Ridge Monte Bello vs Estate Cabernet

How do these wines stack up against one another (other than the MB costing 3X as much)? They seem to both be Cab Sauv heavy Bordeaux blends from the same vineyard, so what’s the difference? I am a big Bordeaux fan, less so with most Napa Cabs, but what I’ve read about Monte Bello intrigues me. Will the less expensive Estate Cabernet give me an experience that at least approximates the Monte Bello? Thanks!

MB is in a different class as price would suggest.

The MB at the right age and/or right aeration if it’s young, is a profound wine. The estate wines can be good/very good but don’t reach the nearly the same level in my experience. I’ve had the MB at 20-25 yrs age and am told by others I trust that they are on par with first growth BDX. The difference is probably barrel selection.

I agree with the the overall sentiment here. These are very different wines. The Estate Cab won’t give you a baby Monte Bello experience. Honestly I can’t think of anything that can. MB can be amazing and is unique.

However I really like the Estate Cab. I think of them like this: The Estate Cab is a very satisfying California Cab done in a fairly restrained style at an excellent price point. Not many $50ish Cali Cabs that are better, or even as good. It is good young, will age a bit too.

The MB, at $150+ (Less if you join the club, more at retail) is a stunning gorgeous and unique Cali Cab/blend. Honestly a bargain at its price relative to others as good. It is stunning in its youth and will, in most vintages, age in a good way for decades. Go to Ridge’s Lytton Springs tasting room and get the Monte Bello flight of 3 to try a few different vintages - so easy to try it.

What is the aging life of these wines, do you think? I have a bunch of bottles from vintages 2011-2014.

I had a young '17 next to the estate and it wasn’t world’s different if that helps. More nuanced but 95% of the table didn’t know.

Now, I’m sure with some age on it MB would standout but if you’re looking to buy and consume immediately go estate.

No. Nice wine, but not the Monte Bello. But, the estate wine can be drunk at a younger age than the MB, which really demands a lot of years for the wine to soften and the American oak to integrate into the wine.

Similar experience here. I tasted the '13s side-by-side at Monte Bello and they weren’t that different. At 20 years, yes, I’m sure they will be very different. But the Estate wine has nothing to apologize for.

This may be sacrilege, but I tasted them side by side at the winery a couple years back and preferred the estate. Can’t remember the vintages, and I’m sure it’s because the MB was a baby, but was one man’s opinion.

Before they added the “Estate” bottling, it was Monte Bello and Santa Cruz Mountains. I don’t know if they still do the Santa Cruz Mountains bottling, but there is a price tier that it could fit in. Monte Bello is a very intentional selection/blend that the Ridge team puts together. As such, it does stand apart from the other wine(s) made from the same estate fruit. I would include the Historic Vines wines in that categorization, although that program has not been in place long enough to give us a true sense of how the single-varietal, single-site expressions evolve in comparison to the Monte Bello blend. With all of that said, I have found similarity in the SCM/Estate wine and Monte Bello in the character of the vintage expression and find it useful to use the SCM as an indicator of early readiness for the Monte Bello. Digging back through my notes as an example, I had the 2000 SCM and Monte Bello within six months of each other with the following commentary:

2000 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains (tasted 6/30/2013)
Medium-dark smoky red color with limited transparency. Aromas of sweet earth, red berries, currants, and vanilla. Palate shows sweet red fruit, plum, currant, blackberry, and a hint of vanilla that carries into a medium finish. This is well integrated and shows the value of cellaring wine. Great showing, but not profound. Drink at leisure.

2000 Ridge Monte Bello (tasted 12/5/2013)
Dark red color, nearly opaque. Decanted off limited sediment. Initial nose was a bit shy with cassis and a hint of vanilla. With 15 minutes of air, this started to blossom and notes of cherry, cedar, and more vanilla came out. The palate followed that evolution with plenty of deep blackberry and cherry notes with vanilla, a hint of plum, and a red and black currant character that flows into a long finish that has some fine tannins still unresolved. This is entering good drinking, but needs air today. Drink with decanting or hold for another 3-5 years before going after it. No hurry here and a great Monte Bello experience.

From my notes, it appears that it is time to revisit the 2000 Monte Bello. I might still have another of the SCM around. If I do, I’ll try them side by side and report back.

Cheers,
fred

I’d definitely check on that 2011 with a decent decant - I’ve been absolutely LOVING 2011 Monte Bello, so if that’s approachable now (with a good decant, mind you) the Estate Cab must be in a great spot, even though a supposed ‘weak’ vintage (I’ve written my thoughts on 2011 Napa/Sonoma many times in here). Bring it to the ‘passions’ dinner in a couple weeks

As for comparing Estate to Monte Bello, with VERY few exceptions I’d echo the other comments. Monte Bello has much greater complexity and elegance, but once in a while you get a mini-mini Monte Bello if you are lucky. Some of the limited release Cabs they put out, like Torre Ranch, for example, can have a bit of a similarity in the nose, so you recognize it more as a Ridge Monte Bello winemaking style, but never quite the same. My Ridge Estate Cabs start at 2013, and I"ll be aging those a bit longer, as they aren’t ready, but I’d definitely check in on 2011 and 2012 if I had them!

Ridge Estate and MB are not Napa cabs. Santa Cruz Mountains.

Chris, it really depends on how aged you like your cabs. I’ve already emptied my '13s and '14s over the last few years and very much enjoyed them. Definitely open and on the early climb up the aging curve. The '13 was still moderately tannic but was well balanced and excellent with food. I bet that would age nicely for 5 - 10 more years at least. The '14 was less structured so perhaps drink those first?

I haven’t had the '11 and '12 but would expect the '11s to be fairly open now, and the '12s to have an aging curve closer to the 2013/2014.

In short, all worth trying now, and then how long you want to wait on subsequent bottles depends on your preferences.

Thanks, Richard - might crack a '14 soon to see how it is - have a couple 375’s so those probably should be tested soon.

There is a good podcast on Ridge, where they dive into this very topic.

I think the MB is such a step up that it more than justifies the price difference. While the Cab is a very good wine, hypothetically I would rather drink MB every three days and water in-between than the Cab every day.

While acknowledging that some of you are buying Monte Bello for much lower prices by buying a quantity annually on pre-release, it’s worth noting that actual retail for Monte Bello is into the mid $200 range nowadays, compared to the Estate which you can pretty easily find for $50-60. So the difference to the retail buyer is more like 4-5x the price.

I don’t say that to compare the two as wines, but just to add to the discussion in terms of the relative pricing.

Been buying MB futures since 1998. From what I understand each year they make around 45 separate wines from various Santa Cruz blocks. There is blind sampling of those wines to see which makes the MB cut. The best juice go to the Monte Bello blend. What does not make the cut goes to the estate wines.

As noted there is a considerable gap between the MB and the estate wines that widens with age. Would expect a 20 year MB to be lovely and am not sure what to expect from a 20 year estate having consumed the them mostly in the first ten years. Have seen posts on WB where people have picked up the estate at retail for less than $50 which makes for a nice bargain imo.

In case people are not aware, the 2014 Estate Cab had an unusually high percentage of new oak and shows it. People who are on the edge with the normal use of oak at Ridge might have a problem with it. There’s some discussion about it elsewhere on WB. I like it but you have to be okay with a pretty big slug of sweet oak. It will be interesting to see how it ages and integrates (or not).

In general Ridge’s track record for aging is excellent so I’m not in a hurry to drink the Estates. Mine start from 2010 so I don’t have a lot of experience. They’ll be aged for science.

Yikes, thanks for the heads up! Will keep my '14’s tabled for now!

Also, ‘for science’, love that