2021 Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and 16% Merlot, is tight and compact, boasting a stern mineral core and a truckload of spiced black fruit. Plum, blackberry, tar, eucalyptus and iodine all live behind a wall of searing tannins, but there’s a nice airy, floral lift and a balancing proportion of creamy oak that implies roundness For now, hands off, but this is a serious wine.

Full bottle 1,308 g. 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot. From the wonderfully detailed label: ' A dry winter, with only fourteen inches of rain, followed by a warm summer, created stress on the vines. Fortunately, this concentrated flavour but also required extra attention during fermentation not to over extract tannin. As a selection of lots primarily from Monte Bello's Klein Ranch, our Estate Cabernet uses parcels that show the distinctive character of our soils and climate, but as a wine tends to mature somewhat earlier ... Ingredients: hand-harvested, estate-grown grapes, indigenous yeast, calcium carbonate, naturally occurring malolactic bacteria, oak from barrel-ageing, minimum effective SO 2 .' Deep, inky purple. Bright, fresh blackberries and dried blueberries, thyme, and cedarwood – incredibly appetising. Vibrant acidity, very sticky, grippy tannins, and a lovely fullness to the palate. It's not the Montebello but unless you're opening one right next to the other this won't disappoint. Impeccable balance. (SCJ)

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate comes from a great vintage for Napa Valley and comes all from the Monte Bello Vineyard on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Pure crème de cassis, leafy tobacco, spring flowers, and graphite are just some of its nuances, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, concentrated, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. This Saint-Julien-like beauty needs 4-6 years of bottle age but will keep for 30 years. It's not far off the Monte Bello and should be snatched up