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.
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Winemaker Kian Tavakoli (Opus One, Clos du Val) continues to excel even while others struggle. In 2017, he still managed to deliver a beautiful and opulent Napa Valley Cabernet that’s both dark and juicy. The wine hails from both Coombsville and Rutherford, giving it distinct characteristics and a lot of drive. Deep ruby to the rim with excellent concentration, notes of Bing cherries, raspberry pie and hints of vanilla. On the palate, big wonderfully jammy fruit with young but impressive tannins and great length. The finish leaves notes of black cherry, and baked blueberry pie. Fantastic Napa value.
In the 2020 vintage in Gevrey-Chambertin, yields were super low and temperatures were hotter than most Burgundian winemakers are accustomed. Many picked too late when the sugars were high and the fruit really ripe, but that was not the play. Still, Ann remained as cool in those hot temps as she did so many years ago in Napa, concentrating more on acid levels than sugars and picking at just the right time. This wine is absolutely singing – it’s an age-worthy beauty that should be even better in 4-7 years.
94 Points, Tasting Panel
This is a really exciting new release in the collection of single-vineyards from the Wagner Family, and arguably the most interesting one of the bunch. This is the only Pinot Noir in the Caymus collection that has the advantage of being from a natural Pinot Noir haven in the Russian River Valley. Dairyman Vineyard’s proximity to the pacific ocean, with its morning fog and afternoon coastal breezes allows for an even and elongated growing season, with super concentrated and expressive grape clusters that help make this Dijon clone Pinot Noir one that you need.
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