Monte Bello

AVA

Santa Cruz Mountains

Decade

1940s

County

Santa Clara

Current Owner

Ridge Vineyards

Planted by

William Short

Location Notes

Montebello Road at Stevens Canyon Road

Wineries

Ridge Vineyards

Historical Producers

Gemello

Characteristics

Cassis, black cherry, violets, chaparral on the nose; licorice, mineral, lively acidity on palate, with long finish

Description

This block is all that remains of a 17-acre planting by William Short, a theologian from Stanford who purchased part of the old Torre winery on Monte Bello Ridge. Torre followed the example of his famous neighbors Osseo Perrone (Monte Bello) and Pierre Klein (Mira Valle) in producing high-quality wine in an age where most wine was sold off as cheap French imitations. His vineyard and winery did not survive Prohibition. Short sold his grapes to Gemello Winery in Mountain View.

A partnership of families that would become Ridge Vineyards bought out Short in 1959 and made their first commercial Monte Bello Cabernet wine in 1962. These blocks were part of the 1971 Monte Bello that showed well in the 1976 Judgment of Paris. The vines came from the defunct Fountaingrove community and are now in the process of becoming certified through Foundation Plant Services.

Certified