Ridge Monte Bello 1992
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Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 9% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This was a magical showing for the 1992 Monte Bello—and the best bottle I've ever encountered. At age 26, the wine is still stunningly vibrant and youthful, bursting from the glass with a classic bouquet of cassis, blackberries, black truffles, gravelly soil and pencil shavings. On the palate, it's full-bodied, multidimensional and utterly complete, with superb concentration and energy, its richly layered mid-palate framed by fine-grained, satiny tannins, concluding with a long, sapid finish. Above all, it stands out for its seamless balance and delineation. While for many years the more flashy and dramatic 1991 stole the limelight, as the dust settles, the deeper, more complex 1992 has emerged as the greater wine and one of Ridge's true classics. The product of an October harvest after extensive crop thinning, it's a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot and 9% Petit Verdot that attained 13.4% natural alcohol.
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Ridge's history begins in 1885, when Osea Perrone, a doctor and prominent member of San Francisco's Italian community, bought 180 acres near the top of Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He planted vineyards and constructed a winery of redwood and native limestone in time to produce the first vintage of Monte Bello in 1892. The historic building now serves as the Ridge production facility.
Though Ridge began as a Cabernet winery, by the mid-60s, it had produced several Zinfandels including the Geyserville. In 1972, Lytton Springs joined the line-up and the two came to represent an important part of Ridge production. Known primarily for its red wines, Ridge has also made limited amounts of Chardonnay since 1962.
The Ridge approach is straightforward: find the most intense and flavorful grapes, guide the natural process, draw all the fruit's richness into the wine. Decisions on when to pick, when to press, when to rack, what varietals and what parcels to include and when to bottle, are based on taste. To retain the nuances that increase complexity, Ridge winemakers handle the grapes and wine as gently as possible. There are no recipes, only attention and sensitivity.