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
$100.00
Larry Stone, trustee of the James Beard Foundation and Owner at Lingua Franca in the Willamette Valley once said of Nicolas Catena Zapata, the father of Argentinian wine, “Nicolás Catena Zapata is a figure in Argentina of the stature of Robert Mondavi in Napa and Angelo Gaja in Piedmont. He inspired an entire region to strive for a higher level of quality by his successful exploration of high-altitude vineyards and rigorous clonal selection.”
The winemaker who achieved everything he set out to and did it his own way, perhaps never outdid himself more than when he dared to plant Chardonnay nearly 5000ft. above sea level in his home of Argentina, even as everyone said it couldn’t be done.
Adrianna Vineyard is home to some of the best white wines in the Southern Hemisphere and lately in the world. It’s not just James Suckling and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate who have taken notice. It has taken the wine world by storm, and the U.S. allocation is so tiny, the few “cases” that are passed out are actually only 3-packs. With quantities that small, I couldn’t email it. But I could if I can pass these delicious white wine collector’s out to a select few within the text list, I figured that was better than nothing.
This is one of those cult wines that will surely rise in value each year until the price tag becomes obnoxious. But at a whopping 98+ from Parker’s Wine Advocate who called this wine “outstanding” and $100/btl today, this one still has a ways to go before it’s at that point.
Out of stock
98+ Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The outstanding 2018 White Stones Chardonnay epitomizes the expression of the grape in the cooler-climate and high-altitude location of the Adrianna vineyard in Gualtallary. There is rectitude, austerity and elegance, a subtle wine with great clout and intensity that comes through as chiseled, focused, symmetric and pure, more in the style of Roulot than Coche-Dury, with superb integration of all the elements and fine minerality. This is more about the place and vintage than the grape, which feels like a good way to transmit the chalky soils of the selected plots. Simply superb, possibly the finest vintage for this bottling so far.
98 Points, James Suckling
A very subtle yet intense White Stones on the nose with stone, bone, lemon-rind and dried-apple aromas that follow through to a full body that is very tight and closed, but shows a compact fruit structure of sliced mangoes and cooked apples. Vivid finish, turning to flamboyant minerality. In reserve still.
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.
The 2016 vintage in Napa was nearly perfect for winemaker Kian Tavakoli (Opus One, Clos du Val). With ideal weather all throughout harvest, he crafted the Faustini Money Road Chardonnay off the famous vineyard located in the coveted Oakville AVA. The picturesque vineyard off Oakville Crossroad is platinum rated, known for its ideal combination of soil & climate and the big A list names that routinely source fruit. Kian’s Money Road Chard is still youthful despite having a few years of age, probably as a result of its 18 months of slumber in 1/4 new Oak.
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.
This hits all the right notes. Crisp and bright with crazy aromatics flashing floral notes, orange blossoms, lemon-line, honey, ginger, and honeydew with nectarine and passionfruit flavors and a super clean, citrusy finish.
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