Rieussec 2009

Sauternes/Barsac, First Growth Sauternes

Excel download

View All Vintages of this Wine

Units Size Case size GBP Price: Quantities Buy
Tasting Notes

Lots of caramel and Seville orange. Apricots, vanilla and sultanas. Intensely sweet on the palate with a deep texture and and good complexity. This Sauternes is wonderfully long and dense with superb purity and precision. Extravagant sweet wine. Drinks amazingly well already now, so why wait?

Score: 98

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com 24 May 2013

Lemon peel and pear tart on the nose. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with good acidity, lemon meringue flavors and a spicy finish

Score: 92 - 95

James Suckling, Wine Spectator 31 March 2010

Composed of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2005 Monte Bello should be one of the all-time greats made at this estate. It offers a dense purple color, an extraordinary bouquet of spring flowers, blueberries, creme de cassis, black fruits, and a hint of oak. It also has an unctuous texture. As with all rich wines, the oak component plays a complementary role in the wine’s nuances. A seamless integration of acidity, wood, tannin, and alcohol is found in this rich, elegant, pure, dense beauty. There is a certain accessibility to the 2005 that is unusual by Monte Bello’s standards, and it will age effortlessly for 25+a years. Ridge’s iconic Monte Bello Proprietary Red (no longer called Cabernet Sauvignon) is one of the candidates for the longest-lived Bordeaux blend made in California. Even vintages from the late sixties and early seventies are still vibrant wines. The winery owns just over 100 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, and production varies enormously based on the mountain climate. With respect to this group of wines, the smallest yields were achieved in 2005, and the highest in 2007. The selection process here is relatively severe. For their Monte Bello, the flagship wine, 32% of the production was used in 2003, 38% in 2004, 49% in 2005, 39% in 2006, and 41% in 2007. These wines continue to be anomalies in the sense that the Cabernet Sauvignon component is aged in American oak, a somewhat contrarian procedure since most top producers long ago moved to French oak. The Santa Cruz Mountains cuvees, essentially a second wine culled out from Monte Bello, are also high quality efforts from Ridge. Each of the vintages I tasted reflects the vintage conditions in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Three 2008 barrel samples reveal a consistent, high quality style with slightly more elevated alcohol contents.

Score: 97

Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2013-2045 01 February 2013

Yellow gold. Interesting depth and complexity. Springs out of the glass. Very big and round and yet refreshing. Great satin texture. How I'd imagine Climens. Rather nice saltiness on the finish. GV

Score: 18 - 19

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2016-2040 29 January 2013

Heavy and rich and wonderfully sumptuous. Great richness. Density and breadth. Still very chewy but there is lots here. Very rewarding.

Score: 18

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2018-2036 29 March 2010

Massive, with great transformed level of alcohol, useful when the sugar content is so high too, a monument of a wine, but a wait of 10 years at least will be necessary to do justice to its majestic power. (18 points)

Score: 18

Decanter, Decanter.com 01 April 2010