Ridge Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
In 1886 the first blocks of the Monte Bello vineyard were planted; however, by the the early 1940s the last of the old vineyard was abandoned but a few blocks were replanted in the late forties. Those Cabernet vines - now over sixty-five years old produced the first vintage of Ridge Monte Bello in 1962 and subsequent vintages until 1974. By then other abandoned blocks had been replanted and their fruit considered for use in the iconic Monte Bello. A number of these new plantings consistently produced a more accessible wine that developed its full complexity earlier, and so with the 2008 vintage the name of this stylistically distinct wine became the Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, stressing the principal varietal and the Monte Bello estate vineyard as its source. The 2017 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a composition of Cabernet Sauvignon (75%), Merlot (21%), Cabernet Franc (3%), and Petit Verdot (1%). Matured for twenty months in American oak the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon offers aromas of cassis, blueberry, cola, liquorice, and sweet oak. On the palate ripe blackberry fruit entry, full bodied, rich textures, exotic spice roasted coffee, and toasted oak aftertaste with a complex, long and sensuous finish
