Grown on their oldest vines, bottled by Ridge for half a century, Geyserville is a true icon, and the 94+ point 2021 delivers exactly what has made this bottling a must-have among wine lovers and collectors.

This is a marquee bottle from a winery of unmatched pedigree. Ridge has been named North Americas #1 Most Admired wine brand (and #3 in the world) by Drinks International. It has been a Wine & Spirits Magazine Top 100 winery 20 times. It placed fifth at the 1976 Judgment of Parisand took the crown when the wines were re-tasted 30 years later.

Christies auction house says Ridge Zins are equally impressive in terms of structure, length, and age-ability as their Bordeaux-style wines, and weve tasted two- and three-decade aged Ridge Zin blends that back that up. We can also attest that the 2021 Geyserville is Ridge at their vibrant and age-worthy best, and today weve got it for just $49a paltry price for a wine with this quality and history.

Geyserville is Ridges longest-running bottling because the site has allowed them to make wine every year. Grown on vines that are over 130 years oldthe oldest that Ridge farmsthe 2021 Geyserville is a field blend: The grapes are intermixed in the vineyard and then co-fermented, a process that imbues the wine with a balance that defies purely scientific explanation.

The blend of 76% Zinfandel, 16% Carignan, 6% Petite Sirah and 2% Alicante Bouschet shows a nearly opaque ruby color, with profuse black-fruit aromas accented by spice and soft rosemary and lavender notes. Full, ripe, and lush on the palate, its polished from beginning to end, finishing with velvety tannins that will allow it to cellar for well over a decade.

Ridge was founded in 1959, when four scientists from the Stanford Research Institute made a quarter-barrel of Cabernet at the top of Montebello road in the mountains south of San Francisco. In 1969, the group hired Stanford graduate (in philosophy) Paul Draper as winemaker. The Cabernet he made two years later is the one that placed fifth at the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting, making Ridge a worldwide icon.

Incredibly, the Geyserville wine pre-dates DraperRidge started making it in 1966 from a plot of vines three miles south of the town of Geyserville. When they started, the vineyard was still farmed by Sonoma County legend Leo Trentadue, who will forever be linked to Ridge, as the four founders purchased the famed Monte Bello property from the Trentadue family. Ridge has farmed the Geyserville plot themselves since 1990 and finally purchased it in 2016.

The famed vineyard sits in the heart of Alexander Valley, where the warm days are tempered by evening breezes and occasional morning fog. The property sits on a single strip of soil, a well-draining bed of deep, gravelly loam mixed with large rocks deposited by an ancient river, a combination that imparts a beautiful minerality to the Geyserville wine.