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And we return you to the regularly-scheduled bloody pulpit:
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Ridge pricing: It's been a fair number of yrs since Ridge has raised any
of their prices. Sure is a good way to keep us Ridge fans coming back for
more. Their pricing and high level of customer service is something
you don't often see at a lot of wineries.
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Ridge 2001 Zins: Heard a number of reports from ZAP that the 2001 Ridges
were pretty unthrilling wines. I couldn't agree less. ALL of the Ridge
2001's I've thus far have had have struck me as some of the best Zins they've
made in a number of yrs; with more complexity and intensity and structure
then I've seen from them in some time. And have I've gone back and revisited
many of the 2000's, most of them have seemed to have gained weight &
complexity of the past year. That said, they still reflect the 2000 vintage
and are more forward and drinkable sooner, rather than later.
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Ridge Paso Robles: I've followed the Ridge Paso Zins from the very start;
in the mid-'70's. They used to have a hard/chalky/sour streak to them that
I didn't care a lot for. But over the yrs, they tweaked it into one
of my favorite Ridges, consistently year in and year out. It has a lot
of that Paso jammy/blackberry/framboise character but they manage to avoid
the high alcohol of some Paso Zins. Although not as long lived as other
Ridge Zins, they do have the structure for modest aging. I think it would
be fascinating to do a vertical, side-by-side, of Ridge Dusi and Rosenblum
Sauret Zins sometime. Bree???? Last year, afore Hospices du Rhone, David
Gates (Ridge Vineyard manager), Eric Baugher (Ridge winemaker) and Paul
Draper took me by to meet Benito Dusi. Really neat guy in his early 80's,
still active at his farming, with a great sense of humor and this charming/
puckish twinkle in his eye. The Vineyard is impeccably maintained, as if
Beni goes out there daily and stacks all the gravel and rocks in their
correct places. Over the yrs, Ridge has made a few Dusi Ranch Essences;
sweet late harvest Zins. Killer killer wines that are loaded w/ that
jammy/blackberry/boysenberry/framboise character. Most are still great
drinking w/ a long life ahead of them; showing none of that raisened/prunish
character those wines often develop when the fruit starts to go. But growing
those grapes for an Essence just goes against Beni's grain for good grape
farming practices and, so, alas, there will be no more of those wines.
So sad, too bad. The Dusi Vineyard is easy to spot. Driving up Hwy 101
on the south edge of Paso, just afore you hit the commercial/industrial
bldgs there on the East side of the hwy, Beni's large Vineyard of old/head-pruned
vines sits w/ his home right there in the middle. If there's this elfish/leprecaun
out there in the Vineyard putting the rocks in order.... that's Beni!!
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Bogle PetiteSirah: This wine has been cited by certain Monktown attourneys
as one of the QPRs of the year. Well..... yes and no. For a $10 wine, it
certainly delivers the goods. A very good flavorful pizza wine. But I find
it just a tad towards the simple/boring side and wouldn't want to have
a whole lot of it; it would become a little tiring I think.
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RidgeZins: One of the things Paul Draper strives to achieve in his Zins
is to attain the greatest complexity he can that the grapes can deliver.
He seems to do a remarkable job at this. It was particularly evident as
we were tasting this yr's edition of the Lytton. Everybody was finding
all sorts of different things in the wine and we wern't able to achieve
much of a consensus on how to describe the wine. That ol' "Draper perfume"
thing is about as close as you can come. I often have that problem w/ the
Ridge Zins.... I struggle to find the right words to describe them.
And after 10 minutes in the glass, those words wouldn't fit the wine that
at evolved anyway. It's a toughh job... but someone's gotta do it.
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LyttonSprings '01: From the blend, it appears that all the LS Grenache
was held out of this yr's version. The wine came across to me a more RussianRiver
Zin than DryCreek Zin; more pungency and depth than the last few vintages
has shown in this wine. It has a big/ hard structure that bodes well for
its aging. More Geyserville in character than most of the recent one. One
of the best LyttonSprings in terms of a serious wine that I've seen in
some time.
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Chemical changes/polyphenolics: The two '82 LateHrvsts had dark color w/
only a hint of browning; presumably in a rather reduced state. The next
morning, after they had set out overnight in decanters on the counter (I
don't HAVE a sideboard... nor even know what one is), they were a very
murky brown color w/ little hints of purple and more sediment than I recall
in the decanter.. Since we all "know" that we decant youn/tannic red wines
in order to allow the the wine to oxidize and "soften" the tannins,
I wonder why we don't see the equivalent visual changes in these young
wines??
TomHill
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