From Stanford engineers to a California wine legend
The story of Ridge Vineyards does not begin in 1962, but much earlier: 1885, Italian immigrant and doctor Osea Perrone bought 180 acres near the summit of Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, terraced the steep slopes, and built a cellar building with local limestone that is still in operation today. The vines survived Prohibition and changes of ownership until three engineers from the Stanford Research Institute — Dave Bennion, Hew Crane, and Charlie Rosen — acquired the estate in 1959. Initially intended as a weekend retreat, the first wines quickly convinced them of the site's potential: in 1962, the winery was officially registered as Ridge Vineyards and the first Monte Bello Cabernet was produced.
In 1969, Paul Draper joined, a Stanford philosophy graduate who had previously built a winery in Chile. As a career changer without a classic oenology degree, he was less interested in technology than in tradition. Draper shaped Ridge for 47 vintages; with the 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon, the winery landed in fifth place at the legendary Judgment of Paris in 1976 — and in first place at the repeat tasting in 2006. In 2016, Draper handed over the management; today, Head Winemaker John Olney is responsible for the cellar, flanked by Shauna Rosenblum for the Sonoma sites.
Pre-industrial methods, consistently rethought
Ridge calls its approach "pre-industrial": spontaneous fermentation with natural yeasts from the vineyard, minimal sulfur use, no commercial enzymes or nutrients, no coloring. Each parcel wine is vinified separately and aged separately in air-dried American oak barrels — only during tasting does the team decide which lots go into the final wine. Since 2011, Ridge has been printing all ingredients used on the label, as one of the first wineries in California to do so.
In the vineyard, organic farming is the focus: since the 2022 harvest, all estate-owned sites — Monte Bello, Lytton Springs, Geyserville, and East Bench — have been fully certified organic. Composting of grape residues, interplanting with legumes and grasses for nitrogen enrichment and erosion control, as well as a program to promote beneficial insects are part of the standard. All cultivated vineyards carry the certification of the Fish Friendly Farming Environmental Certification Program; the Sonoma sites were additionally awarded as Sonoma County Certified Sustainable.
Zinfandel, Cabernet, Petite Sirah — wines that tell the story of the place
The heart of the range is the Monte Bello, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blend from calcareous, heavily weathered soils at around 700 meters altitude, just 15 miles from the Pacific — California's coolest Cabernet growing region. Yields are below two tons per hectare; the result is dense, structured wines with pronounced acidity, finely woven tannins, and a mineral depth that does not shy away from Bordeaux comparisons.
Standing equally alongside are the Zinfandel cuvées from Sonoma County: Geyserville is made from vines planted in 1882; Lytton Springs, a Ridge property since 1991, provides a blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and Carignane from vines over a hundred years old. Both wines show what old vines can achieve on poor soils: concentrated red fruit, spice, structure without heaviness. Pagani Ranch and Three Valleys round out the picture with further historic parcels. Finally, with the Lytton Estate Petite Sirah, Ridge offers a variety that is rarely interpreted so independently and profoundly in California — dark, tannin-rich, with a long, spicy finish.
