2020 Monte Bello

Larry Stein

Larry Stein
After Galloni's less than stellar review with his mention of smoke taint, a friend opened a bottle for science last night. There were 9 of us at dinner. It was decanted several hours before.

I detected a gritty/bitter note on each side in the back of the palate. Definitely not tannin. A couple of folks who know about these things said that's a sign of smoke taint. Taint or not, none of us liked the wine.

Ridge will take back bottles and issue a refund once they're received. You need to contact them directly. They're not advertising this. I'm going to do that with my meager allocation of four 375s.
 
I'm hanging onto my bottles - just two - simply to see what time does. I don't have high hopes, but I do have a vertical of MB and it'll be fascinating to see how this wine compares to those of surrounding vintages.
 
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