Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Klein Monte Bello Vineyard is incredibly appealing this vintage. The nose offers layers of pure fruits—blackcurrants and crushed cherries—with finely woven accents of graphite, leather, dried roses and exotic spices. The palate is equally compelling, with a fruit intensity that belies its powdery tannins and lifted freshness, and the finish is long and classy. What a gorgeous Cabernet!
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Jeb Dunnuck
The first time I've tasted this cuvée, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Klein comes from the lower section of the estate vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains and was aged 19 months in new American oak barrels. Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, this deep purple-hued effort offers a medium to full-bodied, spicy, mineral-laced style to go with the classic bluer Ridge fruits, notes of violets, tobacco, lead pencil, and cedar. It has a certain Bordeaux-like texture and minerality, good concentration, plenty of structure and acidity, and a great finish. A beautiful wine, it has some approachability today, yet I suspect it will keep for 20-25 years or more.
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Wine & Spirits
This vineyard on Monte Bello Road was originally planted to cabernet sauvignon in 1888 by Pierre Klein. The site, rising from 1,200 to 2,000 feet elevation, later came to be known as Jimsomare and provided Ridge with a single-vineyard cabernet from 1978 through 1997. Ridge took over the vineyard during that time and it is now a part of the firm’s Monte Bello estate. This 2017 is the first single-vineyard release from the site since the 1990s, encouraged by a season with ample winter rain and a warm summer. It’s a brisk, oceanic red, all about cabernet grown in limestone. The wine’s lush raspberry flavor and lively herbal freshness is driven by acidity, pointing up the spicy tannins, which are light but persistent. It has the kind of structure that makes a lean cabernet from the Médoc so facile with fish. Elegance from the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark-berry, black-plum, light herb, loamy soil and earthy, smoked wood aromas come through on the nose of this special bottling. It's a very intellectual wine on the palate, combining sour plum fruit with earth, woody tones of mahogany, soy and oak, all leveled by pinpoint acidity.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
A rugged and topographically diverse cool-climate appellation with a rich history, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA stretches from Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, to the northern border of Monterey County. Elevations range from 800 feet to upwards of 3,000 and microclimates vary substantially depending on which side of the mountains the vineyards lie; cool ocean winds and fog play an important role here. This can be a challenging region in which to grow grapes, but it is well worth the effort. Santa Cruz Mountains wines are noted for balanced acidity levels, often showing great aging potential. Wine has been made here since the 1800s, most notably from the legendary Ridge Vineyards, whose Monte Bello vineyard garners international admiration.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the stars of this region, while Merlot and Zinfandel also perform quite well. Organic and sustainable vineyard practices are becoming increasingly common.