- Colour Red
- Producer Ridge
- Region Santa Cruz
- Grape Cabernet Sauvignon
- Drinking 2024 - 2030
- Case size 3x75cl
- Available Now
2020 - Monte Bello Ridge - 3x75cl
- Colour Red
- Producer Ridge
- Region Santa Cruz
- Grape Cabernet Sauvignon
- Drinking 2024 - 2030
- Case size 3x75cl
- Available Now
Select pricing type
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Antonio Galloni, October 2023, Score: 87
The 2020 Monte Bello opens with a burst of dark red fruit. Leather, tobacco and mocha open nicely in the glass. There's no getting past smoke taint in this wine. That's a shame, as the flavors are nicely delineated and the tannins are well balanced for the year in this small-scaled Monte Bello. The 2020 has signs of taint when I tasted it from barrel, so I can't say I am terribly surprised. Drink 2024-2023
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Antonio Galloni, October 2023, Score: 87
The 2020 Monte Bello opens with a burst of dark red fruit. Leather, tobacco and mocha open nicely in the glass. There's no getting past smoke taint in this wine. That's a shame, as the flavors are nicely delineated and the tannins are well balanced for the year in this small-scaled Monte Bello. The 2020 has signs of taint when I tasted it from barrel, so I can't say I am terribly surprised. Drink 2024-2023
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Wine Advocate, April 2024, Score: 85
Unfortunately, the 2020 Monte Bello is a victim of this harvest's devastating wildfires. Smoke taint is evident from the first pour, after which it receded and then reappeared on and off over the two days I spent with the bottles. The palate tells the same story, with the retronasal signature of campfire smoke and hollowed-out, gritty fruit on the finish. This was only more glaring in the context of a vertical spanning 2021-2015, many of which are banner vintages for Ridge. While an otherwise technically well-made wine is there behind the smoke, albeit with noticeably less depth and concentration than is typical, due to Ridge's decision to bulk out of 90% of the pressed wine, this flaw is unavoidable. In the interest of thoroughness, a sample of the bottled 2020 Monte Bello was submitted to ETS Laboratories in St. Helena, where a series of tests to detect glycosylated smoke markers were carried out (glycosylated tests specifically separate sugar-bound markers from volatile markers that can be imparted by oak élevage). The results confirmed significantly elevated levels of 4-methylguaiacol rutinoside, cresol rutinoside, phenol rutinoside and syringol gentiobioside, all of which correspond to elevated levels of smoke exposure and heightened sensory thresholds by up to a factor of four from the 99th percentile of a non-smoke-affected vintage.