Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains (2019) Staff Picks polished and easy to love

polished and easy to love

Wingtine is its precise

The result is texture and depth without weight or oakiness

The 815 is his calling card: a Cabernet assembled from six appellations into something consistent

one of the great Chardonnay villages of the Côte des Blancs - so the fruit carries genuine Grand Cru pedigree

Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains (2019) Staff Picks polished and easy to loveMonte Bello is the most famous wine in California, and one of the most celebrated in America. It was Ridge's 1971 Monte Bello that placed in the legendary 1976 Judgment of Paris the blind tasting where California Cabernet first beat the best of Bordeaux and it has been compared to the First Growths ever since. It comes from a single high mountain vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, planted on limestone soils that are rare in California and give the