National Wine Day! Ridge Montebello: Cheese, Wine & Fatted Calf

Estero Gold made a winning pairing with Montebello 2011

Ridge Montebello grapes topping the foggy Santa Cruz Mountains

This past weekend I had the pleasure of sipping lots of gorgeous Montebello wine. In other words, I curated the cheese for the Ridge Montebello Release and may have hit up a wine station more than once. In honor of glasses being refillable, and today being National Wine Day, otherwise known as Wine O' Clock (nope, you don't have to check the clock, it's all day long!), here is a little photo diary of my weekend at the Ridge Montebello Release. 

Here you'll find pictures of the future wine drinkers of America (a little below), some California artisan cheese I picked to pair with Ridge Montebello, and the Fatted Calfcharcuterie stations. And if some of you readers think you may have seen me talking cheese at the Kermit Lynch event too, yes you did. It was rich and wine-filled weekend.

Fatted Calf and I have been the fermented edible purveyors at the Ridge Montebello release for the past four years. Perfect coupling? I prefer to think of Fatted Calf, Ridge and I as a trio. 

Kathy, the esteemed Ridge Winery chef slicing bread for the 500 - 700 Ridge club members attending each day, and future wine drinkers of America. These kids loved cheese.

Sideways be damned, Ridge makes one of the best Merlots in the country. Rich with plums and blackberries with a touch of brambly pepper, it's elegant, ageable, and most importantly, delicious.

From 375ml to Jeroboam (double-magnum) to magnum, Ridge for every size drinker.

Pennyroyal's Velvet Sister making an oozing appearance at the Ridge Montebello release

Silicon Valley seen from Montebello hills

The view of the tasting room at Montebello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The rarely seen Ridge Rosé. This unicorn is only made on the occasional wine year (yup, I snagged two of them).

Happy National Wine Day!