter rains saturated Monte Bello’s fractured limestone sub-soil, replenishing the vines’ water resources. Warm summer days, with unusually cold nights, slowly ripened the crop for an October harvest.
By early winter, as malolactics finished, the wines were blind-tasted for assemblage. The final blend was made in May. Showing beautiful fruit and serious complexity in its youth, it will develop greater secondary flavors over the next thirty years.
Yes.. 30 years yet beautiful now. Such a rare wine, where I could find pleasure in its young phase.. and can only imagine how it will blossom in the decades ahead.
Monte Bello looks like 1 of those wines with TWO drinking windows.. young and when aged too 👏 Such a treat to enjoy any vintage of Monte Bello!
And yes, Critics loved this too!
100 Points – Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com
99 Points – James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
98-100 Points – William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
98 Points – Erin Brooks, The Wine Advocate
27th Dec 2023
Tang Room, Malaysia
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12/26/2023 - BigBoy_Sonoma Likes this wine: 99 Points
Black fruit, currant, cedar, tobacco, herbal notes, jammy fruit, cassis, acidity. A+
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12/16/2023 - eschaefer Likes this wine: 95 Points
Flash note. First time tasted. Deep purple black hue. Excellent texture and structure. Needed a decant but it didn’t get one. Can’t wait to try it again when it’s not the last bottle of the night. Highly recommended
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12/14/2023 - prez Likes this wine: 98 Points
Great bottle. No tanins.
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12/2/2023 - Psychdog Likes this wine: 95 Points
I absolutely loved this wine! Served it during our annual wine club Christmas weekend.
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9/4/2023 - zimmy07 Likes this wine: 92 Points
This is young. Some green notes early. That mostly blew off after 7 hour decant but always remained. Menthol, eucalyptus, and dark fruits. The petite Verdot shines through (loved the old component tastings). This is very Napa like from a fruit structure. Usually far more like Bordeaux than Napa, but not this one. I can see why people love this, but this is a wait and see for me. Needs at least 10-15 more years to evolve, but based on the score, came up short and got smashed by the 2013 at same age. Actually the 2014 and 2016 were hands down better.
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8/20/2023 - Rajatbatra Likes this wine: 98 Points
Opened up my half bottle. Beautifully smooth finish, Lots of berry in the front. Nice acid and clean mouth feel
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3/1/2023 - Andice wrote: 91 Points
Very young, tannins are biting and not yet integrated. Toasty black fruit notes dominate, some acidity to balance but the whole package needs to melt together w age. Now it's just a sum of parts for me
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2/14/2023 - Chrisinroch wrote:
Passive cellared since purchase. Decanted and enjoyed over 4 hours. Drinking nicely but it's pretty young. Still plenty of tannin and primary-ish fruit
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2/12/2023 - BigBoy_Sonoma Likes this wine: 99 Points
Black and blue fruit, cassis, hints of herbal notes, spice, chocolate, finishes with a bit of oak and supple tannins. Beautiful, touch of acidity. A+ (99).
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1/29/2023 - BigBoy_Sonoma Likes this wine: 99 Points
Might be the best bottle of wine I’ve had in the last year.
Decanted 2 hours
Black and blue fruit, cassis, hints of herbal notes, spice, chocolate, finishes with a bit of oak and supple tannins. Beautiful, touch of acidity. A+ (99-100)
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1/28/2023 - Wine is Red wrote: 92 Points
Let me preface this by saying this wine is super young and will get better with time. Could easily be a 98 in my mind in less than 10 years. Medium to full bodied cab, wonderful red and dark fruit components. It is tannic and has good acid which will make it age beautifully for years to come. Has a slight leather note to it and I can only imagine having some tabacco and possible cigar smoke type flavors as this wine ages in the cellar. Ridge makes wonderful cabs but I find particularly due to tannin level they require an ample amount of aging before they can be enjoyed to their near “prime” status. Cheers.
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10/29/2022 - Sundbyberg wrote: 95 Points
My third time with the 2017 and a lot has happened. Wonderful on the nose and the palate has also opened up.
Great fruit, wonderful balance - tasty but not too much.
This wine could turn out to be 100 pts wine, given enough cellartime, but if you have a small bottle it is already great to drink today. 95-96 pts.
Doubled decanted three times, I was told.
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9/10/2022 - mxpbuy Likes this wine: 93 Points
Our host opened this on a PnP basis. Tannins were thick and chewy, though certainly enjoyable and evidencing the tiniest glimpses of what this wine is likely to be come. Like all the great Monte Bello's, this one is going to take some real time to show its depth of character, but everything was in balance and I expect this won't begin to hit is stride until at least 2035. Today's score is based upon what it is today, which is dramatically short of its potential.
