Ridge, Lytton Springs 2024

78% Zinfandel, 13% Petite Sirah, 6% Carignane, 2% Alicante Bouschet and 1% Grenache from the organically farmed Lytton Springs Vineyard situated between Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys.

Some of the vineyard's Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Carignane vines date back to 1901. The grapes were hand-harvested, destemmed and crushed, then fermented using native yeasts with natural malolactic conversion. Twenty-two vineyard blocks were ultimately selected for the final blend. The wine spent 16 months in air-dried American oak , with just 18% new wood.

Founded in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1962, Ridge Vineyards has become one of California's most distinctive and revered producers. Its beginnings were remarkably unconventional: a group of scientists from Stanford Research Institute bought an old vineyard on Monte Bello ridge as a weekend retreat and began making Cabernet Sauvignon from its vines. The results proved rather more serious than expected.

Paul Draper joined as winemaker in 1969. A Standford philosophy graduate rather than a formally trained oenologist, Draper developed Ridge's now famous philosophy of "pre-industrial" winemaking: exceptional vineyards, native yeast fermentations and minimal intervention, allowing site and vintage to speak for themselves.

Today Ridge is celebrated both for the great Cabernet-based wines of Monte Bello and for its extraordinary old vine Zinfandel-led field blends from Sonoma. Geyserville has been produced continuously since 1966 and Lytton Springs since 1972. These are wines with a remarkable ability to combine unmistakable Californian generosity with freshness, structure and longevity.