RIDGE VINEYARDS Gaudagni Zinfandel, Santa Cruz Mountains

Ridge’s Guadagni Zinfandel is drawn from a historic, family-farmed vineyard at the northern edge of Dry Creek Valley, with old, head-trained Zinfandel planted in the 1950s on rocky, low-yielding soils now worked sustainably by the fourth generation of the Guadagni family. Typically a Zinfandel–Petite Sirah blend, it is hand-harvested, fermented with native yeasts and aged around 14 months in air-dried American oak, producing a structured yet supple wine with blackberry, cherry, spiced plum, leather and allspice notes over velvety tannins and bright acidity. Recent vintages have drawn scores into the mid-90s from American critics, making this one of Ridge’s most characterful single-vineyard Zins and an attractive, food-friendly Californian counterpoint for Australian cellars.