Ridge East Bench Zinfandel

AA3592

Ridge has made the East Bench as a single vineyard since 2006, one of the few Ridge Zinfandels that is 100% Zinfandel. The vineyard sits high atop the bench land that overlooks Dry Creek Valley from the east. At 460mm, rainfall during the year was below average, although with much of it falling in March and April, there was enough to sustain the vines during summer. Nonetheless, under half the normal volume was produced. Fire broke out to the northwest in mid-August, but winds blew the smoke due south, bypassing Ridge’s vineyards. The grapes were hand-harvested at night between 3 and 9 September. The grapes were crushed and fermentation proceeded with natural yeast. After seven days of daily pump-overs, the must was pressed off. The wine was aged for 12 months in air-dried American oak barrels, with 10% new wood.

Wine & Spirits: 94 Points “As the vines at East Bench mature, they are proving to be a significant part of Ridge’s legacy for future generations. While Paul Draper and David Gates have focused decades of their energy sustaining California’s ancient plantings of zinfandel and mixed blacks, they have also used the genetic inheritance from four of those pre-Prohibition parcels in a research project that resulted in the selection of zinfandel cuttings they propagated to plant East Bench in 2000 and 2001. The site of an abandoned zinfandel vineyard from the 19th century, East Bench is close to Lytton Springs, at the border between the Dry Creek and Alexander valleys. Gates farms the vineyard as if it were one of the historic sites, the vines head trained and spur pruned. John Olney, now COO and head winemaker at Ridge, has been in charge at Lytton Springs since this project began. The vines are now hitting their stride, this wine’s grapes harvested just as the fires began in 2020, their fruit providing what may be the most beautiful East Bench Zinfandel yet. The wine feels completely ripe, a cool well of fruit surrounded by earthen depth of tannins. Over the course of several days, the wine yields flavors of blueberries, roses and savory herbs, the detail in the tannins suggesting a long life ahead.” -J.G. (June 2022)