RIDGE CABERNET SAUVIGNON MONTE BELLO 2006 750ML

A dark, brooding beauty, the 2006 Monte Bello is still very, very young. The aromatics alone are enticing, but the tannins still need time to soften. The 2006 is a masculine, vertical Monte Bello that demands cellaring. Even so, it is pretty impressive today. Scents of lavender, sage, mint and savory herbs add closing flourishes. The perfumed sweetness of the fruit (one of the hallmarks of the very late harvest) remains one of the signatures of the 2006.

First tasted in 2009, this Monte Bello has scarcely evolved since. The nose remains dense with lavish black fruits. Broad and bold, this is very concentrated, and distinctly tannic, which gives an assertive and grippy character. Consequently, this is slightly less polished and elegant than some other vintages but still shows force and flair. The finish is robust and savoury, and very long

It’s still youthfully colored and has classic Cabernet notes of crème de cassis, lead pencil, and vanilla oak. This medium to full-bodied effort is just now at the early stages of maturity and is silky, graceful, and elegant on the palate, with its still-present structure beautifully integrated into the wine.

As it approaches age 12, the 2006 Monte Bello is still quite reserved on the nose and on the palate, unwinding in the glass with a bouquet of cassis, cherries, pencil lead, dark chocolate, cigar box and dried rose petal. On the palate, it's full-bodied, layered and still firmly structured, carrying considerable extract and concluding with chalky grip. Rich, concentrated and powerful, the raw materials are very impressive but they're still wrapped up in some formidable structure. Eric Baugher describes the 2006 Monte Bello as "a sleeper vintage: backward and tannic when it was young, and released in a challenging economy," and that's the case today. Like the 1995 vintage, I suspect this will be a Monte Bello that really hits its stride at age 20 rather than age ten, but patient consumers with time on their side should give it serious consideration.

Meaty, with notes of soy sauce and hot dry earth, this is ripe and fleshy, the tannins now softened to silkiness. Plenty of ripe black fruit and a hint of sweetness, but nothing opulent.