Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Ridge Vineyards (hentet 17. okt. 2026): 2023 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot; mark: Monte Bello; AVA: Santa Cruz Mountains; alkohol 13.4%. Smagsnote (producentens tekst, engelsk): Deep ruby red with toasty oak and blackberry fruit on the nose. Full-bodied, structured with firm tannins, bright acid and notes of mint on the finish. JO (1/26) Årgangen (producentens tekst, engelsk): Heavy winter rains ended our three-year drought. Due to an unusually cool growing season, harvest was late; beginning in October and not finishing until mid-November. We extended fermentations to better extract full color while balancing the tannins and firm acidity. In tasting, we selected the most approachable lots from the Monte Bello vineyard for the Estate. This appealing vintage will be at its best over the next fifteen years. JO (4/25) Vækstsæsonen (producentens tekst, engelsk): Rainfall: 84 inches (above average) Bloom: Late June Weather: A late and prolonged harvest due to consistently cool weather during the growing season. Vinifikation (producentens tekst, engelsk): Harvest Dates: 9 September – 5 October Grapes: Average Brix 23.4˚ TA: 7.2 g/L pH: 3.41 Fermentation: Grapes destemmed and sorted; 100% whole berries fermented on the native yeasts. Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (55% new, 10% two years old, and 35% four years old). Aging: Seventeen months in barrel Hand-harvested, estate-grown grapes; destemmed and sorted; fermented on indigenous yeast; calcium carbonate; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; minimum effective sulfur (35 ppm at crush, 85 ppm during aging). In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions. Historie (producentens tekst, engelsk): In 1886, the first blocks of the Monte Bello vineyard were planted and construction on the winery began. The first vintage was the 1892. In the early 1940s, the last of the old vineyard was abandoned; in the late forties, a few blocks were replanted. Those cabernet vines—now over sixty-five years old—produced the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until 1974. By then, other abandoned blocks had been replanted and their fruit considered for use in the Monte Bello. A number of those blocks consistently produced a more accessible wine that developed its full complexity earlier and these were combined as the “Santa Cruz Mountains.” With the 2008 vintage, the name of this stylistically distinct wine became the Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, stressing the principal varietal and the Monte Bello Estate vineyard as its source.