Ridge Vineyards

My wife and I have been members at Ridge since 1997. It's always been one of my favorite venues and we're what's known as "two club" collectors. We participate in the Advanced Tasting Program to get more accessible wines that don't require multiple decades of storage and we get a case of Monte Bello each year as well. For bigger events, Ridge has moved to an assigned seat, reserved time slot format that, well frankly, sucks. No more bringing the picnic basket and setting up, no more tasting and buying a couple bottles to share. No more trying to get some pours from the "Old Ridge Drinkers" bottles from the 70s and 80s. It's torn the heart and soul out of what made Ridge events special. I think they've realized the error in their ways, to some degree, and events like the tasting on the evening of Jan 18th harken back to what I love about visiting. There was no fixed seating, we were all free to mingle and chat with other patrons to our hearts content! We had a fabulous time Thursday night and really hope they revert back to more like this and less of the events where we just feel like sausage meat being put through the sausage making machine.

Scenic winery on top of the mountains with good wines and staff. We biked up there and it was quite a climb. Nice patio and picnic areas. The wine flight at $15 is a reasonably priced and offers good wines. The rose, chardonnay and the cab are good, particularly the 2015 cab is big; it needs a few years aging to become further refined.