Ridge, Seghesio & The San Lorenzo Vineyard

Blog Post

With the release of our latest small bottling of zinfandel from the San Lorenzo Vineyard, we take a deeper look at this historic vineyard, discussing the wine and our partnership with the Seghesio family.

The San Lorenzo Vineyard

The San Lorenzo Vineyard in the Russian River Valley is owned by Pete Seghesio. The vineyard was purchased in 1896 by Pete’s grandfather, who received 10 gold coins from his work cooking in the California gold fields. The purchase deed makes reference to a young vineyard already producing on the property, suggesting that the vineyard was planted as early as 1892.

The original plantings are named “The Pearl” after Pete’s mother. The Pearl became the cornerstone for subsequent plantings on San Lorenzo, which is today, one of the most iconic vineyards in California. The vineyard consists of nearly 40 acres of zinfandel, primitivo, and petite sirah, all head-trained and planted on a mix of dibble clay loam and haire gravelly loam soils. Idyllically located aside the foggy Russian River and bordering the town of Healdsburg, San Lorenzo spans both Alexander and Russian River Valleys.

2020 Ridge San Lorenzo

This is Ridge’s third bottling from the historic San Lorenzo Vineyard. Minimal rainfall and below-average yields produced an intensely concentrated wine. We harvested on September 8th at an average of 26.5° brix. Grapes were de-stemmed and crushed and pumped over a floating cap twice daily. The wine was aged in mostly neutral American oak for fifteen months.

Our new release of San Lorenzo has rich aromas of dark chocolate, orange zest and cherry, with notes of plum, baking spices, and black tea on the palate. Deep color, briary fruit and a well-coated tannic structure are hallmarks of this classic field blend that will continue to evolve over the next ten years.