2020 Ridge Monte Bello

Opaque ruby color with ripe cassis, plum and red currant fruit, toasty oak, vanilla, fennel, juniper berry and bay laurel. Well-integrated velvety tannins, full mid-palate, firm acid, and a long, sumptuous finish. JO (3/21)

Mild temperatures in March prompted an early bloom that coincided with the spring rains. This resulted in a smaller crop that, accompanied by more summer fog than usual, allowed for slow, steady ripening into September. After assembling thirty-six of fifty-eight lots, the wine was returned to barrel for a further twelve months. As a classic Monte Bello, it will benefit from a decade of aging and develop over another twenty years. JO (5/22)

Average rains in December led to dry weather in January and February. A very wet March and April helped the vines during the growing season. Unsettled weather in June saw several heat spikes in between cool spells. The rest of the summer was mild until the middle of August, when hot temperatures, which continued into early September, expedited ripeness.

Fermentation: Grapes de-stemmed, 100% whole berry fermentation. Fermented on the native yeasts. Natural malolactic.
Selection:: Thirty-six Monte Bello parcels
Barrels: 95% air-dried American oak, 5% French oak (100% new)
Aging: Twenty months in barrel

Hand-harvested; estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, organically farmed, de-stemmed and sorted; fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur (35 ppm at crush, 129 ppm during aging); depth filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.