[SOLD-OUT] Ridge Geyserville 1996

This wine (a blend of 75% Zinfandel, 17% Carignan, 6% Petite Sirah, and 2% Mataro) tips the scales at 14.9% alcohol. In spite of the hefty alcohol content, it is an exceptionally elegant wine, with sweet, black raspberry and cherry fruit, medium body, and a dry, crisp, lightly tannic finish. This wine could easily pass for a high class, mid-weight 1995 red Burgundy. As the wine sits in the mouth, its glycerin and multi-layered texture are very appealing.

Robert Parker

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The majority of grapes were fermented in small tanks. About forty percent (including half the zinfandel) were submerged below the surface of the liquid for gentle extraction. The remainder were allowed to float, their juice pumped extensively over the skins for maximum color and tannin extraction. The zinfandel was of excellent quality—round, full, lovely. We included a significant percentage of carignane, intensifying the fruit and adding a velvety quality to the texture. A relatively small amount of petite sirah—roughly half of what has been typical—contributed depth and firm structure. Twenty-two percent of the wine was aged in new, air-dried, Missouri-grown-oak barrels, and about a third in two and three-year-old barrels—all made by World Cooperage. After more than a year in oak, the wine is beautifully integrated, quite voluptuous, and enjoyable. Its fruit will be most intense over the next six years; additional complexity (with a muting of the dominant fruit) typically develops with fourteen or fifteen years of bottle age.


Deep, dark ruby. Forward aroma of carignane opens gradually to deep, rich berry/briar, vanilla oak. Butterscotch, green spice. Huge, sweet brambly blackberry; mixed dark fruits, cardamom/coriander spice. Intense, complex; round well-integrated tannins. Has structure for aging.


Ridge

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Country:

USA

Region:

USA-(Other)

Variety:

Wine Red - Zinfandel

Size:

750mL