Ridge Vineyards tasting with wine maker Eric Baugher

Oxford University Wine Society

Ridge Vineyards tasting with wine maker Eric Baugher

http://www.ridgewine.com

My return trips to OUWS are depressingly infrequent these days, but what an opportunity this was for a quite outstanding wine tasting with the winemaker from Ridge, one of the ‘iconic’ wineries of California, and presented by none other than their winemaker Eric Baugher – who has now overseen 18 vintages and 250 wines!

Having been founded by three Stanford Research Institute engineers, Ridge started its modern history as a part-time wine making outfit. The previously abandoned winery and vineyards date from before prohibition, originally known as the ‘Monte Bello Winery’. Cab sav and Chardonnay vineyards had been planted, and wines from these constituted the first vintage of Ridge in 1962.

The vineyards are situated on a coastal range, providing a cooling climate compared with much of Napa. The winery is blessed with some particularly highly regarded vineyards, with cabernet sauvignon vineyards like Monte Bello having been originally planted over 125 years ago. Similar pre-Prohibition zinfandel vineyards were first planted in the latter part of the 1800’s.

Ridge came to wider attention when the Monte Bello wine achieved fifth place in the famous "Judgment of Paris" tasting of 1976, when French and California fine wines were pitted against each other and tasted blind by a panel of distinguished wine tasters.

I think you can tell these wine use wild yeast fermentation – there is something ever so slightly earthy about them. More real, and less polished.

My own experience of these reds is rather limited (a sad reflection on my general lack of   Californian wine knowledge) with only the zinfandels previously coming across my palate albeit infrequently. From what I have tasted though, these wines have previously struck me as being more concentrated and reflective than many bruisers from this end of the winemaking world. Some might say even a little European tasting, if such a generalisation could ever be made! We were told the distinguishing feature of these wines is “impeccable balance” – and I couldn’t disagree.

Ridge Chardonnay Monte Bellow 2006

From the north face of Monte Bello Ridge. Grapes picked relatively early to avoid over-ripeness and too high alcohol. 3-4 months fermentation, 10 months in barrel on lees! Deep yellow. Very open. Immediately attractive. Barrel fermented with toasted American oak. Complex, vanilla, brioche, toffee, bees wax. Very full, oily palate. High alcohol discernible (14.4% alcohol). Long finish. Will clearly age further. 16-17/20.

Ridge Zinfandel Geyserville 2007

Geyserville is located in the Alexander Valley, first planted in 1882. Totals 58% Zinfandel with balance made up of Carignan, Mataro (Mourvèdre), and Petit Syrah. This wine occasionally contains more depending on other old vines that were randomly planted amongst these. Rocky soil from an ancient river bed, mainly alluvial. Medium red, purple edge. Dark brambly character. Some acetone on the nose? Certainly high toned. Not an over-ripe style of Zinfandel. Dry palate. Good acidity (3.5-3.6) much more than your average Zinfandel. Ripe, fine character to the tannins. Slightly sour finish. Hollow mid palate? 5-years old now, I can’t see that this is going to improve from here – but apparently it will do up to o10-years from vintage. 14.4-14.5% alcohol (very precise!) They won’t let this go >15%. I scored this 15-16/20. Least impressive wine of the tasting bar the Lytton Springs 1997.

Ridge Zinfandel Geyserville 1997

Decanted prior to serving, what a treat to be able to compare the young wine against such an older vintage. This is 75% zinfandel. Medium-red with brick-red rim. Very open with a curious nose. Obviously old character, very tertiary in nature. More fruit on the palate than on the nose. Jammy sour fruits. Tannins really softened out now. Powerful finish. I actually far prefer this to the 2007, and apparently 2007 and 1997 were very similar vintages. I cannot see how the 1997 will mature into this! 16-17/20.

Ridge Zinfandel Lytton Springs 2007

This vineyard was planted in 1902 and is located in Dry Creek Valley. It was a warmer microclimate and clay-based soils. Medium red, lighter purple rim. Similar sour cherry sort of character to the Geyserville, but seemingly more perfumed. Big impact on the palate, immediately fuller and weightier. Powerful, sour and firm tannins. Big fruit, comes across as sweeter because of this. Briary character with some spice from the American oak still discernible. 17/20.

Ridge Zinfandel Lytton Springs 1997

Medium red with a brick-red rim. Aged nose again, completely tertiary in character. For me though this wine really seemed to be a little flat and drying out. Old and dried fruit on the palate but not really anything noteworthy for me. 15+. Probably should have been drunk already.

Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

Produced in the third year of drought to effect the vineyards. Very hot growing season. Picked pre-typhoon! Spent 2-years in barrel. Deep red with purple rim. Subdued nose. Subtle blackcurrant and black fruits. Very full, ripe but overall soft palate. Lower acidity. Medium length finish. A very approachable wine. 16/20.

Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

Kept for 18 months in new barrels (5 months sur lie). American oak sourced from 21 coopers, 100% new. Obviously deeper colour, deep purple hue. Open nose with soft blackcurrant and vanilla dominating. Tightly structured palate. Fine tannins, but still very firm at this stage in its life. Quite hot with alcohol. Good overall balance thought nonetheless. Clearly needs a lot of patience to wait for this to come round – this is still a baby but offers an impression that there is much more yet to give. Only 36,000 bottles produced and not yet available in the UK at the time of tasting.

Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Another drought year and difficult vintage with a small production. Same colour as the Monte Bello. Blend of 75% cab sav, 20% merlot with balance made up of other black grapes. Nose not as open, predominantly a soft creamy oak character. Palate very dry, medium tannins but quite fine. Medium acidity. Not your typical Napa cab sav sort of wine. Made by the winery to be drunk up to 8-10 years of age max. 16/20.

Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Really quite a different wine, very different character on the nose. Deep and concentrated; earthy and dry. Starting to come out of itself perhaps, but seemingly not as tightly knitted together as the 2009. Powerful but rather like tasting the component parts of a wine rather than the finished product. Very structured body and with time in the glass this began to open up slightly. This is made as a 20-30 year wine. Difficult to score in its current state; but based on the wine that followed this is clearly something of pedigree with a great future.

Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 1995

Decanted approx. 3 hours prior to tasting. Produced in a relatively cooler year. 69% cab sav, 18% merlot, 3% cab franc. More opaque, medium-red with a red rim. Amazing open nose. Really just a dead-ringer for a mature fine Bordeaux. Cigar and cedar dominate. Incredible palate. Delicate and firm. What a metamorphosis this wine has made compared with the 2008 tasted before this! Fine, complexed and balanced. Remarkable. Alcohol only 12.5%. This has 40-50 years ageing potential still to go! 18/20.

Mixed Wine Tasting Notes

Chateau Du Cedre “Le Prestige” 2000 (Cahors, France)
Stood for a few days prior to opening and served following resting in decanter for approximately 1 hour. Kept at a cool below-room temperature. Thick tannin deposits welded to the inside of the bottle. Clear, bright, deep colour with ruby red rim and little suggestion of the 13-years age. Clean nose, immediately open with surprisingly primary character blending into more teriary characters. Dark red fruits with some volatiles and woody, savoury spice characters. Medium-plus intensity. Full bodied palate with medium-plus acidity and clearly perceptible alcohol (13.5%!) Firm tannin still present. Dark fruit character. Good length on the finish. This is excellent and probably not even at the mid-point in life. I would feel confident about cellaring this for at least another 5-years, more likely 10. I would love to see how this develops; this has a fine future. A great vintage and a good example of top-level Cahors. I would describe is as being typically solid, powerful and rustic South-Western (albeit with some polish for Cahors) compared to the elegance normally used to describe the downstream wines this area historically bettered. It needs some solid South-Western cuisine to match its power.  Interestingly, the following day the remains were mistaken for a just-opened younger Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux we tasting when it was passed around blind. However note that this didn’t particularly improve in the bottle after the first evening. 16.5-17(with time)/20.

Château Sénéjac 2003 Cru Bourgeois Supérieur (Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux)
Stood for a few days prior to opening and served following resting in decanter for approximately 1 hour. Kept at a cool below-room temperature. Clear, light ruby with some orange developing on the rim. Clean, open nose. Elegant, light nose showing some medium maturity. Woody, wax polish volatiles, a little dark spice, but predominantly a gentle cedar wood character. The palate was light, medium acidity (despite the vintage), alcohol not to the fore (despite 13% on the label). Medium-light body. Elegant, smooth, quite rich and well defined, well-polished and clean. Medium tannins. Not a heavyweight, and wouldn’t stand up to anything overly powerful in terms of food accompaniments. This developed will in the decanter over the evening and following day. While not metamorphosing into anything particularly more spectacular, it did plump out a bit with more open and appealing aromatics on the nose. I would drink now; while it might hold a few more years I can’t imagine it is going to develop into anything much finer and it is really very enjoyable drinking now. 16/20.


