Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs, Dry Creek Valley

Ridge is one of California's most respected wineries, and Lytton Springs is one of its great old-vine reds. The estate sits on the benchland between Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, planted with Zinfandel and its traditional partners - some of the vines well over a hundred years old, dry-farmed and tended by hand. Like all Ridge's heritage reds it is a field blend: Zinfandel leads, with Petite Sirah, Carignane and a little Alicante Bouschet and Mataro grown together and picked together. The winemaking is deliberately old-fashioned - natural yeasts, then sixteen months in air-dried American oak - so the wine tastes of the vineyard rather than the cellar. The result is dark and spicy but not heavy: black cherry, wild raspberry and cracked pepper, with a savoury, herbal edge and a freshness that keeps it lively. It drinks well now and ages for well over a decade. Serve at cool room temperature.