1997 Ridge Monte Bello - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (6/30/2017)
Served as the grand finale of our annual wine group summer dinner, this was a glorious match with 50 day dry aged ribeye. There is still tons of room for further development, but at age twenty the wine is showing a fair amount of maturity. There is still ample fruit, and the oak is getting on towards fully integrated, but is not quite there yet. Spice, leather and an earthy element came through to join the maturing fruit. It still has solid structure as well. This was double decanted several hours before the dinner, and was served three hours in, so it had plenty of air. Given the only early maturity state of the wine it suggests substantial decanting is a must if opened now. Delicious wine with a compelling future.