Mas de Daumas Gassac blanc 2006 (Vin de Pays de l'Herault, France)
This white wine is something of an enigma – and I would expect nothing less from the Guibert family! Blended from an eclectic mix, this is predominantly one-third each of Chardonnay, Viognier and Petit Manseng with a host of other varieties making up the remainder. Samuel Guibert talks of their white wine having different stages of its existence, with fragrant primary viognier-dominant character of youth developing into maturity in stages. This wine would appear to be a good example of that. Now 6 years old, it is really extremely difficult to pigeon-hole, something quite unique, almost a little eccentricity of the Gassac Valley. Clear medium lemon appearance. Nose is open, clean, medium-plus intensity and developing. I just can’t place it as being like anything else – there are hints of a Jura or something here. Dry honey, lime, mixed nuts, Fascinating stuff. The palate is dry with fresh medium-plus acidity. Medium alcohol, nicely balanced. Very clean and refreshing. Pronounced flavour intensity similar to the character on the nose.  Long, concentrated finish.  Partnered surprisingly well with a baked Camembert cheese! The uniqueness of this will not be to everyone’s taste I suspect, but this is a thought provoking wine to be sipped and considered. Ready to drink but could age further. Will be interested to see how the rest of the case develops in years to come – right now I’m not making any predictions!

Cave des Vignerons de Buxy - La Buxynoise Montagny 1er Cru 2005 (Burgundy, France)
Half-bottle. Despite being their then-top wine, this has been very hit-and-miss in my experience. The other half I opened so was badly oxidised it was undrinkable and got poured away. This was much better, nutty and mature, but certainly starting to tire out. These wines are really not meant for keeping, and their variability has put my off purchasing from this well-known cooperative.


Jim Barry, McRae Wood Shiraz, 2006 (Clare Valley, South Australia)
Brought along by Mark McDonald to one of our post-WSET ‘wine tasting’ socials! This was a memorable wine from the evening – black and concentrated quite primary characters. It was tasted blind, and I placed it as being many years more youthful than it actually was. Oaky, full of spicy black fruits, full bodied and ripe rounded tannins. Some menthol character served to confuse people further, with an initial guess by many that this was a Cabernet-dominated blend. The wine is lifted and aromatic, something like menthol pretty striking on the nose. Really excellent wine. Needed rich red meat to balance it out. Will keep for many years to come.

Domaine Le Clos des Cazeaux “La Tour Sarrazine” Gigondas 2004 (Rhone, France)
This lovely old and welcoming winery on the outskirts of Vacqueyras is run by the Archimbaud-Vache family. Having followed them for over a decade now, we’ve had some wonderful hits and also a few misses. The latter partly down to wines that have disappointed, but also partly down to a few perhaps being kept past their peak enjoyment. The wines do seem to have a loyal following in the UK as they offer relatively good value for money, have good medium-term cellaring potential, and are imported by the Wine Society (who also sell vintages en primeur).

This particular wine, however, was purchased direct from the winery in (about) 2006 on a visit. I do remember being impressed at the time by what seemed to be a change (an improvement to my mind) in their winemaking style with more concentrated and polished wines at the tasting compared to the more rustric traditional style I recall encountering in the past. Sadly I didn’t make detailed notes at the time, but I do remember the Vacqueyras village wines also being quite improved and very good.

This particular bottling seems to have carried that through with some medium-term bottling aging – indeed it is currently showing really very well, and I suspect 2004’s like this will live in the shadow of the famous 2005 vintage that followed. 

The wine is clear with little sediment thrown (it was stood for several days prior to opening). Medium ruby with a garnet rim developing. Pronounced legs inside the glass. Open nose immediately on decanting, not broadening out much further after a couple of hours in decanter. Medium intensity. Smokey and earthy with quite a lot of dusty ripe red fruits. Seems like there’s a very light touch of Brett there, just to add a touch of complexity. Very appealing. The palate is similarly broad, rich and full bodied. Generous ripe red fruits set against a medium tannin body. The fruit is lovely and really balances out the tannin. Medium acidity. Slightly hot when you think about it, but hides 14.5% alcohol very well. Medium-plus length. 

This is without doubt the best bottle of La Tour Sarrazine that I’ve tasted. At its peak now at nine years old. I imagine it will hold it for another couple of years, but why wait, it won’t improve further. I would say this could give lesser-ranking Chateauneufs a good run for their money as this offers excellent value. Needs full flavoured meats and cheeses to do this justice – lovely winter wine. 16+/20.