Ridge Vineyards : Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Characteristics and tasting notes for Ridge Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Tasting

Colour
The wine displays a beautiful deep, intense purple colour.

Nose
The aromatic bouquet opens with scents of blackberry and blueberry, enhanced by hints of mint and juniper berries, all underscored by seamlessly integrated woody and toasty nuances.

Palate
Generous and enveloping, the palate reveals flavours of black fruit, spice and coffee, lifted by a subtle mineral backbone. The firm yet silky tannins bring superb tension that carries through to a long, elegant and complex finish.

Food and wine pairing
This cuvée will pair beautifully with robust meats such as a slow-cooked beef daube, succulent grilled lamb chops or pork chops.

Serving and cellaring
The Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 will reveal its full potential when served at a temperature between 16 and 18°C. With its excellent structure, this wine has an ageing potential of more than 15 years and can be enjoyed until around 2038.

The elegance of a great American Cabernet from the Santa Cruz Mountains

The estate
Officially founded in 1962, Ridge Vineyards is a true institution in California. Although the history of the site dates back to 1885, it was in the 1960s that the estate truly came into its own. Now managed by John Olney and owned by the Otsuka Pharmaceutical group, the estate stands out for its pre-industrial approach and its organic certification. Spread across the Santa Cruz Mountains and Sonoma County, its vineyards produce outstanding terroir-driven wines, combining respect for tradition with highly precise regenerative viticulture.

The vineyard
The grapes come exclusively from the historic Monte Bello vineyard, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation. Rising to altitudes of between 400 and 800 metres, this exceptional terroir is characterised by poor clay-limestone soils. The fully certified organic vines enjoy a cool climate shaped by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, allowing the berries to ripen slowly and optimally while keeping vine vigour in check to promote fine concentration.

The vintage
2023 was marked by particularly abundant rainfall, well above the usual averages. The growing season proved significantly cooler and later than the previous one, with flowering delayed until June. These climatic conditions imposed a very slow pace of ripening, leading to a harvest spread between 9 September and 5 October, thus ensuring lovely freshness without overripeness.

Winemaking and ageing
For the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, the bunches are hand-harvested, carefully sorted and then destemmed. Whole-berry fermentation is carried out exclusively with indigenous yeasts, followed by natural malolactic fermentation. This American wine is then aged for an extended 17 months in air-dried American oak barrels, 52% of them new, in keeping with a resolutely minimal-intervention philosophy.

Grape varieties
This wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.