Intense Passion
Paul Draper is a man with an intense passion for wine, and it's a very good thing for wine drinkers. In a world where wine making is all too often dominated by the empty suits of corporate moneymen, Draper is a treasure.

Draper didn't train as a wine maker at university, although his love of wine started as a university student. He first made wine in Chile in the late 1960s - in an unlikely venture that would make a fine plot for a film.

In 1969, because of his connections to Stanford University, Draper became the winemaker at Ridge Vineyards near the university in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco, working with a vineyard that was first planted in the 1880s. The first vintage of Monte Bello from that vintage was bottled in 1892, so last year's vintage 2001 was the 110th birthday of the wine.

Draper says that the wine - a blend of cabernet, merlot and petit verdot (without the 'e', he insists) - is typical of the vineyard. 'There is no recipe for making it,' he said.

Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet
The three Monte Bello vineyards, where Bordeaux varietals are grown, range in elevation from 1300' to 2660'. They are divided roughly, things change, into three dozen parcels, or blocks, each of which is harvested and fermented separately. Of these the tougher, more structured lots become the Monte Bello, while the softer and more forward become Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet.

Though these wines are capable of aging for ten-plus years they are neither as long-lived (nor as expensive) as the Monte Bellos. And it's not such a crime to drink them young, the '94 and '96 are tasting awfully good right now, but will continue to improve for some time. As a rule they show red or blackcurrant, sometime a hint of berry or cherry, cedar, cocoa, and toasty oak. This cabernet clearly reflects its Monte Bello origins and is a boon to the impatient.

Championing 19th Century Grapes
Whilst justly famous for Monte Bello wines and for preserving a style of wine-making that dates back to Prohibition in America - admittedly with the help of very sophisticated technology - but, by championing zinfandel and petite sirah, Draper has also done more than any other winery to preserve two of the grapes for which California was famous in the 19th century.

Lytton Springs Zinfandel
On the Ridge Lytton Estate (east), zinfandel grows atop seven hills; petite sirah surrounds the zinfandel on six, grenache on the seventh - an unusual combination. There is some interplanting. Lytton Estate (West) is a magnificent hodgepodge of grapes, including more zinfandel, which seems so at home here. The lot-by-lot blending technique is also used for Ridge zinfandels, which are known for their great depth of fruit and long life. They show the potent, ripe boysenberry and blackberry of old-vine Sonoma zinfandel, notes of leaf and briar, and the intricacy of multiple varietals. Acid and tannin are firm, yet not overwhelming; in youth, at least, fruit predominates. These balanced, powerful zins become nuanced with age.

York Creek Petite Sirah
Petite sirah is a natural cross of syrah and a little-known French variety, peloursin. It was brought to California from France in the nineteenth century, and is frequently found inter-planted in the state's old zinfandel vineyards. Those early vintners learned, as Ridge have over the last thirty years, that its deep colour, firm tannins, and peppery spice complement the rich berry fruit and softer structure of zinfandel. Until 1970, petite sirah was the dominant grape variety in Napa Valley. At York Creek, near the top of Napa's Spring Mountain, a scattering of ninety-year-old, pre-Prohibition vines survive. These produce fine petite sirahs, with wonderful structure and a solid core of blackberry fruit, layered with mineral and black pepper, earth and rose petal. Although appealing when young, they become softer and more complex with more bottle age.

Draper's Mission
Draper says: 'Maybe one per cent of the world's wine is truly a product of the soil, of the vineyard. In those wines, the vineyard creates the character. That's what I am striving for and the creation of small lots from within a single vineyard is absolutely essential. It keeps all options open. If everything is dumped in a huge tank, you lose the chance of making a great wine. I'm simply selecting what the vineyard offers and making a call on the selected lots to achieve the best character. Nature is doing the creating.'

Ridge's wines are in safe hands.