2019 Ridge Vineyards, Zinfandel, Pagani Ranch, Sonoma Valley.
The glass staining dark purple/garnet Ridge Pagani Zinfandel again shows off a full bodied palate of black raspberries, sweet plum, creme de cassis, sandalwood, Turkish fig, sticky lavender and mocha notes. This 2019 vintage, which saw 90% Zinfandel, 6% Petite Sirah and 4% Alicante Bouschet in the blend, is deep and has lovely aromatics with subtle toasty sweet wood, dark florals, all spice and mineral toned graphite notes and even open 24 hours holds nice acidity and feels perfectly structured in the mouth. Sonoma Valley’s Pagani, like Bedrock and Old Hill Ranch dates back to the late 1800s and is Heritage Vineyard, interplanted traditionally with historic vines led by Zinfandel, which is clearly dominate in this Rigde version. Like their classic Lytton Springs, in Dry Creek, there is a dose of old vine Alicante Bouschet here, which acts like a secret sauce here and adds to magic, while the Petite Sirah adds color, chocolate and a bit of a backbone to the Zinfandel main course. Ridge brought in Shauna Rosenblum, in 2022, who’s family has Zin in their veins, to make the Sonoma wines, following John Olney, Mr Lytton Springs, and she’s done a fabulous job of continuing the excellence we’ve come to expect in these wines. As this 2019 finished up it really filled out adding some savory briar and subtle earthiness which was even more compelling.
The Pagani Ranch, as I’ve mentioned before, was originally planted by Felice Pagani in the 1890s and many of the old vines still provide the base for this wine, even though Ridge’s blocks have seen some re-planting with some young vines coming into production with the 2015 vintage, though overall most of the acreage here consists of 100 plus year old vines, which are, as you’d expect, mostly Zinfandel along with a small percentage of Alicante Bouschet, Mataro (Mourvedre) and Petite Sirah. Ridge, as the winery notes, has produced a Pagani Ranch bottling each year since 1991, adding that the foggy mornings here, on this picturesque site just off Hwy 12 near the town of Kenwood, the gravel, loam and clay soils and the old vines make for small yields and energy filled berries that makes these wines compelling with fruit density and savory complexity with moderate tannins, all of which allows these wines to be enjoyed young, but still have good aging potential. Ridge promotes sustainable and organic methods and makes these Zinfandel wines with low intervention using native or indigenous yeasts and natural malos. The Ridge wines are most all aged in specially extended air dried American oak barrels, with this wine seeing mostly used wood and saw an elevage of about 12 months before bottling. I, as noted many times, am a huge fan of Ridge’s Zin blends and Carignane bottlings and I highly recommend chasing down this Pagani.
($55 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive