Ridge Vineyards: Monte Bello grape-growing environment and farming practices

The Orlando Friends Tasting Group will be tasting selected vintages of Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon this upcoming weekend. I have previously described the Monte Bello home AVA (Santa Cruz Mountains) and will continue that enlightenment herein with a discussion of the estate's positioning within that space.

The below chart shows Monte Bello's positioning within the confines of the AVA, revealing that it is (i) on the eastward (inland) side and (ii) more specifically, in the Saratoga/Los Gatos sub-region. Our earlier reporting has shown the conditions experienced by inland vineyards as well as vineyards within the Saratoga/Los Gatos sub-region. Those conditions are reprised on the chart. 

Fruit for the Monte Bello wines are sourced from four vineyards ranging in elevation from 1255 feet at the lowest point to 2664 feet at its highest.

Each of these vineyards had its own unique history prior to being merged into a common whole when brought into the orbit of the Ridge Vineyards founding families. These histories are captured in the following timeline array.

The chart below is a composite of screen shots which shows block maps for two of the Monte Bello vineyards: Perrone and Rousten. First, the chart shows the estate's practice of block-based farming. Second, it indicates that all of the blocks are farmed organically. Third, the chart shows the dominance of Cabernet Sauvignon in the plantings. Of the 25.66 acres planted in Perrone, 14.3 acres are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon while the remainder is spread between Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, and Merlot. Two acres lie fallow. In the Rousten vineyard, 17.7 acres of the 28.29 acres of vineyard blocks are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder planted to Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and Zinfandel.

The no-interventionist approach to winemaking that is practiced by Ridge Vineyards requires that the highest quality grapes be delivered to the cellar door. For example, the winery eschews commercial enzymes or nutrients during the winemaking process meaning that the grapes have to come equipped with the stuffing to carry it through to the end of fermentation. In Ridge's view this quality of fruit is delivered through a comprehensive and responsible farming approach built around Sustainability and Organic Farming.

The grapes for the Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon are sourced from four vineyards, each at differing elevation levels in the Saratoga/Los Gatos sub-region of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, and each having its own distinct history prior to being pulled into the estate's orbit. The environmental conditions surrounding these vineyards, and, hence, the conditions under which the grapes are grown, yields high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to the cellar door.

In my next post I will discuss the Ridge Vineyards process for converting these grapes into the exquisite wines for which the estate is known.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

California's Santa Cruz Mountains AVA

The Orlando Friends Tasting Group has, over the past year, held events focused on Constellation's To Kalon wines. Continuum, Tignanello, the slopes and terroirs of Mt Etna, Chateau Montelena, and the 1997 Napa Vintage. Next up in the series is Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon and, as per custom, I will be providing some background material for the consideration of the participants. I begin herein with a discussion of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, the home appellation for the subject wine.

Ridge Monte Bello is produced within the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, an altitude-delimited appellation extending over 130,000 ha in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara counties. The AVA, established in 1981, was the first California appellation to be recognized on the basis of its geographical location rather than its political or administrative borders. The early history of the AVA follows.

Early History

In 1804, Spain created separate administrations in the Province of the Californias along a line dividing the Franciscan missions in the north from the Dominican missions in the south. The northern section was named Alta California and the southern portion Baja California. Alta California included what is now the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona north of the Gila River, as well as parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. 

Franciscan missionaries settled in the Santa Cruz Mountain area in 1804, continuing the northward California expansion that had begun with the founding of the mission San Diego De Alcala in 1769.  The missionaries had historically planted Mission grapes to produce sacramental wines, a brandy, and a wine for local consumption. The cooler temperatures yielded a bitter, inferior wine from the Mission grape so Black Muscat was planted instead and produced a sweet, port-like wine. 

Logging the mountain Redwood forests was a thriving industry during the mid-1800s and the clearings thus created provided fertile land upon which homesteaders planted vineyards and food crops. The first known of these vineyards was planted by a Scotsman named John Burns. He called the mountain near his vineyard Ben Lomond. 

By 1875, records indicate that 262,275 vines had been planted and 70,000 gallons of wine were being produced annually.  By the mid-1880s, the region was producing award-winning wines but was devastated by a 1889 forest fire that destroyed many wineries and most of the vineyards. 

In 1896 the famed Frenchman Paul Masson planted 40 acres of vines above Saratoga. He opened a production winery in 1901. 

Prohibition shut down production in 1920 but winemaking regained some momentum in the post-Prohibition era. The first winery to emerge from Prohibition was the Bargetto family winery in 1933. 

Paul Masson sold his vineyards to Martin Ray in 1936. Ray promptly pulled out the Masson vines, replacing them with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Ray was the first known California winemaker to produce single-variety wines. Ray eventually sold this vineyard to Seagrams and purchased property at a higher elevation.

There was a resurgence in winemaking in the mountains in the 1960s and 1970s. So much so that two of the region's wines were included in the 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting: The 1973 David Bruce Winery Chardonnay (10th in the white wine tasting) and the 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon (5th in the red wine tasting). An application for an AVA designation was made to the Federal Government in the 1970s and was approved and so designated in 1981.

Environment

Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards are not distributed uniformly across the surface area; its disjointedness does not so allow. The mountains are riven with faults which break the surface into a series of elevated ridges and steep/sheer downslopes. The San Andreas Fault is a major factor herein, as its presence in the mountains separates the North American Plate on the east from the Pacific Plate on the west. Land available for farming is discontinuous, relatively small in size, and separated from each other by both distance and elevation.

The region is considered Mediterranean but, on the ground, is defined by diverse microclimates. It is warmed on the eastern side by high daily temperatures and low wind while being cooled on the coastal side and ridge tops by ocean breezes and fog.

The tectonic forces which formed the mountain also surfaced a variety of soils (limestone, sand, clay, shale, granite, decomposed rock, sandstone, schist) and minerals (cinnabar, talc, gypsum, graphite). Soil complexity is greatest near the tops of ridges where soils made of clay and Franciscan shale can be found layered on bedrock comprised of decomposing limestone.

The AVA is divided into six sub-regions with Ben Lomond the only one with an AVA designation. The characteristics of the AVA and its sub-regions are summarized in the chart below.

The AVA is the coldest Cabernet Sauvignon producing region in California. The distribution of varieties is as follows: Cabernet Sauvignon - 25%; Pinot Noir - 25%; Chardonnay - 25%; and 25% for all other varieties with Merlot and Zinfandel foremost among these.

Currently there are 70 wineries processing fruit from 300 vineyards spread over 1500 acres. The combination of free-draining soils and exposure to sun and wind stresses the vines, resulting in small, concentrated berries and "intense, concentrated flavors in the fruit." The lengthy growing season and slow ripening yield "complex, nuanced flavors and a lengthy finish on the palate."

It is in this environment that Ridge Vineyards crafts its Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon. I will cover the Ridge Monte Bello specifics in my next post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme