Monte Bello 2016

Ridge Vineyards (hentet 17. okt. 2026): 2016 Monte Bello – 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 6% Cabernet Franc; mark: Monte Bello; AVA: Santa Cruz Mountains; alkohol 13.7%. Smagsnote (producentens tekst, engelsk): Opaque purple-ruby color. Ripe blackberry fruit, barrel spice, anise, violets, and crushed limestone. Opulent mountain fruit entry, firm acid, and fine-grain, age-worthy tannins. Powerful complexity and tremendous length to the finish. EB (1/18) Årgangen (producentens tekst, engelsk): Late winter rains brought some relief from another year of drought. Monte Bello’s fractured limestone held onto this moisture for the vines to draw on through a mild summer. Unusually cold nights slowed ripening and developed firm acidity, while gentle extraction during fermentation kept tannins in balance. Through careful blind-tasting twenty-three lots were assembled and spent eighteen months in barrel. This superb vintage will age beautifully over the next thirty years. Vækstsæsonen (producentens tekst, engelsk): Rainfall: 21.9 inches (below normal) Bloom: Early June Weather: A very wet December and January helped ease the drought. Cool weather in April reduced our lower elevation crops a bit. Warm spells in late June and late July helped push the vines along. Harvest started mid-September and the last cabernet lots came in during the second week of October. Vinifikation (producentens tekst, engelsk): Harvest Dates: 20 September – 13 October Grapes: Average Brix 24.4˚ Fermentation: Grapes destemmed, 100% whole berries. Automated berry sorting. Fer¬mented on the native yeasts. Pressed at seven days. Natural malolactic. Selection: Twenty-three of twenty-five Monte Bello parcels. Barrels: 100% new air-dried oak; 98% american oak, 2% french oak. Aging: Eighteen months in barrel Sustainably farmed, hand-harvested, estate-grown grapes; destemmed and sorted; fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; 0.32 g/L calcium carbonate added to moderate the high natural acidity in ten of the twenty-eight fermenters; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur 35 ppm at crush, 76 ppm during aging; pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions. Historie (producentens tekst, engelsk): In 1886, high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the first Monte Bello vineyards were planted, and winery construction begun. A first vintage from the young vines followed in 1892. During Prohibition (1920-1933), the vineyard was not fully maintained; some vines survived into the late 30’s, but by the 1940s they were effectively abandoned. Eight acres of cabernet sauvignon were replanted in 1949. These were the source of the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until 1974 when younger blocks replanted in the 1960’s were considered for inclusion. Since then, the historic vineyards on the ridge have gradually been replanted.