Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs

Ridge Zinfandel: Iconic Producer Making Amazing Zinfandel

As we keep on moving with the 50 Glasses of Wine project, it's time to discuss Part 2 of our Zinfandel education, focusing on the iconic California producer, Ridge.

Ridge has been a winery since 1962 and is one of the landmark wineries that has helped shape American wine. While wine got its start in the United States in the mid-to-late 1800's, wine is a relatively recent phenomenon here. Prohibition ostensibly shut down the wine industry for 13 years and the Great Depression helped keep fine wine from emerging. It wasn't until the early 60s that fine wine was being rethought in the US.

Ridge was one of the pioneers that made, and still makes to this day, remarkable fine wines.

What I really like about Ridge is their attention to detail and their transparency. You can see an example of this in every bottle they make as Ridge is perhaps the only winery in the US that lists all of their ingredients on the bottle label. Ridge wants you to know that for the most part their wines consist of hand harvested grapes, naturally occurring yeasts, oak from barrels and sulphur dioxide.

For someone like me who is particularly interested in what goes into the wine I consume, I love this. No guesswork. Just a transparency. Which is refreshing.

But it isn't just the labeling that's great. Ridge flat out makes great wines. Why I've chosen to highlight them for this blog segment is that they are an amazing Zinfandel producer. I can comfortably say that I've never had a bad bottle of Ridge. I just like some better than others (like their Paso Robles).

If you love Zinfandel than you already know about Ridge and the great wines they make. If you haven't yet become a Zin convert, start with Ridge - you won't be disappointed.

As always, until next time, Cheers!