Ridge Vineyards 2019 Monte Bello Red Wine

82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc.  We have always enjoyed the Monte Bello, though the 2019 may be the best yet over this last half decade of excellence. The nose is a tour de force of concentrated dark fruits of currant with some boysenberry and blood orange balanced by savory aromas of tobacco leaf, cedar shavings, bay leaf, and a gentle earth. The palate is simply extraordinary with both big presence and quite integrated tannins with oak, deep currant, gentle earth balanced by concentrated boysenberry, currants and almost a orange lift. This is big, bold and quite young, but oh so delightful. D&M Tasting Notes

The 2019 Monte Bello is a wild, exotic wine. Huge, soaring aromatics meld into a core of heady, exotically ripe fruit. Not a shy wine by any means, the 2019 is atypically opulent, and yet all of the classic Monte Bello structure is there, underneath all of that fruit. The 2019 needs time in bottle to shed its baby fat, but there is a lot to look forward to. I imagine it will always be a pretty exuberant wine. Inky red fruit, blood orange, espresso, sweet American oak, cedar and pipe tobacco leave a lasting impression. In a word: magnificent! 98 pointsVinous Media, May 2022