Conrad Green

9.4

Deep plummy fruit, some gnarly stuff. A hint of pepper and herbs. Good stuff — 3 days ago

with Chris, Matt and 2 others

Zach D

9.1

On the nose black raspberry, black cherry, Asian five spice, some black tea. Good dose of acidity for a zin based wine; some tannin as well. More black raspberry, black cherry, hint of smoke, blackberry and spice on the palate. I don’t usually go for this type of wine (higher etoh, somewhat warmer and riper style) however given the old vine character, Ridge is a producer I do come back to every once and a while. Did hit the spot on a cold night. — 7 days ago

Martijn

9.3

This is really at an excellent point where fruit and some tertiary notes are combining so good together. — a month ago

Conrad Green

9.5

Soft fruit with some leather, dried cherry, pure plum. A slight sourness and length. Excellent, complex and full of character. — 3 days ago

with Chris, Matt and 2 others

Brandon Boesch

9.5

Tasting great. Probably even better in 5 years. Good fruit, some earth and wood. Herbs galore, black pepper, tarragon, maybe a hint of lavender. Love this. — 17 days ago

Jan de Weerd

9.6

Highlight of the night! And a surprise to some degree. I kind off had given up on Lynch Bages. Given the high price, to me, the 2015 and 2016 were below expectation. But, boy, this 2018 rung all bells. Super concentrated, layers of evolving dark cherry, blueberry, current flavors and a superb balanced finish. All one could wish for. — 20 days ago

with Tammy

Matthew Robinson

9.3

Excellent, toasty notes, some green apple, balanced acidity... Lots of life left — a month ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.3

No formal notes . Medium deep garnet ruby . Quite closed at first more mineral , but with some earthy, smoky notes . A bit rounder on the palate , earthy , with some cassis, red pepper , truffle notes , tobacco. Good acidity and quite gritty tannins still . Showing really well , bit more linear and strict, but enough substance and good tobacco, mineral tinged length. Drink now with a decant and over the next 5 perhaps 10 years . — 2 days ago

Jay Kline

9.7

Of all the American red wines that participated in the Judgement of Paris, it could be argued that Monte Bello has shown the greatest propensity to age. In fact, I would go as far as it requires lengthy cellaring to extract its best. I’ve had the good fortune to drink a number of tremendous vintages of Monte Bello over the last several years and this one has got to be at or near the top of the lot.

Opened and poured into a decanter about an hour prior to service and enjoyed over the course of a few hours. The 1991 Monte Bello pours a deep ruby/purple color with an opaque core moving out towards a light ruby rim; medium+ viscosity with moderate staining of the tears and some signs of sediment. On the nose, the wine is developing (still!) with gorgeous notes of ripe and tart black currants, mixed bramble fruit, tobacco, some purple flowers, dill, mint, leather, earth, vanilla and associated baking spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. The structure remains tremendous which again, seems to indicate youth. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is super long and immensely satisfying. This is one of those wines that will outlive most humans. Drinking well now with a short decant but this has the gas to see 2061 with ease. — 15 days ago

Matthew Robinson

9.4

Opened the bottle several hours in advance. Great tannic structure, still lots of fruit and some secondary flavors; nothing tertiary yet. Try again in a few years but great now — a month ago