8 Things You Should Know About Ridge Vineyards, the Winery Behind California’s Iconic Monte Bello Bottle

From Monte Bello to Geyserville and Lytton Springs, Ridge Vineyards works with some of the most iconic vineyard sites in the history of American wine. But while many sommeliers and oenophiles are enamored by the winery’s expressive Bordeaux-style blends and Zinfandels, some might not be aware of just how far back this winery’s history goes.

From the conception of the Monte Bello vineyard in the 1800s to the Judgement of Paris, there’s a lot that went into the brand that Ridge is today. Still, throughout its rich history, the winery has been committed to sustainability, low-intervention winemaking, and crafting wines that express the full potential of a single vineyard site — which is why it’s had a devoted following for its over 60 years of production.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or a blossoming Zinfandel drinker, here are eight things you should know about Ridge Vineyards.

Ridge’s deep history begins with one special vineyard.

The winery can trace its history back to 1885, when Dr. Osea Perrone purchased 180 acres on Monte Bello Ridge to establish the Monte Bello Vineyard. Perrone also built a stone winery on this site in the Santa Cruz Mountains and produced its first wine in 1892. Years later, in 1949, Dr. William Short, who owned an adjacent vineyard, replanted several blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon and added the first block of Chardonnay, setting the vineyard up for its future success.

The winery was founded by three research scientists.

In 1959, three engineers from the Stanford University Research Institute and their families partnered to buy Dr. Short’s property on the Monte Bello Ridge. Though the team had no intention of starting a winery, one of researchers, David Bennion, started casually experimenting with making some Cabernet Sauvignon. This inspired the partners to re-bond the winery and name it Ridge Vineyards in 1962. The inaugural wine was a Cabernet-dominant Bordeaux blend named Monte Bello.

Now, Ridge works with some of California’s most storied vineyard sites.

Ridge’s Cabernet blends from Monte Bello made a splash — particularly when the 1971 Monte Bello bottling came in fifth place in the 1976 Judgement of Paris — but the winery quickly added more vineyard sites to its repertoire as well. In 1966, Ridge made its first Geyserville bottling, a Zinfandel-dominant field blend from a set of old vines in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley. These legendary, over-130-year-old vines are the oldest that Ridge currently works with, and the Geyserville bottlings continue to be highly esteemed wines.

Another site that’s received significant attention is the Lytton Springs vineyard, which Ridge started working with in 1972. It’s located in California’s Dry Creek Valley, which is widely considered one of the top regions for high-quality Zinfandel, and this particular vineyard is the pinnacle of California Zin. Ridge just recently celebrated 50 years of making wine from this plot, opening 50-year-old bottles of Lytton Springs Zinfandel to prove just how well these wines can age.

Ridge had the same winemaker for 47 years.

Paul Draper grew up on a farm outside Chicago, but after living in Italy and France he developed an interest in wine. In the mid-’60s, Draper set out to start his own small winery in the Coast Range of Chile with a vineyard of old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon. After returning to the States, he joined Ridge Vineyards as the winemaker in 1969. Draper helped create Ridge’s renowned reputation for beautifully crafted wines and helped maintain it for decades. He retired in 2016 at 80 years old, after a decorated, 47-year career as Ridge’s winemaker.

The winery follows “pre-industrial” winemaking practices.

Though most consumers are probably familiar with the concept of natural wine, Ridge always followed its own particular, low-intervention winemaking philosophy spearheaded by Draper. Being a vineyard-focused winery, Ridge’s approach starts with the land. Since its early days, Ridge has been dedicated to working with sustainably farmed vineyards, and it is currently one of the largest growers of organically certified grapes in Sonoma County and the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of 2022, the winery’s estate vineyards are 100 percent organic- certified. When it comes to winemaking, Ridge minimizes the use of additives in an effort to achieve the highest-quality wine. The team looks to the techniques used in the finest 19th- century California wineries and Bordeaux estates. Along these guidelines, Ridge works with natural yeasts from the vineyard, bottles with minimal sulfur, and does not use any commercial enzymes or nutrients.

Ridge is a leader in transparent ingredient labeling.

In line with its winemaking philosophy, Ridge lists the ingredients used to make the wine on the label. A pioneer in full ingredient transparency for wine, winemaker Paul Draper pushed to add this component to the bottle early on — to help showcase Ridge’s pre-industrial practices — and started adding the ingredient label in 2011.

Ridge launched America’s first wine club.

In 1977, Ridge launched the Advance Tasting Program (ATP), which is widely considered to be America’s first wine club. Since Ridge crafts so many small-batch bottlings of different grape varieties, blends, and single-vineyard sites, this created a way for fans of the winery to receive the limited-production bottles. Today, the wine club model is a wildly popular way for wineries in the U.S. to reach customers.

The winery found its fan base in fine dining.

Ridge has always valued developing relationships with sommeliers and placing its wines at top restaurants. In fact, in 1976 — the same year that the Judgement of Paris put Ridge on the map — legendary chef Alice Waters hosted a dinner at Chez Panisse called the Northern California Regional Dinner, featuring local food and local wines. This was a watershed moment in American dining, as the focus had been primarily French and broadly European, but this major event put the spotlight on “California Cuisine,” creating an entirely new category. The 1974 Ridge Fiddletown Zinfandel was featured on the menu (for only $1.50 a glass) which even further propelled Ridge as a brand.

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