WTN: Ridge LyttonSprings & Geyserville '90..(short/boring)

Continuing my conversations w/ MrRidge, I tried last night:
1. Ridge Calif Zin LyttonSprings (80% Zin, 10% PS, 6% Carignan, 4% Grenache; DryCreekVlly; 13.8%; 60% NortonRanch, 40% ValleyVistaVnyd; Drk: 2/92-2/97-2/98: PD) 1990: Med.dark color w/ slight bricking; lovely cedary/pencilly/old Cab slight smokey/pungent some damp Kansas basement some raspberry/spicy complex nose; tart slight cranberry/raspberry very smooth/elegant pencilly/cedary/old Zin slight metallic/smokey complex flavor; med.long smooth/elegant rather cedary/pencilly slight cranberry/raspberry complex finish w/ little tannins; a lovely classy/gentle old lady.
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2. RidgeVnyds Calif Geyserville (64% Zin, 18% PS, 18% Carignan; SonomaCnty; 13.9%; Drk: 1/92-1/98-1-00-??: PD) 1990: Med.color w/ some bricking; pencilly/smokey/cedary/old Zin slight funky/pungent bit tired nose; tart somewhat dried-out/astringent light cedary/pencilly/funky slight bretty flavor; med.short some tannic/dried-out somewhat cedary/vanilla/smokey finish; some interesting things therein but becomming rather tired & dried out.
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. As I recall the NortonRanch is the very old block of Zin/Grenache/PS that's right out behind the LyttonSprings wnry and now called LyttonEast. The ValleyVistaVnyd is just to the west on the other side of the airport and now called LyttonWest, overlooking DougNalle's vnyds just to the west and north.
The LS was in wonderful shape and a lovely example of mature/old Zin that's a genuine pleasure to drink. I was surprised that the Geyserville was so far gone..not bad, but not very pleasureable. Usually the Geyserville outlasts the LS, but not in this case..or at least these two btls, anyway.
Last had the '90 Geyserville w/ Donn several yrs ago when he & Marilyn were here for SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta. Shed a tear or two.
Tom

Thanks for the informative TNs. We killed our last bottle of the ’90 Lytton Springs this past Winter Solstice. We saw more brown than you at the edges and were afraid that storage conditions (AC room for several years) might have killed the wine, but no—it was much as you described with a bit of green olive on the nose. A lovely wine.

It’s revealing to note that all 3 wines you tasted were below 14% alcohol. It would be nice to see those percentages again, though Ridge is still conservative compared to most.
The excellent LS ’99 that David Bueker recently described was 4.5, and the ‘05 is 4.4, a trend in the right direction. I draw the line at 15%--I don’t believe that climate change since 1990 requires more alcohol.

According to Bree, I got the vnyds switched.
ValleyVista is LyttonEast and NortonRanch is LyttonWest.
Tom