Ridge Monte Bello — still my favorite New World winery
Last Monday we went up to Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, and it was one of those visits that reminds you why you fell in love with wine in the first place. It’s been over 13 years since my epic visits, documented here and here. I was greeted by bright sun above a sea of clouds, cool mountain air, and a view that stretches forever. On a clear day you can even spot the Apple “spaceship” far below in the valley. It feels remote, calm, and completely removed from Napa’s rhythm.
That’s also an important point that many people miss: Monte Bello is not Napa. Ridge’s flagship wines come from the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, a very different place. Higher elevation, cooler temperatures, rugged terrain, and thin, rocky soils. The wines reflect that—more structure, more acidity, more restraint, and a sense of place that’s unmistakable once you tune into it.
A bit of history
The Monte Bello Ridge existed long before Ridge the winery. The site itself was planted to vines in the late 19th century, with the first vineyards established in the 1880s by Osea Perrone, one of the early pioneers of viticulture in these mountains. Ridge, as we know it today, revived and built upon that history decades later, but the roots here—literally and figuratively—run deep. This is one of California’s truly historic vineyard sites.
The wines we tasted
Monte Bello 2011
From a half-bottle. 88% Cab Sauv, 9% Merlot, 4% Cab Franc. Mostly new oak, 99% American / 1% French. This was my favorite of the day. Complete, balanced, youthful and fresh, still showing a bit of tannin. Dark fruit, graphite, dried herbs, cedar, and that classic Monte Bello mountain structure. Nothing feels out of place. It’s powerful without being heavy and elegant without being thin. This is exactly why Monte Bello belongs in any serious conversation about the world’s great Cabernet-based wines.
Monte Bello 2015
From a half-bottle. 77% Cab Sauv, 11% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot, 5% Cab Franc. Mostly new American oak. Starting to open up, showing more generosity while keeping its mountain grip. Savory, layered, and already very satisfying, but still with plenty ahead of it.
Monte Bello 2019
750ml bottle. 92% Cab Sauv, 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 1% Cab Franc. All new oak, mostly American. Delicious! Hint of dill, tannin, American oak. Younger, tighter, and clearly built for the long haul. The bones are there—firm tannins, bright acidity, and deep concentration—but it’s still in its early chapters. You can already see where it’s headed, even if patience is required.
Hooker Creek Zinfandel (2017)
Richer and broader in feel, clearly from a warmer site. Dark fruit, spice, a bit of leather and earth, but still balanced and fresh. Old-vine Zin with real presence, not jammy, and very much in Ridge’s disciplined style.
Reference: Hooker Creek Vineyard sits in the Sonoma Valley AVA, a warmer inland pocket east of Sonoma Mountain. The old vines (over 100 years) here give Zinfandel more breadth and ripeness, while Ridge’s handling keeps the wine structured and balanced rather than heavy.
Lytton Springs (2016 & 2023)
Lytton Springs is one of those wines that always delivers. Rich, savory, layered, juicy, and incredibly versatile. I keep saying the same thing: this wine should be poured from magnums or 3-liter bottles, preferably next to a grill. It’s one of the great American BBQ wines, and it ages far better than most people expect.
Reference: This is one of the great historic Zinfandel vineyards in California and very much Ridge’s spiritual home for Zin. Cooler nights than Alexander Valley, more structure, more savory complexity — and that unmistakable old-vine depth.
Jimsomare Zinfandel (2019)
A special treat they opened for us, and honestly one of the highlights. This might be the best Zinfandel Ridge makes, and not surprisingly, it's from the Monte Bello vineyards. It’s balanced, fresh, and precise—no excess ripeness, no heaviness. Red and dark fruit, spice, energy, and clarity. This is Zin with restraint, and it’s outstanding.
Reference: this comes from a small Zinfandel parcel planted within Ridge’s Monte Bello estate. Same mountain environment as Monte Bello Cabernet: high elevation, cool climate, limestone-rich soils, farmed with the same rigor as their flagship Cabernet vineyards. Lytton Springs comes from the warm Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma, Hooker Creek from the warmer Sonoma Valley AVA, but Jimsomare is something else entirely — a true mountain Zinfandel grown on the Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, sharing the same DNA as Ridge’s legendary Cabernet.
Historic Vines Blanc (2024)
A blend that reminds you how serious Ridge is about white wine too. Fresh, clean, and quietly complex, with good texture and balance. It’s not flashy, but it’s thoughtful and very drinkable—exactly what you want from this style.
Three Cabernets, Three Different Ideas
One of the things that surprised some visitors at Ridge is that there are three distinct Cabernet-based wines tied to Santa Cruz Mountains fruit — and each means something slightly different.
First is the flagship Ridge Monte Bello. It’s not labeled simply as “Cabernet Sauvignon” because it’s rarely 100% Cabernet. Monte Bello is a Bordeaux-style blend built around Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Petit Verdot and sometimes Cabernet Franc, and that’s how Ridge has always presented it. It’s named for the vineyard itself — one of the oldest and most respected in California, planted in the late 1800s and continuously farmed through the modern era — and the name carries weight because of its unique identity and historic performance in tastings like the 1976 Judgment of Paris and its 30-year follow-ups.
Second is the Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine started being clearly defined in the 2000s as Ridge refined how it separated lots destined for Monte Bello versus those for this second Cabernet. When the wine was first made, it was called Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon, and was essentially the winery’s second Cabernet from the estate vineyard. In 2008, Ridge shifted to calling it “Estate Cabernet” to emphasize that its grapes came entirely from the Monte Bello estate. While it’s made with some Merlot in most vintages, Ridge brings back the varietal designation to signal origin and style — a more approachable, elegant Cabernet-driven wine than Monte Bello. This has always been one of my favorite "affordable" high-quality Cabernets in Californa.
The third is the Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon label, revived in 2023. Ridge brought this name back to reflect a broader picture of the AVA. Unlike the Estate, which comes solely from Monte Bello vineyard blocks, this wine is sourced from multiple vineyards across the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA — including Fellom Ranch, Vidovich Vineyard, Bates Ranch and sometimes Monte Bello fruit. This lets Ridge show a regional expression of the cool-climate mountains rather than just a single site.
All three are rooted in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA — a cool, fog-influenced, high-elevation region distinct from Napa Valley — but the label tells you where the fruit came from and how Ridge positions each wine. Monte Bello is a single-vineyard Bordeaux blend with history and depth, Estate Cabernet is a Cabernet-focused wine from that same vineyard but styled differently, and Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet is a multi-site regional Cabernet blend showing broader terroir in the hills.
Sitting there tasting these wines, it’s impossible not to think about Ridge’s role in California wine history. This is a winery that showed the world what California could do, famously participating in the Judgment of Paris and then proving, decades later, that the results weren’t a fluke when the wines were retasted 30 years on. Very few producers anywhere can point to that kind of long-term credibility.Final thoughts
Huge thanks to Cosimo, our host, for a warm, knowledgeable, and genuinely engaging visit. No hype, no sales pitch—just thoughtful conversation and deep understanding of the wines and the place.
After all these years, Ridge remains my favorite winery in the New World. The setting, the history, and—most importantly—the wines continue to deliver in a way that feels honest, timeless, and deeply satisfying.
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