PaulDraper is the SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta Honoree of the Year. Below is a draft article that appeared in the local food magazine.
Tom
PaulDraper: SFW&CF Honoree of the Year
This year marks my 22'nd year as a participant at the SFW&CF...from that very first one
on the Sanbusco back parking lot. If there's been one constant over those years, it's been
the presence of Ridge Vineyards. This year Ridge winemaker/CEO, Paul Draper, is the SFW&CF's
Honoree of the Year, an award highly deserved.
He will be presenting a seminar featuring a six year vertical ('84, '95, '99, '07, '09,
'11 barrel sample) of the reknowned Monte Bello, a Cabernet-based blend that is, by anyone's
definition, one of the World's truly profound wines. Tasted from barrel with Paul in March, I
thought the '11 was maybe the best Monte Bello in years. At 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, it has
the highest percentage of Cab of any Monte Bellos since the '70's.
Paul has given seminars at SFW&CF several times over the years. Because the event occurs
smack-dab in the middle of crush, it is not easy for any hands-on winemaker to shake loose for
a few days to present their wines in SantaFe. That many winemakers take such time-out for this
is a strong tribute to the importance they accord the SFW&CF.
Not that his absence will jeopardize the crush at Ridge.... Paul has assembled a staff that is
the envy of many wineries. Dave Gates supervises the many vineyards that Ridge
draws grapes from. Eric Baugher is winemaker at the Monte Bello estate. John Olney (nephew of famed
food writer Richard Olney) is his counterpart at the Lytton Springs facility. Even though these
three have "Vice President" after their names, they are, most assuredly, out there amongst
the vines and barrels doing real work. Oftentimes with Paul right there sharing those chores.
A "Short" History
Ridge Vineyards was founded in 1959 when four Stanford Research Institute scientists bought
the abandoned William Short property high atop Monte Bello ridge overlooking the Santa Clara
Valley. They then bought the adjacent Osea Perrone property and bonded the derelict winery for
commercial production in 1962.
The founding winemaker was Dave Bennion. In the mid-'50's, after receiving his
PhD from Stanford, he worked several summers at Los Alamos and made important
contributions in firing circuits. Another Ridge founder, Hew Crane, was the first engineer hired
at Princeton by Johnny von Neumann. He made significant design innovations to the first all-electronic
computer, the ENIAC; predecessor to the Los Alamos MANIAC computer.
The first few years, Bennion made Cabernet from the vines Short planted in 1949. It's distinctive
character suggested that Monte Bello was a unique site that could produce world-class wine. In 1964,
Bennion applied his Cabernet techniques to produce the first Ridge Zinfandel, from the nearby Pichetti
vineyard. Applying fine-winemaking techniques to a variety that had heretofore been relegated to jug
wines was a remarkable innovation and lifted Zinfandel to new heights.
Interestingly, in those mid-'60's years, before French cooperage was routinely imported into California,
Bennion bought Cabernet in barrel directly from the famed Bordeaux estate, Chateau Lynch-Bages...
for the barrels. There actually existed Ridge estate bottled Lynch-Bages. It reportedly was quite good
and received scores in the mid-90's out of Monktown!!
As Ridge expanded their production, the founders realized they needed a full-time winemaker. They settled
on a young man who had just returned from setting up a small winery in Chile....Paul Draper. I can only
guess that it must have been an interesting interview, based on what surely was a very thin resume.
This gamble obviously has paid huge dividends over the years.
Paul & partner Fritz Maytag were not quite finished with their Chilean work at that point. When Paul returned
from Chile; the Ridge founders, Bennion, Hew Crane, and Norm Rosen interviewed him. He tried Dave's '62 and
'64 MonteBello Cabs and was blown away. The Ridge founders were interested in a winemaker who was
focused on traditional winemaking practices; not some recent Davis graduate schooled in all the latest
whiz-bang winemaking tricks. Paul took an immediate like to the Ridge founders. It was sort of a match made
in heaven...or, at least, atop Monte Bello Ridge...which is pretty close to heaven.
Paul's debut vintage as winemaker was the 1970. And what a debut it was. The '70 Ridge Monte Bello is
regarded by many as, perhaps, the greatest Cabernet ever made in California. Paul recognized it as
something special and had as his license plate MB70 for some years.
As time passed, the four original founders were getting on in their years and less involved in Ridge
operations. So, in 1986, Ridge was purchased by Otsuka Pharmaceutical of Japan. Many of us Ridge
aficionados were convinced this foreshadowed the end of Ridge's producing great wines. Ahhhh...but it
was not to be. The Otsuka management recognized they'd put their money on a winning horse and pretty much
gave Ridge free reign, naming Paul as CEO two years later.
