Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

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£260.00
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  • Robert Parker rating 95
  • Vinous rating 95
  • Jancis Robinson rating 95
Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
1 left

HED53473

75 cl

13.3%
£260.00
Taxes included.

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Ridge Vineyards was founded in 1962 and is widely considered one of the greatest and most consistent producers in California. Produced from their oldest vines in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Monte Bello is unquestionably the flagship wine and the 2008 is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot. Full-bodied and with impressive amplitude, Initial waves of sweet black fruits yield to a firmly structured palate with subtle savoury notes of tobacco, dried herbs and exotic spices creeping through on the long, mineral-tinged finish.
95 Vinous
The 2008 Monte Bello is in a gorgeous spot right now, as the aromatics are just starting to show the complex nuances that only develop in bottle. Worn-in leather, licorice, scorched earth, savory herbs and chocolate meld into a core of intense dark fruit. Slightly angular contours hint at a bit of rusticity. My impression is that the 2008 won’t be especially long-lived by Ridge standards, but it is a fine bottle to drink now, especially with a bit of time in the decanter.Antonio Galloni20th September 2020
95 Jancis Robinson
The 2008 Monte Bello is marked by the drought vintage, which not only made a more concentrated crop but also deprived the blend of all supporting varieties, as only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot handled the dry conditions sufficiently gracefully to make the final cut. At age ten, this muscular Monte Bello is finally beginning to unwind, offering up rich aromas of black cherry, cassis, dried mountain laurel, loamy soil and burning embers. On the palate, it's full-bodied, expansive and powerful, its generous, sweetly fruited attack giving way to a taut, firm mid-palate that doesn't show as much finesse as the 2010 or 2012, concluding with a long, stony finish. Baugher observes that in its youth, the 2008 was "monolithic and more angular—a mouthful of tannin." A decade later, it's beginning to soften, but it still requires another 5 or 6 years of bottle age.William Kelley31st May 2018

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Mountain Wines of Distinction

Named after the historic vineyard area of Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains has been a byword for fine Californian wine since the early 1960s. Ridge shot to fame in the fabled 1976 Judgement of Paris. It was at this groundbreaking blind tasting that the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello was pitted against some of the most revered First Growths of Bordeaux. It placed fifth. (NB: in a re-enactment of the same tasting held in 2006, Monte Bello 1971 placed first.)

Under legendary winemaker Paul Draper, Ridge Vineyards became renowned for the exceptional quality of its single-vineyard wines. Though Draper has now retired, the estate continues to produce terroir-focused wines with the same commitment to organic farming and traditional winemaking techniques. From the fine Bordeaux blends and Chardonnays of Monte Bello to the Zinfandels of Lytton Springs and Geyserville in Sonoma, and all points in between, Ridge Vineyards remains one of the most celebrated names in California wine.

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