by Michael Malinoski » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:20 pm
This past Saturday night, a friend was kind enough to serve the 1984 Ridge Monte Bello at a Christmas party. It was delicious and reminded me of the 1985 a little bit once it opened up. That was a kick-start to get me to finish up these notes from this Ridge Monte Bello vertical from last month. Here goes:
N.V. Gloria Ferrer Brut Sonoma. There’s lots of smoke, flint, and burnt matchstick on the nose, along with notes of lemon peel. In the mouth, it is creamy, with a frothy feel. It is fresh and tangy, with narrowing fruit leading to a mildly short finish. Still, it cleans the palate and does the trick.
2005 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Riesling Kabinett Urziger Wurzgarten. The nose is a bit taut, but shows some nice apple, crushed stone and sweet red berry aromas. It presents a nice, intense mouthful of wine, with a fairly high sweetness level, but with just enough acid balance. It is lighter bodied, but comes across as having a good bass note heft to it. The sweetness level seems to grow as it warms in the glass, but overall it is just damn easy to drink.
1999 Franz Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Honivogl. Thanks to Ken and David for this and the next selection. This wine presents a fresh nose of green herbs, grapefruit, pomegranate, lemon tea and wet stones. It has good intensity in the mouth, with a vibrant acidity offsetting a moderately creamy texture. The flavor profile is hard to describe, with white pepper the one thing my notes picked up on. Off my beaten path a bit, but an enjoyable wine.
1997 Nikolaihof Riesling Spatlese Steiner Hund. This wine took a while to warm up to. Initially, it offers a big hit of nail polish remover that just scalds the nostrils. As a result, my notes are sketchy and they only really mention good body, good balance and good length. Others will have to weigh in here.
On to the main event:
1975 Ridge Monte Bello. Right off the bat, I’m thinking this is going to be a great night! Man, I could just sniff this wine all night! It is immediately alluring, with airy notes of dusty cedar, gentle cassis and those big soft chalky peppermint candy thingies. I held some in the glass a long time and also revisited at the end of the night, and the amazing thing is that the nose never changed one bit the whole time. In the mouth, it has totally resolved tannins and a soft mouthfeel. It is lean on the entry and unfortunately a bit thin through the middle, as well. Still, it is full of flavor, with a tart cassis profile set within a narrow band. It finishes soft and gently dry.
1976 Ridge Monte Bello. This, too, exhibits a simply lovely bouquet, in this case of worn leather, dark red berries, licorice and milk chocolate. It has a good sense of depth and density to its aromatics, and begins to smell like a younger Bordeaux as the night goes along—adding in notes of earth, tobacco and nuts. In the mouth, it shows more body than the 1975, with a long palate presence accentuated by dark berry fruits and crisp acidity. Soft, chalky tannins are barely hanging on, and it is a touch drying on the finish, but it feels nicely resolved.
1978 Ridge Monte Bello. The nose here seems pretty similar to the 1976, except everything is a bit fresher and brighter. Notable are aromas of darker leather, nutella, dark cherry, green pepper and dark cedar planking. It is by far the richest wine of the flight in the mouth, with solid medium to full body, and excellent sense of restrained extract. It is not as crisp as the previous 2 wines, but still exhibits a solid acid backbone. The long, dark-chocolate finish has good, chewy persistence. An outstanding wine all around, and a narrow Wine of the Night for me.
1980 Ridge Monte Bello. There are some funky things going on with this when first poured, but some of it sorts itself out with some time in the glass. The nose exhibits odd aromatics of brined olives, fresh tomato garden (leaves, dirt and all) and faint eucalyptus. In the mouth, it is soft and generous, but a bit gobby with its cherry fruit and notes of ginger. It has good heft, but not a ton of structure to keep it fresh. It definitely improved as the night went on, but may not have been the most representative bottle.
1985 Ridge Monte Bello. The nose is dense with pencil shavings, cedar, blue and black fruits, dark earth and hints of persimmon. It is bright, yet rich in the mouth, showing rich chocolatey tannins through the mid-palate and finish. It is velvety-textured and quite smooth, with a very nice finish. It feels plush, lush and rich, but all in good doses. At the end of the night, I came back to the bottle, and the last little bit was really kicking. This could easily have been my wine of the night, but had to settle for close runner-up.
