Napa Valley has become synonymous with great California cabernet sauvignon. But I’d argue that the state’s greatest and most distinctive cab is not from Napa, but from a special ridge high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, above Cupertino. The winery is Ridge Vineyards; the wine is Monte Bello.
The Monte Bello style has changed little over the years, even as many California cabernets have gotten bigger, riper and higher in alcohol. Ridge Monte Bello — which used to be all cabernet, but now is a cab-dominant blend — has remained elegant and graceful, with modest alcohol, yet the wine is remarkably concentrated and ages extremely well. Much of that is undoubtedly the result of Paul Draper, who has been in charge of winemaking at Ridge since 1969.
Monte Bello’s style is also a reflection of the site where the grapes are grown. The Monte Bello vineyard is a cool one for cabernet sauvignon: 15 miles from the Pacific and with elevation that climbs from 1,400 feet to around 2,700. Cool nights help the grapes retain their acidity. Flavors are concentrated because the yields are naturally low. A bigger crop wouldn’t get ripe because of the climate and poor soils and because most of the vines are dry-farmed.
I’ve been fortunate to taste a number of older Monte Bellos, and I got the chance again recently at the Relais & Châteaux GourmetFest in Carmel. The tasting included eight Monte Bellos poured from magnums and reaching back to 1977. The oldest wines showed their age, but even they displayed the savory character that is the wine’s hallmark. A whiff of Monte Bello is like breathing in the scents of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Ridge Vineyards dates back to the 1880s, when it was called Montebello Winery. It was abandoned during Prohibition and revived in 1962 by a group of partners from the Stanford Research Institute. Some vines had been planted in the late 1940s, and many remain.
Draper, who studied philosophy at Stanford University, had short stints at wineries in France and California, and made wine for a couple of years in Chile. He was fascinated by traditional winemaking — he calls it “preindustrial.” His winemaking bible was a late 19th century book by Emmet Rixford, who established La Questa Vineyard above Woodside in the 1880s.
“I’m never going to be able to do better than that, so these are the techniques we use today,” Draper says.
When Draper first got to Ridge, he tasted the 1962 and ’64 cabs that had been made by the winery’s partners and thought the wines were more interesting than any other California wines he’d tasted from the ’50s and ’60s. Draper knew that Monte Bello was a special piece of ground.
Draper’s 1971 Monte Bello was among the California cabernets competing against Bordeaux in the famed Paris Tasting of 1976, where it placed fifth. (It was the second-ranked California wine; the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars cab placed first overall). In a 30th anniversary re-enactment in London and Napa in 2006, the 1971 Monte Bello placed first, attesting to its ability to age. At that same event, there was a tasting of more current cabs and cab blends from California and Bordeaux, and the 2000 Monte Bello also placed first.
Ridge also made news when Draper adopted ingredient labeling for all its wines, starting with the 2011 vintage. Ridge is one of only a handful of wineries that list ingredients; Bonny Doon is another.
The current Monte Bello vintage, 2011 ($160), was not in the Carmel tasting, but I tasted it later. The wine has the typical Monte Bello savory notes, along with concentrated black fruit and firm structure. It’s a big wine, but it’s still elegant and refined.
Each vintage, Draper and the rest of the viticulture and winemaking team tweak and refine. “We’ve never achieved what we’re aiming for,” he says. “We never will.”
Contact Laurie Daniel at ladaniel@earthlink.net.
Tasting Notes
Although Ridge Monte Bello is a concentrated, powerful wine, its power isn’t based on big ripeness and alcohol. Many Napa cabs, for example, exceed 14.5 or even 15 percent alcohol; Monte Bello usually is in the low 13s. (The current release, 2011, is just 12.8 percent.)
The youngest wine in the Carmel tasting was the 2010, a dark, dense, lively wine with black fruit, spice, savory notes of wild herbs, and firm but approachable tannins. The 2009 was aromatic and actually a little showy for Monte Bello, with great concentration and freshness, a floral note and some fleshiness. The 2008 is aromatic and dense, with lively black fruit, savory notes of anise and earth, and firm tannins.
With the 2004, the wine had started to take on some secondary characteristics of cedar and tea, along with its plump red fruit. The 1997 was still quite fresh but also had a slight jammy character. The 1994 was amazingly youthful, with good color, red fruit, a hint of bay leaf and firm tannins.
The oldest wines, from 1984 and 1977, were quite evolved, with some mushroom and forest floor notes, though they still showed good freshness.
Later, I tasted a couple of older Monte Bellos from my own cellar, both in 750 ml bottles. The 1980 Monte Bello was smoky and a little mushroomy, with a hint of bay leaf. The 1998 ““ from a cool vintage that was widely disparaged for Napa cabernet sauvignon ““ was really delicious, with red fruit, a smoky note, good concentration and tannins that had softened.
In addition to the Monte Bello, Ridge makes an estate cabernet sauvignon from the property; it’s less expensive ($50) and is generally made to be drunk sooner. You can also reduce the cost of your Monte Bello purchase by buying futures. The 2014 Monte Bello, for example, is currently available for $105 a bottle. It will be released in 2017.
