Tasting Note                         

93    1990 Ridge Santa Cruz Mtns. Cabernet    11/7/03($22)

Color: Deep garnet with onion skin around rim. Looks ready with slight clearing.(3.5) Bouquet: Black olives and blackberry jam, combined with white pepper, cedar and white chocolate. Also a slight smell of rotten eggs(in a good way), indicating maturity.(4.0) Body: Wonderful balance of fruit-to-acid-to-tannin-to-terroir/complexity. Starting to lose just a little weight, so drink soon.(3.5) Flavor: Just enough blackberry fruit intertwined with St. Julien-like terroir. Elegant and interesting.(3.0) Finish: Showing its age here with fruit starting to fade, but still comes back with refined elegance and complexity.(2.0)
Overall: Rich, complex, graceful and very well balanced, although losing a bit of fruit and power, the tradeoffs of age. An excellent SCM Cab that will probably hold for 1-2 more years. Drank more like Pauillac when younger, but has become more elegant and rich like St. Julien. This wine has a lot of class and I look forward to drinking the 90 Monte Bello in the next 2-5+ years.(16.0)