1988 Ridge Monte Bello. One finds aromas of red currant, tobacco leaf, deep rich cassis, spices and black cherry on the nose of the 1988. It feels fresh in the mouth, with black cherry and tangy macerated cherry flavors. There are plenty of toasty, roasty notes to go with abundant spices. It has excellent length and has a seamless transition to the finish, which is long and pure with a spicy edge. Nice balance, too.
1994 Ridge Monte Bello. Corked.
1996 Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac. Mystery double blind wine. I find this to be dark all around—in color, in aroma and in taste. The nose offers up dark earth, black currants, dark espresso grounds, and fresh blueberry. It feels dark and gobby in the mouth at first, but grows in elegance as the night goes along. It is nicely balanced, but tight all around, with dark fruit and significantly more tannic presence than anything tasted thus far. Indeed, in retrospect, this showed much more tannin than any Monte Bello, young or old. This is young, rich, intense and barely evolved—needing a long time before touching again.
1996 Ridge Monte Bello. I like the complex nose of this wine, which at different times suggests fresh tar, charcoal, rich dark red berries, incense, dark cassis, underbrush and faint menthol. In the mouth, it offers up some sweetness that is more noticeable than in any wine before it, but which I like a lot. It has excellent concentration, with a creamy, plush and rounded mouthfeel leading to a good, long finish. It is full-bodied and luxuriant and in a good spot right now for my tastes. I heard a lot of people commenting on some perceived heat with this wine, but I never got that, and when I pushed a few people to re-taste at the end of the night, all agreed that the heat was not there. My #3 wine of the night.
1997 Ridge Monte Bello. This exhibits one of the darkest colors of the night The nose is deep and a bit sweet, with red currants, cherry candy and Swedish licorice fish aromatics that grow and grow with air. This is a big mouthful of wine that just seems to be beginning to unfurl right now. It is tightly wound, yet starting to show some layering and texturing, along with hints of complexity. It is a solid effort, with richness well married to freshness—with soft tannins present throughout. I think some people also seemed to brush this vintage off, but give it a chance, especially a few years from now.
1999 Ridge Monte Bello. The 1999 is meaty and plummy on the nose, with elements of beef jerky, herbal notes, dark toast, nettles, dark cherry and raspberry tart. It has a dark fruit profile, but does not feel as dense as the 1996 or 1997, and indeed has a much more aggressive streak of fine acidity running through the middle of it. It all manages to hang together nicely and provide very pleasant drinking. However, I find the tannins on the finish to be a bit rough and drying. This can clearly benefit from more time in the cellar, but I personally would rather have the 1996 waiting for me there.
2000 Ridge Monte Bello. This offers up a similarly dense nose, but leaning more toward boysenberry, soft weedy tobacco, blueberry, dark cherry, green pepper and green herbs (and perhaps a bit of alcohol heat, as well). In the mouth, it is not as full as the ’96, ’97 or even ’99, and does not show as much structure either. Still, there is plenty of warm, roasted red fruit to enjoy and the wine overall kind of grows on you over time. Yet, the finish feels a bit perfunctory, and in this company, it is hard to say anything particularly special about what is clearly a decent wine by other standards.
2001 Ridge Monte Bello. I like the tight, vibrant nose here a lot, which features elements of red currant, nettles, soft moss, black cherry, dark mocha and hints of cedar and mint. On the palate, it is big-bodied, rich and plush—feeling tightly coiled in its holstered intensity. It has copious amounts of tannins but they feel big and pillowy. This feels like a wine with enormous upside potential that is going to be killer some time in the distant future. This is a wine to buy and cellar, despite what anybody else says about it.
1975 Chateau Rieussec Sauternes. Corked. It didn’t seem so at first, with aromatics of botrytis creamsicle, copper, bright apricot and brown sugar. But over time, a soft mustiness comes on and after some while longer there is no doubt whatsoever. Still, it is fairly rich in the mouth, with burnt sugar, crème brulee, dried pineapple, and candied, powdered grapefruit flavors to go along with solid tangy acidity.
1989 Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Altenberg de Bergheim SGN. This stuff is killer. It shows a lovely nose of orange blossoms, rose water, white flowers, litchis and stony minerality. It is soft and generous in the mouth with fabulous density and sweetness levels that are just right. Layered flavors of crystallized sugar, apricots, dried tropical fruits and brown spices keep pumping through to the massively long, viscous finish that stays with you for minutes on end.
-Michael
