The making of the Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon

Monte Bello is the Ridge Vineyards property located in the Saratoga/Los Gatos sub-region of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA where the combination of high elevation, decomposing limestone soil, and cooling ocean breezes yield Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that produce impeccably balanced, long-lived wines. The construction of these wines are explored herein.

When the three SRI scientists purchased the old Torre Ranch property from Frank Short in 1959, they did not intend to become winemakers. Rather, the purchase was predicated on a plan for all three to build houses on the land after retirement from SRI and, in the meantime, they could camp out on the property with their families on weekends. There were some grape parcels on the land (with the produce sold to local wineries) and it was from the 1959 harvest of those parcels that Dave Bennion (one of the partners) held back enough to make a 1/2 barrel of wine. 

David Bennion, Founding Partner
and first winemaker at Ridge Vineyards

Bennion had no formal winemaking experience so the production of that early wine was inherently fundamental. Yet the quality so impressed the Partners' wine-drinking friends that the team broadened its horizons as regards the end goal. The first commercial vintage was made in 1962 and Bennion continued in the role of winemaker until Paul Draper was hired in 1969. Draper assisted with the 1969 vintage and made every subsequent vintage until he handed over the reins to Eric Baugher in 2001.

Paul Draper, the face of Ridge Vineyards winemaking

As regards his hiring, Draper recounted that Bennion had heard him speak to a Stanford group in 1967 about the winemaking approach that he was pursuing in Chile. The partners were interested in his "traditional" approach as it aligned with their thinking. When Draper left Chile, they offered him the job as winemaker. 

What were Draper's thoughts on winemaking that made such a favorable impact on the SRI Three. Draper was not formally trained as an enologist but he had a lot of practical experience, inclusive of his stint running winemaking operations at an estate in Chile. Draper had also spent a lot of time tasting old Bordeaux and pre- and post-Prohibition wines and had come to the conclusion that these old wines were intrinsically more complex than the wines that were being produced by contemporary UC Davis graduates. The formally trained Enologists were producing cleaner and less fault-prone wines but these wines were also less interesting. They, in Draper's opinion, emphasized the role of the winemaker rather than the features of the "place." He referred to this as "industrial winemaking."

Instead he espoused  "pre-industrial winemaking" which "let the vineyard site create the wine, accomplished through a  combination of natural, low-tech, hands-off winemaking techniques":

• Keeping all grape varieties and parcels separate
• Fermenting in small fermenters using only natural yeasts
• Transferring the separate lots into air-dried American oak barrels to undergo full, natural malolactic fermentation
• Taste each lot at many points along the way and assess its individual qualities.

The philosophy does allow for minimal addition of sulfur to avoid the risks of wine oxidation or spoilage (at crush, after MLF, and at quarterly rackings) and fining with fresh egg whites if a wine had excessive tannins.

All varieties used in the Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon are sourced from the named vineyard. According to the estate, the parcels can be divided roughly in half based on the style of wine produced through the years: (i) More approachable and develops its full complexity early and (ii) begins to develop its full depth, complexity, and superb quality after a minimum of 10 years aging. The first is bottled as the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon while the second is the Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon. A specific parcel's destination is determined by the rigorous tasting regime employed at the estate.

The grapes are hand-harvested by parcel and transported to the cellar where they are de-stemmed then whole-berry fermented with native yeasts. Alcoholic fermentation is followed by natural malolactic fermentation.

The wines are aged in 100% new oak barrels (92% American, remainder French) for 19 months with quarterly rackings. The final wine is assembled as follows:

• First assemblage -- early February
• Second assemblage -- May. This assemblage considers press wine and lots that were not yet stable at the time of the first assemblage.

The varietal contribution to the final wine is characterized thusly:

• Cabernet Sauvignon -- shows cassis; adds tannin
• Merlot -- plum character and a bit of softness
• Petit Verdot -- dark color and earthiness
• Cabernet Franc -- Fragrance and a hint of spice.

According to the Vinfolio blog, "the minerality, acidity, and structure of these wines are what sets them apart from many of their California peers.

On to the tasting.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

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