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
$34.00 $27.50
93 Points, JS
When I was at Lemelson a few years ago, they walked me through their one-of-a-kind gravity flow winery with a spider looking machine that looks like the movie Wild Wild West, and a three-story gravity flow operation that has the winemaking team walking up and down regularly to check on the state of things. It made me think that no winery can boast the kind of calves that Eric Lemelson and his team can.
It does make a difference in the wine though– no pumps, no machines, no additives — just the purest expression of Willamette Valley Pinot possible with virtually no human intervention. It’ll never pay off what it cost, but I’m pretty sure the Lemelson’s aren’t worried– the payout is in the finished product.
After my tour, I was treated to a tasting of the white flight followed by the reds. They really make some fantastic estate grown wines. My favorite of the bunch came early in the Red flight, a flawless Pinot Noir that I was told was called Thea’s Selection. It was an absolute knockout, outclassing many of their single-vineyard bottlings (an observation I chose not to share with their winemaker, Matt Wengel) – though he could easily tell how much I liked it.
Released at $34/bottle, the Thea’s Selection Pinot Noir is arguably the most well known in Lemelson’s impressive collection. It’s made from a blend of all seven 100% organic certified estate vineyards, spread across arguably the two best wine AVAS in the state, Dundee Hills and Yamhill-Carlton. A constant 92+ point getter, it’s graced Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list twice in its short existence and in a sensational 2018 vintage, it threatens to do so again.
It’s just so fresh and vibrant with an emphatic expression of berries and herbs and an effortless smoothness that lasts through the finish. It’s Oregon Pinot at its best– when you feel like you’re drinking silk. I’m getting in before Enthusiast and Spectator review it– but it’s already attached to a 93-point review from the busiest man in wine, James Suckling.
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93 Points, James Suckling
Cherries, watermelon, stewed strawberries, mocha and nutmeg on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with powdery tannins and spicy, cedary character. Polished. Drink now or hold.
The Adaptation Cabernet allows superstar winemaker Jeff Owens to make a Cabernet with other Bordeaux varietals from a collection of the top vineyards from across the valley. This is PlumpJack’s “Quilt” so to speak. It features Cabernet along the Silverado Trail in Stag’s Leap from their own Odette Vineyards as well as Heitz’s Trailside Vineyard, to go with fruit from St. Helena, Chaix’s vineyard in Rutherford, Merlot form mountainous terrain of Howell Mountain, along with fruit from Oak Knoll, and Carneros. Together, this blend comes together effortlessly Owens, who has woven a particularly juicy, dark-fruited Cab that will knock peoples’ socks off.
99 Pts, Vinous – 97 Pts (Cellar Selection), Wine Enthusiast– 97 Pts, Spectator – 97 Pts, Wine Advocate
Antonio Galloni called it, “hands down one of the wines of the vintage.” The Wine Advocate chipped in with “a refreshing, beautifully perfumed and skillfully crafted expression of the vintage.” Here’s what I’ll say: How could you do any better than securing a few bottles of a wine with 30-40 years of life left that is already showing better than giants such as Lafite, Margaux and Le Pin. There aren’t many years in Bordeaux’s history where one of the top 3-5 wines of the vintage was a $105 bottling and not one available at four figures.
In Burgundy’s outraegous 2019 vintage, this is one of the bottles I’m recommending people load up on. It’s gorgeous. Don’t just take my word for it, this is what The Wine Advocate had to say about the wine: “The 2019 Givry Rouge is already hard to resist, bursting with aromas of sweet berries and warm spices. Medium to full-bodied, lively and charming, with melting tannins and juicy acids, it has turned out beautifully.”
This year, the Eastside Cuvee hails from a primo vineyard just off the Silverado Trail– perfectly positioned next to neighbors Caymus and Frog’s Leap and just down the road, Quintessa. Amongst the elite, Carl Roy’s team locked into some incredible fruit, with gorgeous blackberry jammy opulence, firm grippy tannins and that signature Rutherford earthiness to the finish that many try to emulate but can only be produced off the special soil from which this beauty was created.
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