Similarly, the trip up Monte Bello Road is a wine lover's purgatory: The road is much too narrow, the mountain is much too high, and it is impossible to travel faster than a snail. Wooden crosses line the road, where, I presume, luckless travelers have fallen. would hate to see the end of Ridge's syrah and grenache program.

Their 2004 cabernet which is actually a Bordeaux blend of 76% Cabernet, 18% merlot, 4% Petit Verdot & 2% cab franc. Although Ridge is known for their Zins they do make other very fine wines and we were started off with a Chardonnay and finished with a Cab/Merlot blend and finally a Petit Syrah. Serious pretension.

The wines that stood out though were their Syrahs. enjoyed the 2003 Havens Syrah but mentioned to Connie that I thought the nose was a little closed. She proceeded to open a 2000 Syrah that they recently re-released and it was great. Upon arriving we started with a very nice rose' made from Zin with a little Syrah.