Given the popularity of the Zoom events Frank and Todd have been organizing I thought folks might like to know Ridge was also an early adopter. They have been doing weekly events on Thursday afternoon/evenings that include John Olney, Eric Baugher and David Gates. They have been quite good. They usually will focus on some current release wines. But the discussions of wine making and vineyards have been very informative.
They have been having them Thursdays on Zoom at 4pm PST/7pm EST.
It’s not clear to me whether the live sessions are open only to the various club memberships or if they are open to anyone. In any case they are recording and placing each even on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/user/RidgeVineyards/videos
I attended a few of the Virtual Tasting Roundtables and I’ll be joining for next Thursdays Monte Bello Tasting with Age. They are drinking the MB 1990 2001 and 2002. It is open to the public and they are offering these libraries wines in 375 for sale to the public and not for just members so they can be enjoyed during the tasting. The ZOOM sessions are also available to nonmembers as well, I believe. They aren’t as interactive as the Berserker ZOOMS but you can ask questions via a Q&A section that is frequently answered.
I included the link below and all of the other tastings have been recorded and can also be found at the bottom of the link below.
I watched all the recent ones and participated in some by buying in advance. This last one I tried the ATP 2015 Lytton Estate Syrah and it was so fun drinking along with the team at Ridge. This upcoming I have a 375ml of the 1990 MB coming that I’ll open. I drink them on the patio with cheeses and crackers. It’s a great way to spend a Thursday at 4:00 for an hour.
I too will be drinking the 1990 MB 375. Really looking forward to drinking an aged MB with the winemakers walking you through the tasting. I hope Paul Draper joins, like he did a few weeks ago.
Hmmm, I still have about six from a case I bought on release for my older son’s birth year. He is not much of a wine drinker so maybe I will pop one. The '90 was heralded by Ridge when it first came out as a great vintage but mainly due to a string of difficult vintages that preceded it. It then got dwarfed by the '91 plus it never really blossomed into the wine that Ridge thought they might have upon release. I have tasted it many times over the years not just from mine but from others who have opened it as well. It typically starts out very nice aromatically and then kind of hollows out with air. It lacks the oomph/extra gear that the '91 has. I would be pleasantly surprised if it shows anything above and beyond that now.
I’m not surprised to hear you say that it may hollow out with air. I asked Ridge last week for some guidance on decanting and/or double decanting. Ridges response was “1990 – decant for sediment only, serve shortly after opening” which made me think that too much air will be this wines enemy. I plan on drinking this out of a smaller Riedel Mature Bordeaux glass to reduce too much air from a large regular Bordeaux wine glass.
There are some recent Cellar Tracker reviews, specifically in 2019, that are very positive, which is one of the reasons I chose to go with the 1990 MB for this tasting. Hope it shows well on Thurs night!
I’m really excited that Ridge are doing these. Will probably pick up the weird varietals/vineyards 4 pack after hearing about them in the virtual tasting
Anyone catch the Paul Draper session today? Eye opening. He spoke almost the entire 60 minutes and focused on the origins of his technique and philosophy in the vineyard and cellar, which included topics ranging from his winemaking education to the ranking of oak barrels based on knowledge conveyed from first growth winemakers of the highly lauded 1900 vintage of bordeaux.
The 1984 Monte Bello was reviewed live plus extensive discussion of the 1962, 64 and 85 vintages as well.