Tasting Report #1 - The Ridge Vertical

I really recommend vertical tastings. I really do. For the novice, they make the attributes of wine in comparison more accessible. More obvious. For the seasoned taster, verticals force you to focus on things like terroir or a winemaker's intervention. But mostly they are just fun as hell. And when The DM's called The Kipper and I saying they had pizza and the table was set, my three bottles of Ridge Three Valleys cried out. Screamed in fact. The vertical floweth.

First (and briefly), I love Ridge. They don't follow trends, they keep things rustic, and their relationship with you, the purchaser, is as transparent as a window pane (download one of their fact sheets to see what I mean). I especially love their Three Valleys, the entry level red wine in their catalog. Why? It's a blend, made from the lesser grapes from their many vineyards. Every year, Three Valleys is a good barometer of the weather, the vine's mood and the winemaker's acumen. It's Ridge's house style, its annual report.

Now, how did the wine fare? To be geeky, this trifecta (years 2004, 2005, and 2006) was a lot like The Matrix Trilogy. So that, I decided, is my analogy. The 2004 was like the first picture - The Matrix: very impressionable, big & full. Borderline classic. Yet, once you became comfortable with that movie's aesthetic, like this wine, you realized it was somewhat complex and unexpected. It evolved. The 2005, thus, resembled the second picture - The Matrix Reloaded: more polished, more self-aware, faster, spicier. A bit sludgy (or maybe obtuse?) in parts but also extremely racy in other (like the car chase that took up the middle of the movie - which ruled). Finally, the 2006 felt like the final movie - The Matrix Revolutions: a bit rushed, slightly light & definitely gangly. In a word - weak. Maybe time will judge both the 2006 and Revolutions better, but probably not so much. But the vertical taken as a whole, like the trilogy, was quite satisfying, eye-opening, and fun as hell.

Did I cheapen this experience by equating it to fictitious building jumping, ringing phones & other phooey? Some might say yes, but I say no. Since we all talked about these wines with words like Shape Shifter, Bam, Poof & Adolescent.