Assemblage Update on the 2022 Monte Bello

Blog Post

February 2023

If you’re not familiar with the assemblage process here at Ridge, you can learn more about how we harvest, ferment, and taste lots separately to create two “First” wines from the Monte Bello mountain in our blog post: An Elegant Version of Monte Bello from Select Parcels.

First Assemblage

Last week, the Ridge Monte Bello production and vineyard teams sat down to assess many of the individual 2022 wine lots in order to decide which of these will make it into the final Monte Bello blend. The team does this tasting two times per year. In the first of two assemblage tastings, we assessed twenty-six lots, which were tasted blind and rated in order to decide which wines would make up the “core” or base of the blend. There were six flights of four wines and one flight of two wines. Each flight was rated with two plus scores and two minus scores. From there, the base blend was created and the team of twelve tasters then tasted another eight sets of two wines each as blind lots, and rated each as an “In” or “Out”. Eight of these wines stood out showing clear Monte Bello potential, including two press fraction lots, which helped to fill out the mid-palate and give length to the finish.

After two days of tasting, the panel reached an agreement on the first assemblage. Once the blend was assembled at a bench trial level, we then blind tasted it against a vertical of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Monte Bello to see how the new wine compares to the most recent vintages. Fortunately, we all agreed that the 2022 Monte Bello assemblage blend is in line with our high standards and is consistent with the quality we have come to expect from this amazing vineyard.

I am excited for the second assemblage tasting which will be held in early May of 2023. We noted nine additional lots as potential blending candidates that we will examine at that time. These remaining lots show potential for adding complexity, structure, and density.

– John Olney, Head Winemaker (February 14, 2023)

Second Assemblage

On May 3rd, 2023, the Ridge Monte Bello production and vineyard team gathered to assess the individual wine lots that were not included in our first assemblage. The goal of this tasting was to identify any lots that were worthy of making it into the final blend of the 2022 Monte Bello.

The first assemblage tasting took place on February 7th and resulted in a blend consisting of fourteen lots. This “core” or base blend was used as our control for the second assemblage tasting. We looked at three lots using our “in & out” method of tasting. We tasted each of the three lots against the control with one glass having the potential lot in the blend and one glass with the potential lot out of the blend (control wine only). These wines were tasted blind and rated by each of the eight tasters on the panel. Just one of the wines stood out showing clear Monte Bello potential. This wine was a press fraction lot that was kept separate at pressing because of its quality potential. The final blend consists of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petite Verdot.

In order to confirm that this blend is consistent in style and quality to past vintages of Monte Bello, we constructed the new blend at a bench trial level and blind tasted it against a vertical of the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Monte Bello. We all agreed that the final 2022 Monte Bello assemblage blend is in line with our high standards and is consistent with the quality we have come to expect from this amazing vineyard.

– John Olney, Head Winemaker (May 11, 2023)