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
$24.00 $18.50
The master tinkerer Xavier Vignon was challenged a bit in the 2017 vintage by early bad weather, but a string of good luck weather wise when it mattered and a pivot in winemaking strategies proved pivotal and he ended up turning out some of the best wines in his already illustrious career.
2017 was Xavier’s highest ever rated CDR 100% from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. It was described as, “Rich, velvety and long”. All three adjectives accurately describe what Xavier Vignon believes might be his greatest vintage of winemaking yet. The new, fresh off the boat 100% Cotes du Rhone probably offers the best value in his impressive arsenal, with big, juicy flavors that just flood out of this one. Jammy raspberries and blueberries, wild earth and sage. This is the ideal wine to enjoy with most anything at the table or by itself so it can truly shine.
Out of stock
90-92 Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“Rich, velvety and long, the 2017 Cotes du Rhone 100% looks like another winning example of this cuvée. It’s full-bodied, bursting with grape, boysenberry and blueberry fruit, yet it remains fresh and mouthwatering on the finish.”
I visited Xavier Vignon at his aging-bottling cellar in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, just beside Château des Fines Roches. He does most of the vinifications at another facility in Beaumes de Venise. Vignon, who started out as a winemaking consultant, sources grapes from many clients and former clients throughout the Southern Rhône for his own various labels. Fascinated by blending and tinkering, tasting with him is something like meeting with a benevolent mad scientist—there are so many different experiments to try, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with what is what. Many of his wines are released quite late onto the market, as he prefers to age wines up to three winters before bottling and two winters after bottling. On the other hand, many of his 2016s are already in bottle. “2016 was just like a dream,” he said. “The best autumn I’ve ever seen.” In 2017, Vignon cut way back on extraction, basically relying on infusion once past the midpoint of fermentation, to avoid extracting any hard tannins.”
The ‘16s are big wines, loaded with complex fruit but remain fresh, with low ph, making them great at any dinner table this week and every week for the next decade
A roasted leg of lamb is a perfect match!
100 Points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 89.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6.5% Cabernet Franc and 4.0% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs of lot of swirling to unlock the most gorgeous perfume of bright black and red cherries, fresh blueberries and blackcurrant pastilles with hints of roses, cinnamon stick and orange peel. Medium-bodied, elegant and tightly wound, the palate shimmers with SO MUCH energy, featuring layer upon layer of floral, savory and crunchy black fruit notes, finishing long and minerally. This is a remarkably poised, seemingly effortless beauty that cannot fail to make your jaw drop. Forget it in the cellar for a good 3-5 years, at least, to allow all those nuances to fully emerge and then savor it over the next 30 years+.” -Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW
95 Points, James Suckling – 93 Points, Jeb Dunnuck
From the creative mind and winemaking prowess of Screaming Eagle’s own Andy Erickson, comes a passion project unlike any other. The goal at Leviathan is to make only one wine a year– the biggest red in the U.S. Sourced from some of the best vineyards up and down the coast (you can thank Andy and Screaming Eagle for that), this Bordeaux blend features ample Cabernet rounded out with Petit Verdot and Merlot. It’s a big, intense wine that will only get better with age, though its great right now and amazingly under $40/btl for an Andy Erickson wine. That should be more than enough any day!
92 Points, Wine Enthusiast
The 2019 Wentworth Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a beauty. Made with 100% Estate Grown, organically farmed fruit from Wentworth’s noteworthy Anderson Valley vineyard. It’s made from a variety of different clones: Dijon 115, 667 and Pommard 5, that seamlessly blend to make an exciting, full-bodied Pinot. You can taste the extra flair courtesy of the 1/4 wholecluster fermentation. This is fresh and juicy and fantastic to pair with food.
92 Points (#1 2018 Cru Bourgeois), Vinous – 91 Points, James Suckling
Bordeaux expert Neil Martin at Vinous looked in-depth at the 2018 vintage and offered that it was “a wellspring of wines of exceptional quality and unbeatable prices at decent quantities.” He went on to name some of the Cru Bourgeois from the entire vintage and at the top of his list was the 2018 Chateau Prieure de Beyzac Haut-Medoc. With incredibly gravelly, clay limestone soil, the tiny, swanky producer is able to make some staggering Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Clearly the wine made an enormous impression with Martin, who lobbed a 92-point score on a wine he deemed, “absolutely superb.”
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