Ridge Vineyards, "East Bench" Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley 2021

95+ points Wine Enthusiast
“Supreme concentration and great depth characterize this powerful, structured and age-worthy wine. It boasts luscious dried plums and dried blueberries, plus plenty of black pepper and light wood-smoke accents, all backed by firm tannins. Best from 2025-2035.” *Cellar Selection*
#16 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections

95 points Jeb Dunnuck
“Coming all from the Funsten Ranch in the Dry Creek Valley and 100% Zinfandel, the 2021 Zinfandel East Bench has a rich, more subtle style in its aromatics, with ripe plum, cigar, spice, and earthy nuances, and it certainly plays in the darker, red and black-fruited end of the spectrum. These all carry over to the palate, where the wine is medium to full-bodied, has a deep, expansive, concentrated mouthfeel, velvety tannins, terrific mid-palate density, and a gorgeous finish. This richly textured, incredibly impressive Zinfandel needs 2-3 years to gain additional complexity but will be long-lived, with another 15+ years of prime drinking ahead of it.”

93 points Wine & Spirits
“Consider East Bench living proof that zinfandel exceptionalism is not limited to ancient vines. When Paul Draper and his team set out to replant this 19th-century vineyard site on the eastern benchlands of Dry Creek Valley, they propagated vines from four pre-phylloxera vineyards and trained the young plants as bush vines. Now two decades old, those vines produced a floral, red-fruited beauty. That fruit may not have the depth of character of great zin from centenary vines, but it has its own elegant shape, funneling cherry jam and cherry-leaf scents into a tight focus, dry and austere in its youth. Like other classics from Ridge, this will benefit from years in the cellar.”

Vinous Reverie Notes
Winery: Ridge has made the East Bench Zinfandel as a single vineyard wine since 2006, one of the few Ridge zinfandels that is 100% zinfandel. The vineyard sits high atop the bench land that overlooks Dry Creek Valley from the east. Tasting Notes: Strawberry, raspberry, clove and vanilla notes on the nose. Blackberry and black olive flavors give way to mouth-coating tannins with a pleasant and lengthy finish. Classic Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel.