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
$40.00 $30.00
Wine Spectator is a pretty stingy and well-respected wine publication. So when they give any region a 99-point preliminary score for a vintage… well you know you have something very special. That’s exactly what happened for the 2016 vintage in the Southern Rhone. Famous consultant Philippe Cambie mixed no words when he declared, “2016 has tannin, fruit, freshness and power. It’s the best vintage of my life.”
With a damp winter leading to late flowering and then essentially perfect conditions throughout spring and summer, the crop was large and very healthy in 2016. Virtually ever winery got to be choosy with their fruit, only using the best fruit, and dropping the rest. Throughout the entire south of France, the collective quality has never sniffed these heights.
Of course, within the Rhone, there is nobody as world renowned for quality and excellence as Etienne Guigal. The winery is easily one of the most recognizable, with their single-vineyard Côte-Rôties fetching nearly $1,000/btl and always receiving massive scores. Every year their wines are sensational across the board – but in a dream year like 2016, their Gigondas is so freaking good, it shames and even outpoints CDPs that cost three and four times the price!
Unsurprisingly, all four major critics who got their hands on a bottle went wild. Wine Enthusiast gave it a 93-point Editors’ Choice review where they declared: “Gravitas and structure set apart Guigal’s 2016 Gigondas from its more zaftig peers.” Wine & Spirits had similar praise. But the Wine Advocate’s former French editor, Jeb Dunnuck was not to be outdone, calling the wine, “drop-dead gorgeous” and “the Best Gigondas ever from Guigal” in his rave 95-point review.
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95 Points, Jeb Dunnuck
“The finest effort I’ve tasted from this estate’s Gigondas, their 2016 is a drop-dead gorgeous wine.. Loads of framboise, lavender, garrigue, and hints of game emerge from this sweetly fruited, full-bodied, powerful yet elegant. It’s beautiful wine and I continue to believe that 2016 is one of the greatest vintages ever (if not the greatest) for the Southern Rhône. You can drink this beauty any time over the coming 15-20 years.”
93 Points (Editors’ Choice), Wine Enthusiast
This wine is sourced from vines averaging 40 years old and matured two years in oak (50% new). Gravitas and structure set apart Guigal’s 2016 Gigondas from its more zaftig peers. A delicately smoky, peppery blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre, it offers blackberry and plum flavors that are ripe yet piercing. It’s muscular and sharply edged, marked by brisk acidity and lingering hints of tobacco leaf, earth and clove. Approachable now, the wine should improve through 2030.
93 Points, Wine & Spirits
Like all of Guigal’s wines, this was treated to extended aging in house-coopered barrels. The two years it spent in wood seems to have preserved the freshness of the fruit: The flavors are herbal and spicy, with bright tart-cherry flavors deepening to marasca cherry. It feels full and lively, layered and elegant, delicious now and structured to age well over the next five to ten years.
92 Points, Parker’s Wine Advocate
Guigal’s 2016 Gigondas offers up a luscious mouthful of pomegranate and raspberry fruit. Sourced from higher elevations within the appellation, it’s full-bodied and velvety, but it retains a paradoxical sense of lightness and remains easy to drink, adding hints of garrigue on the finish.
Chad’s 2020 McKinley Springs Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is drop dead gorgeous. Those of you who were lucky to catch our sneak preview when we put it in our Gobbler Case can attest. Dark purple to the rim with aromas of black fruits, violets, creme de cassis and a hint of spice. On the palate, full-bodied, round and juicy with elegance and the gorgeous, pure fruit– red and black currants, blackberries and a touch of sweet tobacco.
It’s always nice to be in good standing with one of the most beloved wine brands in America! Our special relationship with the Wagner has granted us incredible access on their newest release! These won’t last long! This is an opulent, powerful dark-fruited Cabernet with tightly woven tannins, that is just raring and ready to go. Textbook, full-bodied, revved up and ready to go, this new Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet is the definition of a crowd pleaser.
Wines from this winery often go for FOUR figures; well over a thousand dollars per bottle and basic bottlings off this particular vineyard typically retail for $350. This is one of the great vineyards of Stag’s Leap – but somehow Ry Richards was able to weasel out six barrels – as long as he never reveals his source. This is a knock-out Cabernet Sauvignon, perfect with grilled beef or with just a hunk of cheese. And with a little help from Ry, Nicholas Wines customers can enjoy a price way, way below market value for a wine like this.
Soon to be Rated
With Herve and Fabre Montmayou wracking up NYT features, huge scores, gold medals and lifetime achievement awards, I’m left with one choice: get in now or be left in the cold. Waiting for the scores to roll in is a luxury that we know longer have with Fabre Montmayou. Good for the winery, but not so good for us. Rest assured though, the 2020 Cabernet Franc Herve sent me is fantastic, and will surely be minted with the same kind of high-flying praise as the vintage before it. But by that time, you’ll only have a bottle or two left in the cellar.
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