It was a warm, breezy day as my intrepid history-loving guide, Cosimo Linstadt, adroitly piloted the electric ATV past a riot of yellow Scottish broom that swept into the roadway. The sun’s rays released their heady perfume into the summer air. Linstadt, the retail sales and hospitality lead at Ridge Vineyards leading the Summit Monte Bello tour of their estate vineyards, a new experience designed exclusively for Ridge Club members.
We rounded a corner on the narrow road that dead-ends past Vidovich Vineyards, ending at the gate to the 3436-acre Monte Bello Open Space Preserve. Suddenly, a gust caught my hat, sending it spiraling towards an uncertain fate. Lanky yet limber, young Linstadt showed all the moves of an accomplished valet, as he hit the brakes and fetched my flyaway hat.
Turns out, Linstadt grew up in Los Altos, never realizing that Ridge was right in his backyard. He went off to college and started a job as a valet in a parking garage, which means he can drive anything. After his Dad retired, his parents started wine tasting and discovered Ridge: a perfect job for a son with an outgoing personality and an eye for detail. He now knows the place—and its wines—intimately.
Our first destination was the Monte Bello Vineyard at the Rousten Ranch. We popped open a bottle of 2024 Estate Chardonnay, admiring the exquisite view of the golden hills, the surrounding vineyards, and the house that Paul Draper made his home until current CEO and head winemaker John Olney moved in. The vistas to the ocean must be stunning from that deck. I toasted the thought as I thanked the nearby chardonnay vines.
Below us, Linstadt pointed out the Ridge production facility, a marvel of modern engineering combined with the indispensable aura of an antiquated storage cave. It was hand-hewed into the mountainside by a San Franciscan named Dr. Perrone. He terraced the 180 acres on the hillside, planted them to vines and built the gravity-fed winery in the late 1880s. Back then, horses pulled wagons laden with grapes up the steep hill to be crushed in the old basket presses. Then, they went into barrels in the cool, rock-walled cellar.
(Laura Ness / Los Gatan)
On the crushpad, the heat glared off the presses. I admired the scale of the operation. All the estate fruit is processed here, as well as some of the Lytton Estate fruit from Sonoma. I imagined the harvest frenzy—grapes weighted and destemmed, then dumped into the press to release juice that makes its way into barrels and tanks down below.
Ah, the cellar. Walking down the stone steps through the huge wooden door to where all the winemaking magic happens was electric. I couldn’t help but wonder what the facility looked like in the 19th century. Linstadt opened a short and narrow door. (Dr. Perrone was obviously not a tall guy.) Linstadt pointed to a steep, narrow staircase, beckoning me down. I flashed back to my youth growing up in an 18th century farmhouse, where steep stairs would usher us into the root cellar where my mom stored all her canned goods and the jars of veggies and fruits she preserved throughout the summer. There is nothing like the smell of damp, primordial earth. Here, hundreds of barrels rest in the cool darkness at a fairly even temperature year-round. The old-fashioned lollipop thermometer read 63.
Linstadt had one more thing to show me: the actual original barrel cave, arched to the heavens like an underground church, complete with stained glass. It was installed by the Ridge founders in the 1960s, when they took over the property and revived its winemaking birthright after Prohibition had decimated the once vineyard-rich growing region that extended from Woodside to the Santa Clara Valley.
Descending into that cellar gave me a true sense of the ingenuity and determination behind the original winery. What a precious gift Dr. Perrone left for future generations to steward.
The stack of old case goods, showing the strain and stains from years in a cave, sent my mind racing. Just imagine what those vintages must taste like now.
Whisking me back to the tasting room, Linstadt regaled me with more anecdotes about the property, conveyed with the reverence that comes from being a lover of history.
My seated tasting that day (in the Heritage Room surrounded by aging bottles) was filled with gems. Linstadt provided detailed descriptions of the vineyards, as well as maps and visuals, to help explain their unique properties. I left with a much deeper appreciation for the scope of the effort involved in preserving the myriad zinfandel vineyards from which Ridge sources. This place is responsible for preserving a treasure trove of historic vines across the state. So many old field-blend vineyards have been sacrificed to the false god of progress.
And it’s a testament to Paul Draper that he saw these vines as living witnesses whose voices need to be preserved.
If you want a peek into the magic, soul and soil of Ridge, take the Summit Monte Bello tour. You’ll be amazed.
For more info: ridgewine.com/visit/monte-bello
Details:
$150 per person (member exclusive)
Limited to groups of 2-5 adults
Offered daily, by reservation, at 11am and 2pm
About two hours long
All visitors must be 21+
