This wine stands out for its elegance and plush texture—one of the softer, more inviting offerings among the four Ridge wines I tasted on a cool Sonoma day in October 2025. Aromatically fine-tuned to red berry fruit and delicate cedarwood spice, it reveals subtle undercurrents of vanilla and shaved coconut. The palate is supple and blue-fruited, juicy and irresistible, with nuances of citrusy acidity, orange peel, and crushed cacao nib intensity carrying through the full-bodied finish. Sourced from a 19th-century Zinfandel vineyard planted in alluvial loam and clay soils at 500 feet of elevation, the centerpiece of the St. Peter’s Church Vineyard still holds original Zinfandel vines planted in the 1880s—believed to be the oldest Zinfandel vines associated with a church in the United States. Fruit from this vineyard was once used by Kent Rosenblum—founder of Rosenblum Cellars and father of current Ridge winemaker Shauna Rosenblum. The vineyard’s namesake clone of Zinfandel later became the foundational planting for nearly all vines in the mountainous 160-acre Rockpile AVA. Ridge has been a Sonoma institution since 1962, known for its single-vineyard winemaking. COO & Head Winemaker John Olney is accompanied in the cellar by Shauna Rosenblum (formerly of Rock Wall Wine Company), focusing on Lytton Springs.