A blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot. Ridge commonly gets three distinct wines out of its Santa Cruz estate vineyards. As they explain:
[From] the structured, long-lived wines set aside for the Monte Bello to the full, rich wines that make up the Home Ranch, and the well-defined, more approachable ones that go into the Santa Cruz Mountains.
FYI, I reviewed the 2002 Home Ranch here.
Ridge further explains that the 2002 estate wine was vinified as follows:
In the last phase of assemblage, a year after vintage, additional merlot was added for structural elegance. To soften tannins, barrel aging was extended to two full years in air-dried american oak, forty percent of which was new, forty-five percent one and two years old, and fifteen percent three and four years old.
As it approaches its 11th birthday, the 2002 Santa Cruz Mountains estate wine is a mature and elegant wine. A complex mixture of leather, tobacco, cedar, mocha java, plums, prunes, and black currants dominate both the bouquet and palate. The tannins have largely disappeared. I have one bottle left in my cellar and expect to drink it within the next year. I just don't see this wine getting any better and it may start going downhill sooner rather than later.
Grade: B++
BTW, it made a great match for Grilled Steak Kebabs with Orange and Hoisin Glaze, in which I swapped some of my abundant blood oranges for the regular orange juice and orange wedges called for in the recipe. Yum.
