2000 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Santa Cruz Mountains

23% Merlot; 2% Cabernet Franc. Young Montebello Cabernets are rarely if ever the picture of polish, but, in this vintage, Ridge has come up with a wonderfully refined working whose brilliant cassis and cherryish fruit is carefully infused with rich oak and graced with highlights of chocolate and sweet loam. Striking in its depth, but that much more remarkable insofar as its compelling range and richness comes with a mere 13.5% alcohol, it makes comparison with the finest wines of Bordeaux unavoidable, and its stylish, neatly balanced stance points the way to handsome maturity in five or six years. It is unique among the bevy of more bombastic and highly ripened wines that join it in the "Hundred Dollar Club", and, for us, it sets a standard for the vintage that will difficult to equal.

Saturated opaque ruby. Vibrant, multidimensional aromas of black raspberry, blackberry, roast coffee, licorice and iron; has the slightly medicinal austerity of a barrel sample of a topnotch Margaux. Dense, thick and sweet, but quite high-pitched owing to bracing acidity. Strong note of violet. Conveys a powerful impression of soil tones. Despite the strong acids, this comes across as wonderfully lush and sweet. Very long finish features dense but utterly sweet tannins. A Monte Bello with great potential.