Orders are available for pick-up at Restaurant Nicholas at 160 Route 35 South Red Bank, NJ 07701 during the following times:
Monday: 9:30-3:30; Tuesday – Friday: 9:15am – 9:00pm; Saturday: 11:00am – 9:00pm; Sunday: Closed
$18.00
If you ever have ever tuned into Thomas Keller’s wine list at the three michelin starred, French Laundry in Yountville, you will undoubtedly see a lot of familiar names on the list. Our friend’s at Diebolt-Vallois have the by-the-glass Champagne pour and our friends at Hourglass are the by-the-glass Sauvignon Blanc If you ever look at the bottle list and Marche, whenever you look, you will see Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica for $85/btl because it’s just that good. People repeatedly fork over large sums of cash to savor in Giuseppe Bisci’s Verdicchio with “Oysters and Pearls” and Royal Caviar from the menu.
If you’ve never heard of Bisci, let’s start here. Robert Parker Jr. himself called Giuseppe Bisci’s Verdicchio “one of the finest I’ve ever tasted,” and noted that “Verdicchio is one of the joys of Italian oenology that rarely gets the respect it deserves, and few producers do it better than Bisci.” That’s the highest form of praise (along with Thomas Keller writing you checks each year) but it’s hardly surprising given the winery’s history of excellence and consistency.
Tucked away in the Apennine Mountains, the white wines from Marche benefit from long summer days of continuous sun and frigid mountain evenings. These drastic temperature swings are the secret sauce that leads to expressive white wines that bristle with energy. Bisci is perhaps the most well-known winery in the region, the result of Giuseppe Bisci’s decades of churning out outstanding and unique variations of Verdicchio. This year they will once again celebrate a first as the 2019 vintage marks the winery’s first with an organic certification.
It’s easy to see why restaurants absolutely love this wine. It’s geeky and interesting; you would never know what the wine is supposed to cost. Kept in cement vats for 8 months, the wine comes out of the bottle extremely expressive with aromas of citrus fruit and jasmine, and delicious flavors of apple, Asian pear, lemon with a dash of sea salt.
Leflaive cultivates 2.16 hectares in the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation. Pouilly-Fuissé, the flagship region of the Mâconnais, is cordoned to the west by a flotilla of prow-shaped rocks, of which the Rock of Solutré is the most famous. A lot of people make a Pouilly-Fuissé, but in my opinion, no body comes close to Domaine Leflaive’s release. Composed of fossiliferous marl and marly limestone, the area was under the shallow Jurassic sea millions of years ago and it gives this a wonderful mineral, chalkiness that is unmistakably present here. Such an age-worthy beauty.
Gold Medal (Best in Show), 2023 Mundus Vini International Tasting
The area has also been isolated from the rest of Spain for generations, which has kept the wine prices far lower than wines of this quality would be anywhere else in the world. That’s why, despite having the Torres family name on the bottle and the consistent huge press (including the Gold Medal & Best in Show at the 2023 Mundus Vini International Wine Awards in Germany), these wines can still be scooped up for under $20/bottle. It’s like the Sancerre pricing of yesteryear.
90+ Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
This one is electric, great minerality, great lemon lime and saltiness. It even has a little ageability. I’d drink this over the next few years. This is one of the absolute best expressions from the region (a Cru vineyard designate in 2011) and so perfect with anything out of the sea but in particular the raw bar. Crisp and clean stone fruit with some pear, and a lot of personality. This is a great new discovery wine to check out.
Every year, Pierre Sparr’s Alsacian Riesling is one of the top scoring wines in the under $20 category. There’s a consistency there and consumers know they can count on a Riesling that is aromatic, fruity, elegant, clean and vibrant. Pierre Sparr wines are extremely food-friendly especially in the widely praised 2021 vintage where quality rose to an all-time high. It’s a bone-dry beauty with layers of citrus fruits, framed by wet stone and mineral character that adds dimension.
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