LRA = La Rioja Alta.
Even it’s use of used American oak barrels showcases a major American oak signature. I wanna like this wine, and the price is great, but more and more I just cannot.
Jeez Rob my cycling doppelganger (but I can [halfway] climb); this is kinda repetitive. I think I am pretty damned sensitive to excessive oak and so are many others on this Board and you are mostly alone afaik in your being so vocally opposed to the Ridge flavor profile. You are not wrong, but you are likely hypersensitive to a smell that most of us are not. And yet, you love Bandol (as do I) and Pegau (as do I) and hate most modern expensive spoofed-up Rhones (as do I). I have as much older Ridge sitting in my cellar and getting consumed periodically as just about anyone around and the Am Oak subsides with time. Pickle and dill are not easily detected in ten + year old bottlings.
Has anyone received and sampled this? Notes please!
Posted TN’s on this from our Ridge dinner at Pig+Fig about two weeks ago.
Tom
Thanks for the TN, Tom. I found it when I searched for “+pig +fig”. It didn’t show up in my original search for “Adelaida” because you had “AdelaidaVnyd” as one word, so I wouldn’t have been able to find it unless I added a wildcard to the end of “Adelaida”.
Interesting that yours was bottled in May. The ones I received were bottled in August.
Andrew and Tom,
The wine Tom ‘reviewed’ was the Grenache Blanc - the wine in question here appears to be a blend, NOT that same wine. Yep, the GB is a ‘blend’ as well but it is 75% GB and is labeled as such; this wine is only 50% GB so it is definitely not the same.
Cheers.
I actually have a fair bit of Ridge in my meager Florida Man collection. It was the 91 Geyserville that turned me into Zin.
Here’s my question about the American oak usage at Ridge - we know that the oak is relatively prominent young. As these age, are folks trying these blind and picking them out as Ridge because of the oak? For those that have done, say, comparative zin tastings, is this the case?
I find that I when I try Ridges with less than 5 or so years of age on them, the oak is quite prominent. I do not have a lot of experience tasting these with 10+ years on them.
Cheers.
Larry, thanks. Good catch. Yes, the 2018 Adelaida is 50% Grenache Blanc, 25% Picpoul, 25% Roussane, and it was bottled in August 2019.