This was my reaction. Disappointment that Ridge is going the route of the “elite” bottling, and that these barrels were left out of the main blend. Might be different if they had disclosed they were starting this program back in 2014 when showing the assemblage and selling the wines, but this seems a little underhanded.
Interesting that it happened only now that Draper has retired.
“Unctuous.”
Not a word that makes me feel particularly enthused.
The decision to release these bottlings was made when Paul was still very much involved in the operation at Ridge. Galloni wrote about them in July 2015, about a year before Paul’s retirement was announced.
I don’t know the quantity of MB made each year, but I’m guessing these 15 barrels are literally a “drop in the bucket” and would have no discernable impact on the Monte Bello blend. So far, this seems to be a “one off” in 2013 and I don’t begrudge Ridge at all for making wines they feel are of exceptional character.
It also looks like the Steep Terraces is now sold out.
Looking at the labels, it’s 4.8 tons for the “hillside”, 2.4 for the “historic”, vs. 80 for the actual MB. So that’s about 9% of the MB for the year, not insignificant, particularly if it’s very high quality. But having read a bit more about it, I guess I understand the logic - these are vineyard sections that are old and eventually won’t produce enough to matter in the blend, and the rest of the lots were such high quality that this addition wouldn’t have made as much difference as usual, so they broke them out for two special bottlings.
They sold out in a hurry, so I guess the right marketing decision.
More mature vines plus an excellent vintage may have allowed this. The regular '13 MB is already exceptional.
It’s a bit silly they only mention the “full price” when the only people who can but it get a discount. Some won’t know that, plus it’s a good opportunity to market the member benefit.
Btw, if the rationale for not including them in the regular MB is not fitting the typicity of the blend, the next option would be the Historic Vineyard Series, if the lots are distinct enough. That’s a higher price point than Estate.
It’s not really one vineyard, it’s a series of vineyards up the ridge line that all qualifies as one estate. Every lot from those vineyards are subject to their selection process and can make the Monte Bello cut, or become a HVS bottling or go into the Estate, etc. But, quality alone is not the determining factor in going into the Monte Bello. It has to fit.
In retrospect, that was definitely confusing. At $175, I didn’t even bother clicking on the link in this morning’s email. You’d think they would have stated the price members would be paying, instead of $175. Probably wouldn’t have gone for it at $157 either, but would have been nice to know that.
It’s sold out…and I got pimped…my reward for working late and just checking my personal email.
The Historic Vines is still available. You didn’t need to be a member of any of Ridge’s clubs to buy today, so anyone could have purchased the wines and paid the sticker price. The November offering was “members only”, and you could have paid just under $150 if you bought some Zins to fill up the case.
Hmm, I don’t remember seeing that, but probably wasn’t paying attention. No worries, I don’t buy $150 Cabernet.
So this was a first come/first served situation regardless of you current MB allocation? That seems uncool.
Who posted the original notes on this a while back?
These wines were available to Ridge club members, including Monte Bello Collectors, last November. There was a thread on them here Two New Ridge Cabernets.... - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Opening them up for purchase by anyone after 2 months seems perfectly reasonable to me.
Drew Goin wrote:
Who posted the original notes on this a while back?
Drew:
Tom Hill wrote about this back in October and referenced an article written by John Tilson. The link is below.
Thanks,
Ed
My fault. I totally missed it. Also apparently missed the email…