2023 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs Dry Creek Valley 750 ml

Ridge is an absolute titan in California wine. They’ve been named North America’s #1 Most Admired wine brand (and #3 in the world) by Drinks International. Wine & Spirits magazine has honored Ridge as a Top 100 winery a whopping 20 times.

Much of Ridge’s reputation is built upon their highly sought-after Zin blends—Vinous calls them “the stalwart of distinctive, site-driven blends from across California”—and today’s wine shows why the Lytton Springs bottling is so iconic.

Aging Zinfandel blends is rarely recommended, unless we’re talking about Ridge: Christie’s auction house called them “equally impressive in terms of structure, length, and age-ability” as the winery’s Bordeaux-style wines, and singled out the Lytton Springs site as “an exceptional piece of ground” that “consistently produce(s) wines that are cellarworthy yet understated and sophisticated.” 

Lytton Springs is located on the benchlands between Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, where foggy mornings burn off into warm and sunny afternoons, before the breezes pick up in the late evening. The older blocks (at Lytton East) are planted with intermixed Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane, Mataro (Mourvèdre), and Grenache, which are co-fermented. Lytton West features more single-varietal blocks, which are fermented separately before being added to the final blend. 

Ridge is the largest grower of organically certified grapes in Sonoma County, and in the cellar they rely on what they call “pre-industrial” winemaking techniques. They eschew commercial enzymes and nutrients in the cellar, and allow the wine to undergo natural malolactic fermentation while aging in American oak. They’re also one of the few wineries in the world to label their wines voluntarily with a comprehensive list of ingredients. 

The result is gorgeous purity, with the vibrant fruit of century-old vines dominating in youth, and the firm acid making for a brightly balanced Zinfandel blend that can age a decade or more. No winery is more iconic, respected, and consistent than Ridge Vineyards, and no collection should be without a few bottles of the 2023 Lytton Springs.