Ridge Vineyards

Californian winery with its headquarters near the town of Cupertino in the AVA area of Santa Cruz Mountains. There is a second winery in Sonoma County. Its origins date back to 1885, when Osea Perrone purchased 180 acres (72 hectares) of land at Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He planted a vineyard and named his farm "Monte Bello Winery". The first wine production took place in 1892 and in the early 1960's the property was acquired by David Bennion and three partners, a group of scientists from nearby Stanford University. Winemaker since 1969 is Paul Draper. Wines are produced from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carignan Noir(Mazuelo), Chardonnay, Mataro(Monastrell), Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot and Zinfandel. Some of the vines are 60, 80 and some even over 100 years old.

The wines come from some Californian AVA areas, the labels are listed in parenthesis. These are the historic Santa Cruz Mountains (Monte Bello), as well as Napa Valley (York Creek), San Luis Obispo(Paso Robles) and Sonoma County (Geyserville, Lytton Springs, Pagani Ranch). At the legendary Paris Wine Tasting in 1976, the winery's "Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Bello 1971" finished fifth and at the 30th Anniversary Competition in 2006, it took first place, beating all other Californian and Bordeaux wines. At the latter competition the wine was 35 years old. This Bordeaux-style red wine (with small quantities of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) is still a figurehead today.

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Ridge Vineyards

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