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
$900.00 $725.00
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The term ‘Cult Winery’ definitely gets thrown a lot unnecessarily but that truly is the best way to describe the Hundred Acre Vineyard project. No one is sure exactly how long the waitlist is, but the access to Ark, Kayli Morgan and Few Vineyards automatically propels this project into rare air. Put that together with Jayson Woodbridge and Philippe Melka the winemakers behind it, and this is one of the all-time Napa Cab Cult Collectors.
Woodbridge recently purchased a tiny, well-situated hillside parcel above the Eisele Vineyard, southeast of Calistoga. All things considered, this is an extraordinary group of wines. They are not easy to secure unless you are on Hundred Acre’s mailing list, but they are truly profound offerings that showcase a variety of Napa Valley terroirs as well as different harvesting and barrel aging techniques.
Dark Ark comes from the legendary Ark Vineyard, the 11-acre vineyard located on Glass Mountain above St. Helena at the base of Howell Mountain. It’s a darker, more minerally version of the regular Ark Vineyard bottling. It’s simply breathtaking especially in Napa’s outstanding 2018 vintage which is probably how it wound up with double 99+ point reviews from two separate expert reviewers. Because it’s Woodbridge and everything he makes is gold, I think there’s a reluctancy to give it a 100-point score, but double 99+ points says this one is still undoubtedly one of the greatest wines made anywhere in the 2018 vintage.
“Dark Ark is a selection of barrels from the Ark vineyard that were bottled separately. It comes from a pre-blending selection of barrels that were notably denser and more powerful than the others this vintage. Some of these were blended into the single-vineyard Ark label, but when their contribution to the blend began to detract from the essence of that wine, the remaining barrels were bottled separately. Jayson Woodbridge dubbed the wine “Dark Ark” and the name stuck.” -Lisa Perroti-Brown, The Wine Advocate
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99+ Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Dark Ark offers up gregarious notes of stewed plums, Christmas pudding, Chinese five spice and scorched earth, followed by suggestions of molten rocks, smoked meats, tilled soil and truffles. Full-bodied, the palate reveals tightly packed layers of black fruit preserves and earthy nuances, supported by ripe, fine-grained tannins and a lively backbone, finishing long and enticingly restrained.”
99+ Points, Jeb Dunnuck
“The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Dark Ark is unquestionably cut from the same cloth as the base Ark Vineyard, although, as the name suggests, it is slightly darker and more mineral-laced. Dense purple-hued, with powerful notes of blue fruits, smoked tobacco, violets, and damp earth, it has perfectly integrated background oak, ripe, building, flawless tannins, and a great, great finish, and I love its purity of fruit. This is going to benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age and keep through 2045.”
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The newly released Fiancetto Howell Mt. Cabernet is a dream – a gorgeous, elegant dark-fruited Cabernet Sauvignon that is it picks up time in the glass, unfurls its full signature of cedar laced cassis nose and mid palate of chocolate-covered cherries and savory spices. Only four palates of this (224 cases) were made off a gorgeous, sprawling high elevation spot 1500 feet above sea level. It’s full and plush and finishes fresh and oh so long. The price is crazy for Howell Mountain Cabernet but that’s what Ry Richards and Fiancetto is all about.
At J Vineyards, Nicole is nothing short of a magician, making 30 different skus or more each vintage between her Pinots, Chardonnays, and Sparkling wines. For the vineyard’s flagship Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, up to 100 individual small lots are combined to make this great wine. Somehow, the blend is effortless–a quintessential RRV Pinot that has those soaring aromatics, bright red fruits, clove, and nutmeg spice with perfect balance.
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.
Winemaker Pascal Sirat consistently puts out some of the best value Bordeaux in the region but he may have outdone himself in what was a stellar 2019 vintage throughout the region. Just south of Pomerol, the vines at Panchille borrow deep in the soil. The resulting wines are ripe but fresh, with an aromatic complexity and stony finish usually reserved for wine twice the price. Daniel Boulud tells me it’s been the hottest bottle of wine at Bar Boulud for over a month, so I figured I’d better hurry up and secure my allocation! Don’t miss it.
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