At the famous "Judgement of Paris" tasting in 1976, in which the Stag's Leap Cabernet bested other
California cabernets and four Bordeaux classified growths, the Ridge Monte Bello '71 finished fifth,
in the middle of the pack. The French tasters scoffed at their "mistake" and sniffed that the Bordeauxs
would surely come out on top with some age.
This very same tasting was repeated, in Paris and in Napa, in 2006. This time, the winner was...ta da....
the Monte Bello '71; with all the classified Bordeauxs filling out the bottom tier. So much for French
supremacy when it comes to Cabernet.
Modern Times
One of the buzz-words in wine circles these days is "natural" wine; wines made with natural yeasts,
little oak, minimal or no SO2 additions, and so forth. Some of these wines are, quite frankly, not very
good. Ridge has practiced natural winemaking techniques for years, well before it was fashionable. Because
the "natural" term carries such loaded connotations, Ridge prefers to use "pre-industrial" to describe their
winemaking. Make no mistake....there's plenty of modern stainless steel at Ridge. But its use is to
more efficiently replicate winemaking techniques used many years ago.
At Ridge, they are willing to use (rather than abuse) the latest in wine technology....the bottom line
always to produce a better wine. Their chemistry lab is as modern as they come. Every lot of wine is given
a detailed chemical analysis. But this is used only for guidance in heading off problems.
It is not, in any sense, winemaking-by-numbers. Since nearly all of the Ridge wines are blends, these
blends are decided strictly by taste...not by the numbers.
The staff tastings are held at least once a week; more often when the final Monte Bello assemblage
is being decided in February following the vintage.
I have been privileged to participate in a few of these tastings. It makes you appreciate the effort
they put into their blends. I am always struck by their collegial nature.
You take notes on the various wines you are tasting, usually blind. With Paul presiding, you
then offer up your opinions. He listens very intently to everyone's thoughts, taking more notes. But,
in the end, it will be Paul's decision to make, which he thoughtfully explains. It is, truly, a
Ridge-team effort. But the buck stops on Paul's desk.
Some Recollects
I met Paul in the summer of '74 when I made an appointment for my first visit to Ridge, after several
years of correspondence over his wines (Paul even has a thick Tom Hill folder in his files!!). We did a
walk of the Monte Bello vineyard and then adjourned to the upper winery to taste. Joining us that visit was
Jeremiah Tower and three of his French chef friends. Tower, then in charge of the kitchen at Chez Panisse,
had not yet achieved his later celebrity-chef status. I recall Tower seemed a little peeved that Paul spent
most of his time answering my multitudinous questions.
Over the years, I've had many interactions and tastings with Paul. I used to rent a condo in Aspen with
a group of friends who'd attend the Aspen Food & Wine Festival. We'd do our own winemaker dinners at the
condo. Paul was a frequent speaker at Aspen. One night, Paul and Darrell Corti joined us and we sat
up into the wee hours of the next morning listening to those two carry on a wide-ranging exchange on a
vast variety of topics.
Of all the people I've met in the wine biz, I regard Paul and Darrell (a Sacramento grocer) as the most
gifted intellects around. Had those two chosen to be physicists, the Higgs boson would've been discovered
way back in the '70's...before Higgs had even postulated it!!!
Prologue
The Ridge WebSite (www.RidgeWine.com) is one of the best winery web sites around. It is loaded with much
information about Ridge and its wines. The Monte Bello tasting room manager, Christopher Watkins, writes
a wine blog (http://blog.ridgewine.com/) that is one of the most compelling reads in the wine blogosphere.
Interestingly, when you enter 17100 into the GoogleMaps search box, what should pop up #1 of all the 17100
addresses throughout the World?? Yup....Ridge Monte Bello Road!! Worth taking a look-see at the satellite image.
Of course, any mention of Ridge Vineyards and SFW&CF would be remiss in not recalling Donn Reisen, Ridge's
late Marketing Director and President. He was the iconic Ridge representative at many a SFW&CF from the early
years. His death several years ago left a huge hole in the hearts of many of the SFW&CF attendees.
Donn is greatly missed by all of us.
Finally, at 75 years of age and over 40 years in the saddle at Ridge, Paul's retirement is sometimes whispered
of... with great trepidation. Though he has the greatest staff at Ridge, from top to bottom, that any CEO could
ever ask for; I simply don't see retirement on the near horizon. To my take, Paul's enthusiasm and passion for making
wines at Ridge burns as brightly now as when I first met him almost 40 year ago atop Monte Bello Ridge. And that,
to me, is an absolutely amazing accomplishment...unparalleled in the California wine business.
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