Ridge Vineyards
Monte Bello went to the Judgment of Paris in 1976 and won the 30th-anniversary re-tasting in 2006. The tasting room sits at the top of Montebello Road, $35 for four estate wines, booked on Tock.
Why go
The site is old; the winery is not, and the story is better for it. Osea Perrone terraced these slopes in 1885 and made the first Monte Bello vintage in 1892 in the limestone cellar that is still the production facility; the property then sat abandoned until four Stanford Research Institute engineers, working weekends, re-bonded the winery in time for the 1962 vintage.3 Paul Draper joined in 1969, a philosophy graduate fresh from building a winery in Chile's coast range, and his hands off
traditional winemaking made the estate's international reputation.3 Justin Goldman opens the Michelin Guide's county feature's winery tour with it: an entrant in the famed 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting,
whose legendary Monte Bello bottling actually won a 30th-anniversary tasting in 2006.
1 The estate tasting is a seated flight of four single-vineyard wines, about 90 minutes, daily by reservation, and it can pour Sonoma fruit because Lytton Springs joined the Ridge estate in 1991.3 The library tasting puts current releases beside older vintages for $90, at 11am and 2pm.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the estate tasting first. Four single-vineyard wines, $35, groups of six or fewer, all guests 21 and over.2
- Order: the private library tasting if you want to see how Monte Bello ages. Current release and older vintages side by side.2
- Avoid: bringing the dog. The property has rattlesnakes and the winery does not permit dogs.2
What locals & experts say
- Eric Prahl, winemaker at Rhys Vineyards, in the Michelin Guide (February 2026):
Long before California wine became synonymous with the valley floor, the Santa Cruz Mountains proved that cool, marginal mountain sites could make wines with real longevity and world-class stature — something our neighbors, like Ridge and Mount Eden, have helped establish for over a century.
He is a producer in the same appellation talking about his neighbors, and his claim is about the region's record, not a bottle.1
Good to know
- 2026 is the Paris tasting's 50th anniversary, and Ridge is running it as a season: a news and events page tracks anniversary tastings and dinners through the year, and the winery's own account of 2006 is that the 1971 Monte Bello won the re-tasting
by a landslide,
18 points clear.4 - Booking: reservations through Tock, daily. A designated driver books at $0 with the code DD.2
- The city lists it. Cupertino's own business directory carries the winery at 17100 Montebello Rd.5
Verdict
should-visit — The paper trail sets this estate apart: Justin Goldman's Michelin Guide feature records both the 1976 Paris entry and the 2006 anniversary win, and Paul Draper's 1969-onward winemaking is what built that record. Eric Prahl of Rhys calls Ridge and Mount Eden the proof that these mountains make wines 'with real longevity and world-class stature', and he is a neighbor selling the same appellation, so treat that as the trade talking about itself. Nobody independent has judged a current bottle in anything cited here, and 2026 is the Paris tasting's 50th anniversary, with Ridge running events for it all year. The case is the history plus the $35 seated flight, daily, by reservation.