Just got an offer for this. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it normally part of the Monte Bello blend? TIA
They started the Historic Vineyard Series as a sort of middle tier between Monte Bello and Estate. It’s not consistent what is picked for this series (4 vineyards, always 100% varietal from any of the 4 varieties), but they’re always distinct. Anything from the estate can make the Monte Bello cut. Not making the blend can be entirely the character not fitting, rather than quality, which I think is the case here.
We tasted this at the Final Assemblage event Sunday. Out of the bottle it was tight. A lot of stuff there, and one of my friends raved about it, but was eclipsed by the '13 Perrone Merlot, which is amazing. Fortunately, someone bought a bottle to contribute to our picnic. Being so young, it sat open long enough to get some air. When I got to it at the end of the day, a quarter left in the bottle, it was explosive. Amazing and compelling, so dense and complex. Right now it seems like a notably better wine than the '13 MB.
Well, that’s quite a recommendation. Thanks very much Wes.
I found this in the course of researching the wine:
http://www.undergroundwineletter.com/2015/12/ridge-vineyards-the-drought-years-2012-2015/
I mulled over purchasing these wines all day, decided to do so, and now the website isn’t working. Why won’t Ridge let me give them money?
I have problems with the website on chrome. Have to use internet explorer, and even then sometimes it does not work.
Thanks! This includes info (scroll down a bit) on the '13 Historic Vineyard Series wines, plus a couple special selections of Monte Bello I hadn’t heard about.
How good is this ? $775 a case delivered is very tempting for a nice looking cab, biggest concern is that it needs 10 + years
Just got through and picked up some Torre Cab, Perrone Merlot, and Estate Cab. Seems like good value and some interesting wines.
Amazing now, but the usual curve for Monte Bello is to shut down hard at some point (maybe 6-10 months from now?), then start to open up a little after a year or so, and gradually on from then. Most vintages it takes more than 10 years to get back to showing as much stuff as it does as a baby, which doesn’t mean it won’t still be really good then.
We had the '07 MB at the picnic and it’s back to life and quite enjoyable now. Picked up a lot of weight since Parker under-rated it. To put it into crude points terms, I’d say it’s drinking 93 now with a 97 potential. They poured the '00 MB, selling for a crazy high price as a library wine. Drinking really well now - picked up a lot of weight and showing tons of complexity - so probably at its peak now, especially for your preferences. It s the least vintage of a strong decade, which is a force to keep the secondary price low. At the same time there’s hype because it won the '76 Paris Tasting retrospective, so some people ask too much. At the right price, either might be worth picking up to try.
+1 I use Safari on OSX, Chrome never works. Its embarrassing really considering they’re in Silicon Valley!
It also appears their BBQ “sold out” same day, however “additional tickets” are still available for purchase. I don’t get that.
The K&L site has quite a few Ridge Wine’s of differing types/vintages right now. I assume that they are from a private collection?
Based on this thread alone, I went to K&L and bought a 6 pack:
2 x 2012 Ridge Estate Cab
2 x 2012 Ridge Estate Merlot
2 x 2010 Ridge Perrone Merlot
If anyone’s been following the crazy 6-page+ discussion about the, “Worst tasting we’ve ever done…,” there was someone who mentioned not underestimating the content of these forums to affect wine sales / prices. Well, it certainly did for me!
Wes, thanks for the Merlot recommendation. I’ll put 2 in the cellar. The previous issue was 2010 and some of the CT notes suggest they can taste the Monte Bello in this. Any thoughts on the 2013 similarly?
I thought the '10 was good and should evolve well, but didn’t blow me away. It was very restrained. Huge contrast.
The best block of Perrone is consistently impressive and pretty much always makes the Monte Bello cut as a key component, so not a surprise with those notes.
Three days after its arrival, I violated my principle of waiting at least three weeks and opened the 2013 Perrone last night. I was VERY impressed, as in a loud “Wow!” – best domestic merlot I’ve had but I’ve never paid more than $80, for 1999 Dominus, which we had last week. Given Cellar Tracker’s average score of 91.1 for the Dominus, I think the early notes on Perrone will be around 93.5.
The Gabriel Gold glass was the best vessel, beating out Riedel Extremum Cab, XL Cab and Vinum Bordeaux, even though the Extremum I used is one that has consistently been the best for merlot of the five we have.
The 2013 Ridge Estate Merlot has to be right up there as well. I’ve opened and devoured 3 bottles already. The first 2 where a month+ ago and where better than the 09,10,11,and 12 estate Merlot, all of which i thought very highly of. The last, last week was more restrained, the oak/tannin’s took over the fruit to some extent, maybe closing down?
I’m stocking up on more.
Just bought three of the 2013 Perrone Merlot - thanks for the TNs, guys! Can’t wait…
Oh boy…might have to crack one of the Perrone Merlots soon - I’m trying to wait on all these bottles (only got 3 of each, this and the Torre Cab)
I’ll add that the 2013 Estate Merlot was better than the 2012 and 2013 Estate Cabernet.