The 2017 Monte Bello is Ridge’s mountain masterpiece in full armor—dense, brooding, and deeply structured, with inky fruit, firm tannins, and soaring aromatic lift. It’s a wine that commands respect now but promises decades of evolution, revealing layers of power, polish, and unmistakable Monte Bello character with age.

The Wine Advocate | RP 100
Published: Apr 18, 2024
Drink: 2030-2070

The 2017 Monte Bello is a towering triumph of California Cabernet Sauvignon. The final blend includes 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 4% Cabernet Franc. The colossal nose reads like a dictionary definition of young Monte Bello, with inky black fruits, fragrant dried herbs, treated leather and a refreshing, breezy lift that continuously bounds from the glass. The palate continues the immense heft and gravitas of the nose, with ample mid-palate richness buttressed by forceful, penetrating and vigorous tannins. The oak integration throughout is remarkable, its edges gently buffed rather than vigorously polished. Overall, this is an incredibly impressive, complex and multifaceted wine that should have no problem aging for five decades.

I had the great pleasure of assessing a seven-vintage vertical of Monte Bello and, as luck would have it, picking up where William Kelley left off with the 2015 vintage. I tracked this set of wines across three days and witnessed continuous development and further delineation between vintages, even in their infancy. Not to be forgotten, the Estate Cabernet, Merlot, Jimsomare Zinfandel and the duo of Chardonnays orbit the central star of Monte Bello with fascinating insights into the multidimensionality of this iconic site.

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 18.5+
Published: Oct 9, 2020
Drink: 2024-2034

A blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, and 4% Cabernet Franc.
Inky garnet. Aromas of pencil shavings and American oak layered over darker black plum and cassis. Beautifully sculpted tannins wrap around a core of cassis, black cherry and blueberry fruit that has a stony, earthy depth. Excellent acidity and balance contribute to this wine's characteristic of utter seamlessness that is so compelling. The cedar, coconut and whiskey barrel notes of the American oak are present, as are the muscles that wood brings to the tannins, which stiffen as the wine finishes with notes of herbs and blackberry. Most Monte Bellos benefit from ageing, and this will be no exception. It is darker and a bit more brooding on release than the 2016 or 2015. Give it 5 to 10 years and watch it sing. Outstanding.

Ridgewine.com

73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc
Organically Grown

Winemaker Tasting Notes:
Opaque purple-ruby color. Ripe blackberry fruit, barrel spice, anise, violets, and crushed limestone. Opulent mountain fruits on entry, fennel, sweet oak, well-structured tannins, and firm acid. Powerful complexity and tremendous length to the finish. EB (1/18) 

Vintage Notes:
Heavy winter rains saturated Monte Bello?s fractured limestone sub-soil, replenishing the vines? water resources. Warm summer days, with unusually cold nights, slowly ripened the crop for an October harvest. By early winter, as malolactics finished, the wines were blind-tasted for assemblage. The final blend was made in May. Showing beautiful fruit and serious complexity in its youth, it will develop greater secondary flavors over the next thirty years. 

Winemaking: Harvest Dates: 21 September - 24 October 
Grapes: Average Brix 24.9 
Selection: Twenty-three Monte Bello parcels 
TA: 7.42 g/L 
pH: 3.48 
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed, 100% whole berry fermentation. Automated berry sorting. Fermented on the native yeasts. Pressed at nine days. Natural malolactic. 
Barrels: 100% new air-dried oak; 95% American, 5% French 
Aging: Seventeen months in barrel 

All estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, organically farmed, hand-harvested, destemmed and sorted; fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; 0.10 g/L calcium carbonate added to moderate the high natural acidity in two of the twenty-nine fermenters; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur 35ppm at crush, 92ppm during aging; pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.