The 2019 Monte Bello is Ridge at its elegant, mountain-grown best—refined, lifted, and full of quiet power. With a core of cassis, sage, and graphite layered over stony minerality and taut acidity, it’s a cool-climate classic built to age but already pulsing with energy and finesse. Think California Cabernet with Bordeaux brains and altitude swagger.

The Wine Advocate | RP 97
Published: Apr 18, 2024
Drink: 2029-2064

The 2019 Monte Bello includes 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. It has a poised, graceful nose of fresh sage and lilac with savory, meaty aromas in the background. The palate is medium-bodied but with admirable stuffing and concentration, leading to a springboard finish of pencil lead, gravel and pleasing, refreshing acidity. The standard élevage in new American oak is still years away from fully integrating, as evidenced in the herbal, upright but pleasant posture of the finish. This is a confidently elegant, high-toned iteration of this iconic wine that should drink and develop beautifully over the next three 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. 

James Suckling | JS 95
Published: Sep 21, 2022

A unique chardonnay with sliced cooked peach, dried pineapple, lemon curd and vanilla. Some nougat, too. It's full-bodied and layered with a creamy texture. Flavorful and spicy finish. Chalky at the end, with a white-pepper undertone. Drink now or hold.

Decanter | D 94
Published: Oct 25, 2022
Drink: 2023-2045

The nose of this youthful wine has great purity of fruit, with sweet intense blackcurrant aromas. The attack is fresh, sleek, and bright, leading to a concentrated palate with high acidity and a lively, peppery tone. It's assertive but not aggressive, and the new oak is not yet integrated. Very long.
Grapes
82% Cabernet Sauvignon
9% Merlot
8% Petit Verdot

Jancis Robinson | JR 18
Published: Mar 4, 2024
Drink: 2025-2043

Full bottle 1,319 g. A generous 143 tons from 65 acres. All of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon with just 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Notably wet winter and spring until mid May. Generous fruit set for all varieties except Merlot. Picked 28 September to 20 October with average Brix 24.4. A record 41 lots were selected for the final blend. 100% whole-berry (not whole-bunch) spontaneous fermentation with total of nine days on skins. 17 months in new, air-dried barrels, 95% American and 5% French.
Shaded garnet with a blackish tinge. Relatively mineral nose – less emphatic than the 2020. High toned and ethereal. Herbal notes and real lift. Very much sui generis. Not remotely like a red bordeaux and so much drier than any California Cabernet from further north. Very aromatic. This may be relatively more approachable than the 2020. In all, a lighter-weight Monte Bello than many. Very refreshing, lingering finish with, again, a stony, mineral impression.

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. 

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.

Technical Specs

Alcohol: 17% ABV
Closure: Natural cork
Harvest: 2018
Oak: Aged for approximately 30 months in new and second-use French oak barriques, followed by approximately 12 months in bottle
Varietals: Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara
Farming: Traditional viticulture; organic or sustainable farming certification not confirmed
Vineyard Area: Punta di Villa vineyard, Negrar di Valpolicella, Valpolicella Classica, Veneto, Italy. The vineyard is situated approximately 238 metres above sea level, with calcareous, silty and clay-rich soils.
Vinification: Produced from carefully selected Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes, naturally dried in well-ventilated rooms until January to concentrate sugars, flavours and aromatic compounds. The dried grapes are gently pressed, followed by fermentation with selected yeasts at a controlled temperature of approximately 24°C for around 20 days. Malolactic fermentation follows to soften acidity. The wine is aged for approximately 30 months in oak barriques, including new and second-use barrels, and a further 12 months in bottle. It displays aromas of dried flowers, ripe cherries, spices, tobacco and dark chocolate. The full-bodied palate reveals rich, concentrated fruit, dried cherry, fig and cranberry notes, supported by refined tannins, balanced acidity and an elegant, slightly austere finish.
Winemaker: Stefano and Antonio Mazzi
Region: Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG, Veneto, Italy

Serving Temperature: 16–18°C
Decanting: 1–2 hours
Food Pairing: Braised beef, venison, game dishes, slow-cooked lamb, rich meat stews, aged Parmigiano Reggiano and mature hard cheeses.