WTN: 2012 Ridge Monte Bello - Pleasure of purity

WTN: 2012 Ridge Monte Bello
What a wine, I fell in love with this one although I am not a fan of modern day reds from California.
It's so compelling in all its qualities, where should I start describing it? I think it is the purity of its fruit (somehow reminding of Romano Dal Forno), the terroir expression, density and depth, the overall balance and harmony that makes it unique to me. Even the oak flavor is of great class, it integrates just gracefully. Makes you happy, like a friendly Buddha smiling at you ..

Cheers, Rainer

[David M. Bueker]

Lovely note.

Buddha in a bottle!

[Jenise]

Rainer, you captured the magic of Monte Bello beautifully. I'm not in their ATP club but I do get emails from the winery, and last week I got one announcing a special bottling of Monte Bello. I can't recall exactly what they named it but it was something like "Steep Vines Monte Bello", from a particularly magical plot within the already magical Monte Bello vineyard. Anyway, not a lot of barrels (nine?) were made of this, and bottles were available for sale for $175 each. I saw this offer exactly one hour and 58 minutes after the email arrived in my inbox, and it was already sold out.

Rainer, you captured the magic of Monte Bello beautifully. I'm not in their ATP club but I do get emails from the winery, and last week I got one announcing a special bottling of Monte Bello. I can't recall exactly what they named it but it was something like "Steep Vines Monte Bello", from a particularly magical plot within the magical Monte Bello vineyard. Anyway, not a lot of barrels (nine?) were made of this, and bottles were available for sale for $175 each. I saw this exactly one hour and 58 minutes after the email arrived in my inbox, and it was already sold out.

Jenise, I like your story. I congratulate those happy buyers of these rare bottles.

A good reminder! This is the year I get my first bottle of the "futures" club I joined awhile back!

@Jenise, Brian: Would you know where I could read some tasting notes on this special "Steep Vines Monte Bello" bottling?

I went to a Ridge dinner in Chicago last month, and they poured the '13 Steep Terraces in lieu of a Monte Bello. (How they spared any for a promotional event, I have no idea!) It's 100% Cabernet, and it was remarkable, but also hard to assess (for me); it was extraordinarily young, tight, and tannic, though it also somehow seemed to be in balance, and therefore promising. Still, I didn't bite when that email offer came, mainly because I'm trying to restrain myself this year after buying... let's say... "vigorously" in 2016... and we already have a few bottles of 2013 Monte Bello.

Thanks for your tasting notes, Patchen!
Cheers, Rainer