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Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Bello 2003 750ml

size
750ml
country
United States
region
California
appellation
Santa Cruz County
subappellation
Santa Cruz Mountains
JS
94
VM
92
JS
94
Rated 94 by James Suckling
This has a wonderful balance of full, silky tannins and creamy ripeness, but with a degree of delicacy that Californian wines with this kind of richness from the early 2000s often lack. Long, fleshy finish that remains cool and lively right to the end. A cuvee of 85% cabernet sauvignon, 8% merlot and 7% petit verdot. Tasted at the Thomas Kammeier Monte Bello vertical. Drink or hold. ... More details
Image of bottle
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Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Bello 2003 750ml

SKU 926358
Case Only Purchase
Long-term Pre-Arrival
$1931.46
/case
$321.91
/750ml bottle
Quantity
min order 6 bottles
* This is a Long-term Pre-arrival item and is available for online ordering only. This item will ship on a future date after a 4-8 months transfer time. For additional details about Pre-arrival Items please visit our FAQ page.
Professional Ratings
JS
94
VM
92
JS
94
Rated 94 by James Suckling
This has a wonderful balance of full, silky tannins and creamy ripeness, but with a degree of delicacy that Californian wines with this kind of richness from the early 2000s often lack. Long, fleshy finish that remains cool and lively right to the end. A cuvee of 85% cabernet sauvignon, 8% merlot and 7% petit verdot. Tasted at the Thomas Kammeier Monte Bello vertical. Drink or hold.
VM
92
Rated 92 by Vinous Media
Full ruby-red. Knockout nose offers blackberry, currant, plum, cedar, minerals and dark chocolate. Fresh, succulent and quite firm in the mouth, with brisk acids and a minty nuance lifting the dark berry and chocolate flavors. Finishes with chewy tannins that come across as a bit less harmonious than those of the young 2004. But this youthfully closed wine grew sweeter with aeration.
Winery
The Monte Bello (originally Monte Bello Cabernet; until 1975, 100% cabernet) is the wine that introduced Ridge to the world, and the world to Ridge. It is a blend of bordeaux varietals. Cabernet sauvignon still predominates; exhaustive tasting of test blends during assemblage determines how much ”if any” merlot, petit verdot, or cabernet franc will be included in the finished wine. Almost every vintage (an unbroken chain from `62 on) has something substantive to recommend it. Every decade has its high points. Taste and opinions differ. But the just-concluded decade of the nineties has been outstanding. Generalization does a disservice to the individual wines. There's structure, there's complexity, there's balance. And they develop for a long, long time.
Product Details
size
750ml
country
United States
region
California
appellation
Santa Cruz County
subappellation
Santa Cruz Mountains
Overview
This has a wonderful balance of full, silky tannins and creamy ripeness, but with a degree of delicacy that Californian wines with this kind of richness from the early 2000s often lack. Long, fleshy finish that remains cool and lively right to the end. A cuvee of 85% cabernet sauvignon, 8% merlot and 7% petit verdot. Tasted at the Thomas Kammeier Monte Bello vertical. Drink or hold.
green grapes

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

There is little doubt about the fact that the most familiar red wine grape varietal in the world is the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, seen listed on bottles from more or less every single wine producing country across the globe. Part of the reason for this is the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon is a particularly hardy grape, resistant to both frost and rot, and can grow well in a number of climatic conditions so long as it receives enough sunlight and water. Of course, this is only half the story – we cannot ignore the fact that wines made from the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal are prized not only for their strong acidic fruit flavors, spicy and earthy notes and high tannin content, but also for the fact that they age beautifully in oak, resulting in wines which are on another level from those made from lesser grapes. Aged wines made using primarily Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are widely recognized to be the finest in the world. The aging process rounds out the tannins, softens the acidity and allows a wide range of fascinating and complex flavors and aromas to come through, making them an unquestioned highlight of the red wine world.
barrel

Region: California

California has long been the New World's most important and prodigious wine producing regions, with a history which stretches back to the 18th century and the Spanish pioneers who settled here. Today, California produces vast quantities of wine, and if it were a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine on earth. Despite experiencing many problems in the mid 20th century, including a very serious blight which almost crippled the state's wine industry, the ideal terroir and excellent climate ensured that Californian wines soon became the envy of the New World once again. California produces a vast range of wines, and utilizes a long list of fine grape varietals, with many wineries and their produce more closely resembling those of France and other Old World countries in regards to character, practices and flavors
fields

Country: United States

Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.
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More Details
Winery Ridge
green grapes

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

There is little doubt about the fact that the most familiar red wine grape varietal in the world is the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, seen listed on bottles from more or less every single wine producing country across the globe. Part of the reason for this is the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon is a particularly hardy grape, resistant to both frost and rot, and can grow well in a number of climatic conditions so long as it receives enough sunlight and water. Of course, this is only half the story – we cannot ignore the fact that wines made from the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal are prized not only for their strong acidic fruit flavors, spicy and earthy notes and high tannin content, but also for the fact that they age beautifully in oak, resulting in wines which are on another level from those made from lesser grapes. Aged wines made using primarily Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are widely recognized to be the finest in the world. The aging process rounds out the tannins, softens the acidity and allows a wide range of fascinating and complex flavors and aromas to come through, making them an unquestioned highlight of the red wine world.
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Region: California

California has long been the New World's most important and prodigious wine producing regions, with a history which stretches back to the 18th century and the Spanish pioneers who settled here. Today, California produces vast quantities of wine, and if it were a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine on earth. Despite experiencing many problems in the mid 20th century, including a very serious blight which almost crippled the state's wine industry, the ideal terroir and excellent climate ensured that Californian wines soon became the envy of the New World once again. California produces a vast range of wines, and utilizes a long list of fine grape varietals, with many wineries and their produce more closely resembling those of France and other Old World countries in regards to character, practices and flavors
fields

Country: United States

Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.