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4/16/2022 - christ80 wrote: 92 Points
Ridge powerful tannins, starting to mellow but needs another 5 years to really bring out the tertiary flavours. Was a great partner to the marbled entrecote and chimichurri sauce during a blustery spring California evening
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1/21/2022 - Sundbyberg wrote: 95 Points
My second time with the 2017 and quite a lot has happened since my last try of this vintage one year ago.
Wonderful fruit and impecable balance. Probably needs another 5 years or so, but this is a potential 100 pts wine.
From a small bottle.
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12/26/2021 - Renzloh Likes this wine: 93 Points
Drank for a celebratory occasion. Amazing but way too young. Started to hit its stride after 2 hours. Need to let the other bottles sit for a while.
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11/28/2021 - Wine_lvr wrote: 96 Points
Stunning. Legend in the making
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10/31/2021 - domco wrote:
Decanted for 3-4 hours and it was open for business. Everything you could want… lots of great fruit, a little vanilla and cedar, some floral notes, well balanced and smooth. Fantastic.
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10/28/2021 - scorbett Likes this wine:
Ethereal, wonderfully balanced wine. Clean black and blue fruit, with a spice note that all of us found hard to place, but the closest we could get was paprika mixed with menthol.
Was worried about the smokey vintage but could not detect any taint here at all (whew!).
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10/3/2021 - Baxterna Likes this wine: 100 Points
Drank it early due to evidence of a cork leak. This wine is amazing. An hour in the decanter and this wine is simply incredible. I’m so excited to let this age for a few years and try it again. So much berry and dark fruit. It is delicious and incredible.
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7/29/2021 - christ80 wrote: 92 Points
Great potential and already enjoyable. But, Montebellos are made for aging in the cellar, and I think my next drinking of this vintage will be in 5 years. Even after decanting, it's still tighter due to its youth.
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4/1/2021 - Dnordh wrote: 91 Points
Really like Monte Bello as you probably can tell from my cellar. Very accesable but still with a depth and some conplexity.
Very fresh, young and lots of fruit.
A wine that everyone likes.
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3/24/2021 - Bob Bimon Likes this wine: 95 Points
Ny favorit.
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3/19/2021 - Arntiboy! wrote:
Etter tre timer, mer syre
Og masse taniner
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1/22/2021 - Sundbyberg wrote: 95 Points
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.
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1/1/2021 - J Piper L Likes this wine: 92 Points
Far too tight from the bottle. After decanting and several hours on the counter this opens nicely into an excellent, earthy, left bank style wine. But, still too young for now. This could use several years in the cellar.
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12/12/2020 - catowne1 Likes this wine:
Drank this as the finally to a “wines of Monte Bello” line up - Estate Merlot, Perrone Merlot, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Rousten Cabernet Franc, all 2017. The Monte Bello was not planned to drink, so unfortunately did not get enough time to open. Decanted for about an hour and then let sit in the glass for another. Definitely a wine with tremendous potential, but was quite closed at the moment. The Rousten Cab Franc was definitely the wine of the night. I’ll wait at least 5 years before I even think about opening another bottle. Not giving a score at the moment.
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12/4/2020 - tomoem Likes this wine: 94 Points
I noticed some herb on the nose with a touch of aged oak. Additionally there are some violet or floral aromatics at play in the back end. In mouth the wine is lively and filled with tannin and unbalanced acidity.
Flavors include bright cherry, violet and a dusty earth so familiar to me for wines from valley floor. It is just weird to be present in this Santa Cruz mountain fruit. Way way way too early to open. This wine will really benefit from some age. Maybe 5-10 more years.
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11/21/2020 - WineJ2019 Likes this wine:
I was curious of the potential of this wine so opened a bottle admittedly way too young (and thus no point rating). Decanted for 2 hours. Lovely nose with mint/eucalyptus consistent with other MBs I’ve had. Complex flavor profile - red fruits complemented with spices, oak, and floral notes. What surprised me was the acidity. In terms of drinking now, I actually preferred the 17 Ridge Klein Cab, but clearly this will evolve into something special
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11/16/2020 - Richard P Howden Likes this wine: 94 Points
Bought on release, decanted for 3+ hours. Many others have described the flavor profile well so I won’t repeat that. I will say that this is a delicious wine, dark fruited and youthful, loaded with spicy notes on the nose and palate, with a long finish. Impeccable balance and showy without showing off, just a bit of tannin but fine with tri-tip.
