Ridge Vineyards
Ridge is one of the greatest names in American wine, renowned for the original gangster Monte Bello blend, and for some of the best Zinfandels ever produced. Its history dates way back to 1885 when an Italian doctor Osea Perrone planted vines on the Monte Bello ridge, named the nascent winery Monte Bello, and released wine from 1892. His original cellar, built into the ridge, is still the home of the modern winery, located in the Santa Cruz mountains, just south of San Francisco.
After periods of decline and restoration, and several owners, the arrival of winemaker Paul Draper in 1969 led to the winery taking off, eschewing modern, mass-production methods to make brilliant non-intervention wines, and developing phenomenal Zinfandels from the nearby Geyserville vineyard, and then Lytton Springs in Sonoma County. They have the largest plantings of organic vineyards in the Sonoma and Santa Cruz regions.
Ridge wines represent the heritage of American wine and remain one of the country's most outstanding producers.
