Last night, we had a socially distanced get-together at a local picnic shelter with another family. For the occasion, I grilled a butterflied leg of Aussie lamb using a "recipe" provided to me by SFJoe: making a paste of various herbs, in our case being thyme, Greek oregano, chives, parsley and sweet basil from our garden, with garlic and olive oil by maceration in a mortar and pestle and then slathering said paste onto exterior of lamb prior to placing it on the grill. With this meal I opened a magnum of 1990 Ridge Lytton Springs (80% Zin, 10% Petite Sirah, 6% Carignan and 4% Grenache). The cork was in decent condition and came out in one piece. The wine was equally in good condition. I have distinct memories of trying this wine ca. 1992, when it was abundantly fruity and rather deeply structured with some rough tannins. Now those tannins were plastered to the side of the bottle. The wine itself was rounded and softer though with enough acidity to keep it fresh. The fruit had morphed from the red-black berry fruit of its youth into something headed toward plum but not quite there yet. Our non-wine geek friends had no problem whatsoever with it, the husband questioning whether Ridge ever made a bad wine. Age has also removed whatever gloss the oak treatment may have given it, leaving the entire package rather harmonious and balanced.
I don't drink these wines nearly as often as I used to, and my enthusiasm has waned since Paul Draper stepped away, but this was a handy reminder of what got me interested in wine in the first place and so was equal parts pleasure and nostalgia and a fine prelude to a couple of games of Kan Jam before the sun departed entirely.
Mark Lipton
I don't drink these wines nearly as often as I used to, and my enthusiasm has waned since Paul Draper stepped away, but this was a handy reminder of what got me interested in wine in the first place and so was equal parts pleasure and nostalgia and a fine prelude to a couple of games of Kan Jam before the sun departed entirely.
Mark Lipton