WTN: 1995 Ridge Lytton Springs

1995 Ridge Lytton Springs, Sonoma
84% Zin, 14% Petite Sirah, 2% Carignan

Lush, round, broad fruit with burnt carmel and a super long deep dark finish. Wonderful perfume, the fruit explodes in slow motion, blossoms like a black rose--the most apt description I can give for this wine. Nicely aged and drinking very well, I'd guess this will hold on but not improve for several more years. Strong, packed, earthy, yet with a light touch and round edges. I wish the next time somebody questions the ability of Zin to age well I could pull out a glass of this.
B++

Thanks for the notes! I loved this wine but finished the few bottles I could find within a couple of years of release. I was living in Japan at the time, so access was limited. Wish I had had the willpower to hold on a bottle.

cheers,
a.m.

I, too, loved this wine. Finished my last bottles about 18 months ago - right before my cross country move.

Nice note and strong incentive to find the single bottle I am supposed to have left. And the half case of 95 Geyserville that is hiding somewhere......

I wish the next time somebody questions the ability of Zin to age well I could pull out a glass of this.

Do you have more? If so, I'll question it!

I have a 97 Geyserville and a 94 Pagani. I'll try to hold onto one of them till the next time I see you.

I suppose that if anyone can make an age-worthy Zin, it's Paul Draper. And I readily assent that miracles do happen in the world of wine. They don't occur often--that's why I refer to them as "miracles"--but they're real enough. That said, I think putting any Zin away for a decade is a poor gamble, and I have not and will not recommend it.

I suppose that if anyone can make an age-worthy Zin, it's Paul Draper. And I readily assent that miracles do happen in the world of wine. They don't occur often--that's why I refer to them as "miracles"--but they're real enough. That said, I think putting any Zin away for a decade is a poor gamble, and I have not and will not recommend it.

I have had Ridge (many) and Ravenswood (95 & 96 Monte Rosso) that easily lasted a decade and in my opinion were better with the age - except maybe the 95 Monte Rosso but just because is was so killer when young. I have had many zins at the 7-8 years old mark that I thought were very good to include Green and Red, Martinelli (vintage and bottling specific here), Dutch Henry, Hartford Court, Storybook Mountain, and others I can't recall off the top of my head.

Maybe its a taste thing but I don't see any problems with mid-term aging of zins and I no longer look at my 99 and 00 bottles and panic that they are dead. it was the 2000 vintners reserve bottling of Dutch Henry that I opened on Sunday with the Beef Back Ribs that was tasting so young that the first words out of my wifes mouth was it smells just like berries.

I've had several bottles of Ridge that were over 10 years old and have enjoyed them all. I've also had a few others (Cornerstone, Ravenswood) that have had plenty of life left in them. And several others that were over the hill.

While cellaring Zins is usually a losing proposition, Lyttonns and Geyservilles are fairly dependable agers. Their back labels generally suggest hanging on for at least a few years, and most of us Draper fans think the predictions too conservative. When Lyttons and Geezers do go over the hill and stop being wonderful Zins they start tasting like pretty fair Bordeaux.