2018 LYTTON SPRINGS, Ridge. California (Magnum)

A vineyard of old bush vines in Dry Creek, Sonoma, just north of Healdsburg; cultivated and marketed by Ridge since 1972. There’s an ideal combination of cool, foggy mornings and sunny afternoonsm, together with gravelly clay soils which retain moisture and help the grapes ripen slowly. All this reins in the otherwise over-prolifice Zinfandel vines.

72% Zinfandel, 18% Petite Sirah, 8% Carignan, 2% Mataro; aged for 14 months in American oak (20% new wood).

Paul Draper’s Ridge is perhaps the most respected winery in California. In charge at Lytton Springs is the softly spoken but completely authoritative John Olney.

We have held this since release; still young but already delicous.

JUST A COUPLE OF MAGNUMS LEFT

Zin is a versatile food match as long as you enjoy big flavours. The Ridge style is more ‘structured’ and less fruit-emphatic than most – so works brilliantly with anything from ‘spag bol’ to a mild curry