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11/6/2020 - Andre Brattland wrote: 95 Points
Really deep and wonderfully aromas with really nice fruit of blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, tobacco, leather, licorice, sweetened espresso and clear spices. Pretty full-bodied and really deep wine that really impresses with this dense and really concentrated little delicious berry feeling of blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, violets, cool spices, leather, licorice and light vanilla. Really tight finish with hints of cool concentrated plum and spices. This wine has everything in the vintage. Lovely acidity and great tannin structure. A keeper!
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10/24/2020 - sdonahue Likes this wine: 94 Points
This took about an hour to open but then really started to sing. Exact same blend as the 2017 Ridge Cab from the same vineyard but opened up way better in side by side tasting with a steak
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9/25/2020 - Nutty08 Likes this wine:
From 375. Shows a ton of American oak. Loads of dill and hints of dry oak tannin. Despite that—this is tasty but best to hold and wait for integration. Deep concentrated black fruit, quite polished and quite textured for a wine this young. Quite strong. I don’t typically open MB this young so no real comparison to other vintages for me.
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8/3/2020 - tomlee wrote: 99 Points
Decanted at cellar temperature for 3 hours. Purple in color. 13.7% ABV. The final blend was 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Breathtaking nose of cool blue and black fruits, creme de cassis, espresso and graphite. Immensely concentrated and powerful with a sense of finesse. The classic iron fist in a velvet glove. Black currants, blueberries, truffles and tobacco on the palate. The finish is long and seamless with ever so silky tannins. Thrilling wine that threads the needle between old and new world. A Monte Bello for the ages. This should hit it’s stride in about 10 years and drink well to 2050.
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5/17/2020 - blank blank wrote:
I buy MB every year (I’m a MB “Collector”) and this is distinctly the darkest and most obviously American-oaky MB in recent memory. Not that is super ripe, but the fruit is curiously dark, closer to licorice/coffee than the pure cassis I associate with MB. Loads of vanilla and dill. Not the strongest MB vintage for my palate.
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4/15/2018 - Fünfer wrote: 94 Points
What a difference a month makes!!
Last month I tasted the first assemblage of the Monte Bello and I was not too impressed with the strong coffee note that was present.
One month later and the wine tastes completely different. The very strong coffee note is now almost gone. There is still a slight hint of it, which I don't mind at all. It is now well balanced with good flavors of dark fruit, tannin's and some coffee.
I have to say last month I was questioning the direction the wine maker was taking. Now I am convinced that they absolutely know what they are doing. This wine is designed to age well over several decades to come. And I am sure it will only improve further with age.
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3/11/2018 - Fünfer wrote: 88 Points
Went to the first assemblage tasting where you can try the 4 components separately that make up the 2017 Monte Bello, and then you can taste the first blend itself. The Merlot was excellent. Great fruit, great color. I'd buy it as a standalone item. The Petit Verdot was also very good. As expected it was a strong red-purple with fantastic fruit. I was really disappointed with the Cab Franc and the Cab Sauvignon. The Cab Franc by itself was not very impressive, although I can see where it adds dimension in the final blend. The Cab Sauvignon has strong notes of coffee, both on the nose and on the palate. That same coffee note was ever present in the blend itself. Other years of Monte Bello did not have such a distinctive coffee note and one can hope that it will diminish over time for the 2017 as well.
The blend itself was smooth and despite being very young it did not overpower with tannin's, which is good for now, but may impact longevity of this particular vintage.
I can't say enough good things about Monte Bello's in general, but this particular vintage left something to be desired - so far. The wine is not done, it is still being refined and we'll see over the next few months how the next blends will compare.
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3/11/2018 - aagrawal wrote: 91 Points
Ridge Monte Bello Components Tasting (Ridge Monte Bello, Cupertino): 1st assemblage. For the components, the merlot was weak, the petit Verdot was excellent, the Cabernet franc was particularly ripe with plummy fruit, and the cab sauv was balanced but riper fruit. The blend is complex aromatics with spice, red and black fruits, no hint of green; palate is full bodied, medium-plus structured tannins, medium acidity, balanced fruit; medium finish. Approachable younger than most Monte Bello. Excellent, but maybe younger drinking? 91
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3/10/2018 - llink wrote:
Tasted at the 1st assemblage event, all 4 components and the first proposed blend. I get some herbaceous and freshly fermented grapes aromas on the nose, almost VA but not quite. The palate is lovely even at this young age, sweet ripe grapey fruit. Well balanced with very refined fine grained tannins. Drying on the finish. Should be another strong Monte Bello.
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