Collection: Ridge Monte Bello: A Mountainside Icon

In a class of its own, long hailed by many as an ‘American First Growth’, Ridge’s mountainside Monte Bello remains one of California’s most highly revered and respected wines.

This steadfast estate has been carving out graceful iterations of the myth-making Bordeaux blend for over sixty vintages – a great American Cabernet, aged in American oak, with a narrative like no other.

But what is it that makes this California outlier such an icon?

First and foremost, Ridge’s Monte Bello has always been a wine of place. Perched high on a sliver of Pacific sea bed at up to 2,700 feet in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this is a wine defined by elevation. The site-specific combination of rare limestone-based soils and cooler temperatures produces intricate wines of firm structure, lively acidity, and a consistent streak of minerality.

As for technique, the team at Ridge are devotees of 19th-century tradition. Dedicated to the distinctive character of the vineyard since 1969, California’s legendary Paul Draper’s ‘pre-industrial winemaking’ remains a pillar of the estate. A fundamental sense of transparency is also paramount, so much so, that every label is adorned with an exact list of actions and ingredients used to create each wine, a proud testament to the nominal intervention necessary to cultivate their exceptional terroir.

Fortunately for us, Monte Bello’s reputation as an age-worthy wonder rings as true today as it did in the Judgement of Paris in 1976, and again, when it took first place at Stephen Spurrier’s second iteration in 2006.

From the recently released 2019, to a trio of ready-to-drink vintages, see for yourself what makes Monte Bello a must-have soulful California classic with Sotheby’s Wine’s latest release!