Ridge Vineyards, Geyserville 2021

Ridge Vineyards began in 1885, when Dr. Osea Perrone planted vines on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The site fell quiet for decades until 1962, when four engineers from the Stanford Research Institute revived the old terraces and produced the first wines under the Ridge name. What started as an experiment soon grew into one of California’s defining producers.

In 1969, Paul Draper joined the team, bringing with him a vision that shaped Ridge for the next five decades. His philosophy was simple but uncompromising: single-vineyard focus, minimal intervention, and transparency about every step in the process. Ridge still prints its ingredients on the back labels, one of the few major wineries in the world to do so, to show just how little is added.

Ridge secured its place in wine history at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when its 1971 Monte Bello was ranked alongside Bordeaux’s First Growths. In the original tasting it placed fifth, but in the famous 30-year re-tasting in 2006 it came first, ahead of Bordeaux’s best. That moment cemented Ridge’s reputation as a benchmark for American Cabernet all across the world.

Today Ridge works across two heartlands: Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where their Bordeaux-inspired blend is grown on steep limestone slopes, and Sonoma’s old-vine Zinfandel vineyards, most famously Geyserville and Lytton Springs. All are farmed with organic and sustainable practices, with the belief that healthy soils are the only way to capture true vineyard character.

The wines reflect this ethos. Monte Bello is their flagship, a Cabernet-based blend with decades of aging potential. Their Zinfandel field blends — Geyserville, Lytton Springs, and others — show the depth of California’s historic vineyards, where multiple varieties grow side by side and are harvested together. Across the board, Ridge wines are powerful yet restrained, built on clarity and balance rather than excess.

Ridge’s legacy is one of patience and trust: in the vineyard, in traditional methods, and in the idea that the best wines don’t need to be made louder, only clearer.