Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Estate Chardonnay 2024
(Santa Cruz Mountains, California) - [OB 97] [WE 95] [JS 94] [VM 94] [WA 93+]

About the Winery:
Ridge produced its first chardonnay in 1962 from fully-mature vines planted in the late 1940s on the Monte Bello estate vineyard. Production never exceeded ten barrels, and Monte Bello chardonnay was sold principally at the winery. Several great vintages, among them the 1973, ‘74, ‘79, and ‘84, showed that our cool climate and fractured limestone sub-soils were well suited to the varietal. By 1985, the old vines were producing less then a half-ton per acre and were taken out. The younger vines, planted in the ‘70s, provide the majority of grapes today. Initially these newer plantings were on the “lower” vineyard—not yet farmed as part of the Monte Bello estate—so the wine was called “Santa Cruz Mountains” and these vines have long since been included. Since 2009 the wine has been designated Ridge Estate Chardonnay. In years when differences among lots are sufficient to warrant a separate bottling, we make a limited amount of Monte Bello Chardonnay as well.

Ratings & Reviews

97 Points - Owen Bargreen:
"Sourced from the famed 'Monte Bello Vineyard' this incredible 2024 'Estate' Chardonnay offers baking spice laced pastry crust and custard notes on the nose alongside shades of ripe banana and Japanese pear. The palate is dense and rich with sensational weight and length. This glides throughout the drinking experience, with a near minute-long finish. Extraordinary and very mineral-laden, enjoy now and over the next ten years. Drink 2026-2036." -Owen Bargreen

95 Points + Cellar Selection - Wine Enthusiast:
"There's a sharp pithyness to the nose of this bottling, with hints of sour cream and the slightest hints of flint and toast. The palate is much warmer and very textural, ranging from brisk citrus to creamy stonefruit, with a comforting and lingering brioche note arising on the finish. Drink now-2034." -Matt Kettmann

94 Points - James Suckling:
"A beautiful, toasty, buttery wine, full-bodied and abundant in fruit and oak spices, showing baked-apple, ripe-pear, butterscotch and brioche flavors. Made from 40-year-old vines of the Wente clone, growing on limestone soil and fermented in 4% new oak, mostly American. Drink now or hold." -Jim Gordon

94 Points - Vinous:
"Broad, creamy and enveloping, the 2024 Chardonnay Estate (100% Monte Bello) saturates the palate with dense, rich golden orchard fruit and spice-laden oak. It then pulls taut, focused and linear, coiling up like a spring before revealing shades of graphite-like minerality. Through and through, the 2024 maintains its suppleness, fading out gently on the understated finish. This is a less hedonistic, less immediate Monte Bello Chardonnay that will need a couple of years to assimilate. Drinking Window 2028 – 2036." -Billy Norris

93+ Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:
"The 2024 Chardonnay Estate Monte Bello Vineyard opens with a pure, lifted bouquet supported by a powerful backdrop of tastefully judged oak, a perennial hallmark of the wine. Although it is broad and textural in the mouth, it retains a taut, focused core that gives way to a rich, powerful finish, lingering with a generous framing of oak notes that will benefit from an additional year or so in bottle to integrate. This is a tastefully gourmand expression of Monte Bello that should drink beautifully past its 10th birthday." -Matthew Luczy