Wine Tasting Notes
Rich, concentrated blackberry, dusty briar, sweet leather, cocoa, flint, exotic spice. Full bodied, viscous, balanced. Chalky tannins, lingering flavors. An elegant, complete wine. (Grapes from Russian River Valley provide the blackberry fruit and bright acid; Alexander Valley fruit adds exotic notes, finesse. Dry Creek is the source of the wine's depth, earthiness, and structure.)

Three Valleys is a Ridge proprietary name, referring to three of Sonoma County's finest appellations. Roughly half the grapes in this bottling came from six vineyards in Dry Creek Valley, one-third from six vineyards in Alexander Valley, and the balance from two vineyards in the Russian River Valley; included are grapes from recent plantings on our Lytton Springs and Geyserville vineyards. The wines fermented on their natural yeasts, were pressed at eight days, and completed a natural (uninoculated) malolactic fermentation five weeks later. Aged in air-dried american oak barrels (twenty percent new, the rest two to six years old), this full, well-balanced zinfandel is enjoyable now. Its rich fruit will show to best advantage over the next four or five years.