In 1886, the first blocks of the Monte Bello vineyard were planted and construction on the winery began. The first vintage was the 1892. In the early 1940s, the last of the old vineyard was abandoned; in the late forties, a few blocks were replanted. Those cabernet vines—now over sixty-five years old—produced the first Ridge Monte Bello (1962) and subsequent vintages until 1974. By then, other abandoned blocks had been replanted and their fruit considered for use in the Monte Bello. A number of those blocks consistently produced a more accessible wine that developed its full complexity earlier and these were combined as the “Santa Cruz Mountains.” With the 2008 vintage, the name of this stylistically distinct wine became the Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, stressing the principal varietal and the Monte Bello Estate vineyard as its source.
