Region: Dry Creek Valley AVA, Sonoma County, California

Varietal: 40% Grenache, 26% Zinfandel, 11% Cinsaut, 11% Counoise, 10% Mataro, 2% Carignane

Producer: Ridge Vineyards needs little introduction — Monte Bello and Lytton Springs are two of California's most iconic addresses, and Ridge has been making the case for terroir-driven, minimally-interventionist American wine since Paul Draper took the helm in 1969. The Lytton Springs vineyard in Dry Creek Valley is Ridge's Sonoma flagship, planted to a field blend of Zinfandel and Rhône varieties that has defined the estate for decades. The Lytton Estate Rosé is a relatively recent addition — first produced in 2016 — but it has quickly become one of California's most interesting pink wines: an "extemporaneous" blend assembled by taste each vintage, with the makeup shifting year to year as the harvest dictates. It is, in the best possible sense, a living wine.

Vineyard & Winemaking: The 2025 growing season brought a third consecutive year of above-average rainfall — 50 inches total — replenishing vines and building natural acidity into the fruit from the start. Harvest was deliberately sequenced across six separate picks, beginning August 22nd with young Cinsaut from Lytton East, chosen specifically for its lower sugar, lower pH, and natural snap, and closing October 6th with ripe Mataro and Grenache from young vines at Lytton West. All fruit was hand-harvested, whole-cluster direct-to-press, and fermented entirely in stainless steel with natural primary and secondary fermentation — full malolactic on naturally occurring bacteria, three months aging, pad filtered at bottling. No commercial enzymes, no added nutrients, minimum effective sulfur. Ridge publishes every action and ingredient on the label, a transparency move that remains genuinely rare in California.

Tasting Notes: The 2025 pours a beautiful pale coral — almost white wine pale — and opens with white peach, rose petal, honeysuckle, and bright red raspberry. The palate is light-footed but far from simple: fresh strawberry and berry fruit with excellent texture, a thread of flinty minerality, and bright, balanced acidity carrying through a clean, lingering finish. This is rosé that earns its keep through precision and restraint rather than fruit-bombing — which is exactly what you'd expect from Ridge. Gorgeous now, and in no hurry to go anywhere.