Speaking of Ridge… today is the 12’th anniversary of the death of DonnReisen. He was the Prez of Ridge when he died. Before that, their National Marketing Director. Before that, Chief Flunky (as he described it). He started at Ridge helping at harvest.
He was the public face of Ridge for many yrs, maybe more so than Paul. It was a role he reveled in.
I’ve lots of Donn stories to tell. Maybe another time. But he was a pretty special guy to a lot of us.
I still keep in touch with his widow, Marilyn. Another very special person.
Tom
You pass his memorial if you’re visiting Monte Bello. Tragic death.
Agreed, great guy. He graciously pulled a 91 MB (one of my favorites) for us when we visited many moons ago.
I met Donn in Hawaii in 2000, when a wine and food festival happened to coincide with my honeymoon there. We hit it off at one event, and I happened to call Monte Bello “America’s first growth”, which made him happy. We were his guests at a Monte Bello vertical the following night, which was quite special. Donn and I kept in touch after that. He was very kind and is missed.
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My wife and I sat at Donn’s table one year at the ZAP “Dinner with the Winemakers” event. Very special evening, Donn brought some great older Ridge zins and lit up the table with his charm and joie de vivre. We were very saddened to hear of his death. Great guy.
Tom,
We need stories.
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Donn was a great guy. It seems like yesterday out on his office deck shooting skeet!
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Mike, It seems like yesterday we were at IPNC…but it wasn’t!
Sometimes it seems as though Donn’s memorial service was yesterday and sometimes it seems like it happened in the 12th century.
I ran into Donn everywhere. The guy got around.
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Well, Mark…I had dozens of interactions w/ Donn (and Marilyn) over the yrs. We often stay in Marilyn’s guest house when we visit the area.
Donn was a frequent visitor/speaker at the SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta. He would always come to our DaveJones Memorial Potluck. And bring
some old Ridges to share.
When Ridge was about to release their first Syrah (1996??), he brought a btl of it to the Potluck. I could tell he was very proud of it and knew I
was a big mover&shaker in the Syrah world. When he poured me a glass & I tasted it, he could tell from my crestfallen look that I did not
approve of it. He gave me this knowing/avuncular look, put his hand on my shoulder and said “It just needs some time”. I was expecting a Syrah
along the lines of Ojai/Jaffurs/EdStJohn that I loved so much…intense blackberry Syrah. But the wine shouted “Ridge Red” and spoke of
Syrah w/ only a whisper.
But, of course, Donn was right. A few yrs down the road, it developed into a beautiful/complex/wonderful mature Ridge red of the likes of
a Geyserville. The Syrah came thru much more obvious, but it still spoke of Ridge Red. The next time I saw Donn, I confessed to really liking the
wine now. He just nodded his head, rolled his eyes, and said “I told you so”.
I have made my peace w/ the Ridge Rhone program over the yrs. They are not very typical Calif Rhones, speak a lot of Ridge winemaking style,
but invariably evolve into very interesting reds.
Tom
Thanks Tom. I can’t remember tasting any Ridge Syrah, but I loved the 1974 Petit Syrah, but up to the turn of the century, it was a total brute.
OK, I will bite.
The first time i met Don Riesen was in the summer of '90. Lynn was expecting our oldest son. We were visiting friends living in Valejo. They had not yet caught the wine bug. I told my buddy I was going to drive to Ridge to check them out. He had no knowledge of Ridge or interest. I had no appointment. I just wanted to check them out. I arrived and evidently I picked a good time-a huge distributor was present with three or for bigwigs. I was dressed like myself, a bum. Don greeted me and invited me to tag along. There was a quickie tour and then we were ushered into a nice large room where there were ten bottles open and a table full of charcuterie. At some early opportunity I dropped Charle Rosen’s name, saying that my pops was a noted metallurgical and ceramic physicist who had worked with Mr. Rosen at Stanford Research Institute. Suddenly Don dropped his interest in the bigwigs and focused on the bum. I told my oft-repeated story that my dad had visited five years earlier and came back with two bottles of '76 Monte, two bottles of '77 Park Muscatine and two bottles of '78 Howell Mountain. Don’s eyes became wide and he rushed out and came back with some more bottles to taste. Next to an epic unannounced visit to Ric Foreman, it was the visit of my life.
Now fast forward to the last DitV, maybe 1998 or so? Don had just a few days before been promoted to some new high falutin position and it-the promotion announcement-was trotted out to us multiple times during various toasts and presentations in the 99 degree heat. There had to be a crowd of 500 or so wilting souls. Early enthusiasm for the event turned into lethargic attempts to find imaginary oasis among the sweltering stinking masses. None of the wines showed well until the fifth toast to Don which consisted of Don and Paul D standing side by side and pouring each attendee a very wee dram of '91 MB. Now I am not saying that the '91 is good or anything but even in all that heat, I was temporarily revived and feeling interested in wine again. So after another 400 or so attendees passed though the line for their wee dram, I turned my shirt inside out, took off my hat, and went through the line again. I got up to Don and he took one look at me and said “you’ve been through already, this is limited to one pour”. I swear on Moses, I can’t make it up. I guess I have distinguishing figures. Perhaps with his new promotion Don felt he had an equity stake it the '91 MB reserves.