2021 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville Alexander Valley Sonoma County 750 ml

Ridge’s Geyserville Zinfandel blend is a marquee bottle from a winery of unmatched pedigree. Ridge has been named North America’s #1 Most Admired wine brand (and #3 in the world) by Drinks International. It has been a Wine & Spirits Magazine Top 100 winery 20 times. It placed fifth at the 1976 Judgment of Paris—and took the crown when the wines were re-tasted 30 years later.

The blend of 76% Zinfandel, 16% Carignan, 6% Petite Sirah and 2% Alicante Bouschet shows a nearly opaque ruby color, with profuse black-fruit aromas accented by spice and soft rosemary and lavender notes. Full, ripe, and lush on the palate, it’s polished from beginning to end, finishing with velvety tannins that will allow it to cellar for well over a decade. 

Ridge was founded in 1959, when four scientists from the Stanford Research Institute made a quarter-barrel of Cabernet at the top of Montebello road in the mountains south of San Francisco. In 1969, the group hired Stanford graduate (in philosophy) Paul Draper as winemaker. The Cabernet he made two years later is the one that placed fifth at the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting, making Ridge a worldwide icon.

Incredibly, the Geyserville wine pre-dates Draper—Ridge started making it in 1966 from a plot of vines three miles south of the town of Geyserville. When they started, the vineyard was still farmed by Sonoma County legend Leo Trentadue, who will forever be linked to Ridge, as the four founders purchased the famed Monte Bello property from the Trentadue family. Ridge has farmed the Geyserville plot themselves since 1990 and finally purchased it in 2016.