There's structure, there's complexity, there's balance. Each decade has its high points, but year after year Monte Bello proves to be a consistently outstanding wine. Almost every vintage (an unbroken chain from '62 on) has something substantive to recommend it. Exhaustive tasting of test blends during assemblage determines how much - if any - merlot, petit verdot, or cabernet franc will be included in the finished wine. Today it is a blend of bordeaux varietals in which cabernet sauvignon still predominates. The Monte Bello (originally Monte Bello Cabernet until 1975, 100% cabernet) is the wine that introduced Ridge to the world, and the world to Ridge. Since then, the historic vineyards on the ridge have gradually been replanted. These were the source of the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until 1974 when younger blocks replanted in the 1960s were considered for inclusion.
Eight acres of cabernet sauvignon were replanted in 1949. During Prohibition (1920-1933), the vineyard was not fully maintained some vines survived into the late 30s, but by the 1940s they were effectively abandoned. A first vintage from the young vines followed in 1892. In 1886, high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the first Monte Bello vineyards were planted, and winery construction begun.
