TN: Two New Ridges....(short/boring)

Got a new Ridge shipment ystrday, so Pobegaed:

  1. Ridge GrenacheBlanc HalterRanch/AdelaidaDist/PasoRobles (80% GrenacheBlanc/20% Picpoul; 13.5%; 24 brls; bttld 8/20; Hrvstd: Oct 8; Brl frmtd/tank aged; Drk: 7/20-7/24-7/26: EB) 2019: Light gold color; fairly fragrant floral/GB/honeysuckle/honeycomb bit spicy/cardamon/nutmeg lovely perfumed nose; fairly tart bit quiet/subdued rather floral/GB/honeycomb/honeysuckle slight spicy/cardamon quite pretty flavor; very long subtle/GB/floral/honeysuckle/honeycomb light spicy/cardamon fairly rich quite pretty finish; a very pretty expression of GB far from DollyParton territory; resembles a lot the TablasCreek GB but not quite as intense nor rich; a lovely GB at a very fair price. $30.00

  1. Ridge PinotNoir Corralitos GaliVnyd/SantaClaraCnty (13.8%; bttld Dec 2019; Drk: 10/19-10/24: EB) 2018: Med.dark color; fairly strong PN/black cherry rather earthy/dusty/loamy modest toasty/Fr.oak rather old-World/almost Burgundian fairly fragrant nose; quite tart rather earthy/loamy/dusty modest toasty/Fr.oak some quiet/black cherry/PN bit rustic/Burgundian bit complex flavor w/ light bit rough tannins; very long fairly earthy/dusty/loamy some black cherry/PN bit tart some complex/old-World finish w/ light tannins; a very atypical Ridge red & much more old-World in character; oak is very low-key & not obviously Ridge oak; reminds some of a low-level village RedBurg, a bit of AltoAdige PN, a lot of NewYorkState or Michigan PN; quite an interesting/well-done PN but somewhat lacking in bright Calif PN fruit. $42.00

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. GrenacheBlanc: This is, I believe, the 3’rd GB from Ridge. The first two were from the AdelaidaVnyd w/ slightly different blends. This is from nearby HalterRanch. The first one I liked quite a bit. The 2’nd one seemed a bit beaten down. This one was not as intense as the first, but I liked it nearly as much.

  1. PinotNoir: Wow… this is the most non-Ridge red wine I’ve ever had. Very much an old-world style of Pinot.
    I, of course, had the only other Ridge Pinot, the '71 CoastRange. They made both a CoastRange Pinot and a CoastRange Zin '71. Both retailed about $3.99/btl back then. The Pinot was nothing to write home about. The Zin was a steal at that price & my group bought some 70 cs at LiquorMart in Boulder, which I hauled down in a rented U-Haul.
    I had very low expectations for this Pinot. In fact, before it arrived, I wrote up a TN on what I expected the wine to be like:

Back in college, this was called dry-labbing when we’d write up the result of a chem lab or physics lab experiment w/o doing the actual experiment because we already knew how the experiment would come out. This TN bears no resemblence to the actual TN above. Clearly I’ve lost my capability at dry-labbing.
It had a very strong bit rustic very earthy old-World character. Reminded me mostly of PN from NewMexico or NewYorkState or Michigan or Ohio. But definitely not of Calif PN nor of a SantaCruzMtns PN.
Did I like it?? Well…sorta. Mostly because it was rather unusual for a Ridge red wine. Nothing I’d buy again. But it clearly exceeded my lowly expectations.
Tom

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Good INTERESTING notes on INTERESTING wines, you mistyped when you said ‘boring’.

Geek question: Why is the Pinot Noir NOT Santa Cruz Mountains? I thought anything from Corralitos would qualify.

Dan Kravitz

The bottle says Santa Cruz County, not Santa Clara County.
https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3247745#p3247745

The Gali Vineyard website claims they are within the AVA, so don’t know why Ridge just claims the county (non-AVA). Perhaps a portion of the vineyard is too low in elevation or maybe Ridge just made another weird decision.
https://www.galivineyards.com/people

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I had the Ridge Pinot tonight, and thought it had some notably ripe fruit, as well as non-fruit elements such as licorice and sassafras.

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Seems like they’re located right at the edge, so Ridge would be labeling accurately:
CB7714ED-F400-482A-AEDF-32508A3BC518.jpeg
Either way, it’s really impressive what is happening in Corralitos/Pleasant Valley. Alfaro and Windy Oaks have been great for a long time, Sante Arcangeli and Lester have been getting attention in recent years, and now Rhys Mt. Pajaro will probably take the buzz to the next level.

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I found the Pinot ok, but not compelling. I drank it over 2 evenings. Given current pricing on Santa Cruz Pinot, the price is fair. I very much like the Halter Ranch Grenache Blanc. It was part of the tasting flight for over a month so I was able to try it many times.

I just got the email for 19 Adelaida Roussanne. I’m quite interested in trying it. I’ll have to see if I can purchase it separately or I have to as part of the Lights & Brights package. If the latter, I’ll pass.

The real recent surprise was 19 Gonsalves Carignane. Aged in 100% 5 year old barrels. For me, a wine to pop and pour. Maybe age a year or two, but it’s so delicious now, why bother? It’s as glou-glou a wine as I’ve ever had from Ridge.

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You’re really on a roll, Tom!! [berserker.gif]


Any thoughts on the impetus for Ridge’s increasingly adventurous selection of sites/varieties?

Tom,
Kudos for being the willing guinea pig for this wine. I’ve never found a truly brilliant PN wine maker who could make a similar high quality Cab based wine. Or the opposite, a brilliant Cab based winemaker who understood PN. I think the true character of both those varietals precludes crossover success. Of course I am by definition excluding the big houses who make everything and make all of it to not be offensive to the middle of the road.

Well, William… in general I guess I’d agree with that assertion. But the exceptions would be MtEden and SCMVnyds under KenBurnap and MilanMaxminovich. Maybe DavidBruce long ago.
Tom

I’ll add Nathan Kandler @ Fogarty/Lexington, Arnot-Roberts, Ed Kurtzman (a '96 he made blew away some some respectable wines as a ringer in a Napa vs Bdx blind tasting a few years ago, and his current Cab is excellent). My buddy Rob Bergstrom is making an impressive Bates Ranch CS and several excellent PNs. Santa Cruz Mountains is a good place to do both. Ian Brand does a great job with both. Frank Mahoney made world class examples of both. I think we could write up a long list.

From my winemaking experience, Cab is as easy to make as you can get. We’ve definitely seen Cab makers do poorly when they venture to other grapes. A good Pinot maker would have no problem with Cab. The only issue is they might lean towards a preference issue, making a less intense style, but that’s not capability.

They touched on part of that in today’s virtual winemaker thingy on facebook. Their distributor was asking for more white, since the Chards sell out quickly. They talked about what would be good that’s available in CA and someone suggested Grenache Blanc. Dave Gates just happened to know Adalaida had some available, and it’s an excellent site, so they made the call. They got some Roussanne, Marsanne and Picpoul as potential blenders for it. Now they just released a little Roussanne, they secured a long-term contract and the vineyard has planted more grapes for them. One of them opined Picpoul does better in CA than it ever has in France (which has been my observation). Much praise for Tablas Creek.

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