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
$145.00 $119.00
Beaucastel, who we have been working with closely for the last couple of years have always been generous with their newest offerings, giving us first dibs or the best price in the country. But this time they cracked open the cellar and found 30 bottles of perfectly stored, mature and ready to drink 2009 for us.
The vintage was a warm one – traditionally a very good thing for CDP – and third in a trio of odd vintages (2005, 2007, & 2009) that set new standards in the region. With some many varieties in the blend, especially late-ripening Grenache, the warmer years tend to allow all the grape varieties to ripen and great vineyard managers make several passes picking at optimal maturity.
While the vintage was superb, Beaucastel came out even further ahead.
Only 2 left in stock
96 Points, Wine Spectator
One of the more endowed 2009s, this is packed with dark smoldering cocoa, mesquite, tobacco and roasted fig notes, all inlaid with pure cassis and plum preserves fruit flavors. Long and authoritative on the finish, with singed vanilla bean and tar notes adding length and dimension. Best from 2015 through 2026.
96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck
The 2009 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape had just been bottled at the time of the tasting but you wouldn’t know it by tasting it. A blend of 30% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and 20% assorted varieties, the wine delivers a superb aromatic display of kirsch and black cherry-like fruits to go with a solid dose of underlying meat, truffle, earth, and leather. Full-bodied and gorgeously concentrated through the middle, with fleshy, ripe fruit, good acidity, and an abundance of structure, this will ideally be left alone for 7-8 years and then consumed over the following two decades.
94 Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2009 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape is reminiscent of their brilliant 1985. It will be one of the rare Beaucastels that is drinkable upon release. Made from this estate’s classic blend, it possesses soft tannins as well as a silky, open-knit seductiveness, a dense plum/purple color and a beautiful perfume of smoky Provencal herbs intermixed with grilled steak juices, garrigue, kirsch and blue as well as black fruits. The wine is full-bodied, unctuously textured, and silky smooth (the latter characteristic being somewhat atypical for a young Beaucastel). If it performs like the 1985, it will drink well young and continue to do so for 25 or more years.
94 Points, James Suckling
A very warm year, this has extremely expressive grenache fruits, raspberry, some honey and a lithe juicy core. There’s a late creeping wave of smooth tannins. Darker plum fruits exude power through the finish. Stunning wine from a very ripe vintage.
96+ Points, Jeb Dunnuck
“Another brilliant wine from this team is the 2019 Hermitage, which spent 26 months in 50% new French oak and 50% in once-used barrels. Its dense purple color is followed by a massive array of ripe blackberry and cassis fruits interwoven with notes of scorched earth, subtle smoke, beef blood, and crushed rock. It’s big, full-bodied, concentrated, and opulent, yet it has ultra-fine tannins and impeccable balance as well. It’s going to take a decade to shed its baby fat (it offers ample pleasure today) but should have 20-30 years of overall longevity.”
Once again dialing up fruit from 1000-1500ft in elevation in the Dundee Hills, Chad’s 2021 is juicy, laser focused and roaring out of the gates. Chad tells me that similar wines (very similar wines) off this vineyard are raising their prices up to $55/bottle from $45 this year due to 2020’s lost year. But where most people are raising prices to recoup last year’s losses, the CHAD Pinot Noir price is somehow lower. A true gift from our favorite winemaker.
The next great Big Red in the long line from the Wagner family of Caymus fame. Like the previous Quilt offerings, this represents Joe Wagner’s pick of the litter of available vineyard sources that puts his inimitable blending abilities into play. In a vintage as easy and as heralded as 2021, the only difficulty the Wagners had was finding things they didn’t like. So explosive and juicy on the palate with a lush mouthfeel and silky smooth tannins. A winner for Napa and Big Red fans alike.
100 Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“Paolo di Marchi’s leaving present to Tuscany is this delightful 2019 Isole e Olena Cepparello. Cepparello is a blend of Sangiovese from different vineyards, selected by Di Marchi on the basis of “the best exposure, elevation, soil, genetics and age. I feel this adds complexity.” The first vintage was in 1980 when 100% Sangiovese was not permitted under the Chianti Classico rules. Those rules have since changed but the wine remains an IGT Toscana. It has a supremely enticing nose with cream and exotic spice, reminding me of Arabian spice markets. With the 2019 there is an added precision to the aromas, less heavy oak, and no greenness on the palate. It is concentrated with a rich velvety texture but without any heaviness and with a gentle unforced quality. The tannins are fine and very well integrated, in fact finer and better integrated than even the excellent 2016 vintage. It is of course very young now but it’s almost too delicious not to drink! Supremely graceful, it just gets better and better.” – Lisa Perotti-Brown
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