100% Carignane from a Historic Vineyard Society certified block of vines planted in 1936! Today we welcome one of our favorite winemakers to our Insider Deals, Markus Niggli.
We met Markus at the fascinating Mokelumne Glen Vineyard many years ago and were very impressed with the unique wines this Swiss winemaker was making. Fast forward to today and after having enjoyed many more bottles of his wines for many years now, we are delighted to finally offer one of them to you! And what a wine it is.
Aged 18 months in neutral oak, this is ancient vine Carignane, a black skinned grape native to Aragon in Spain. We don’t find many single varietal bottlings in the US, much less from vines that are 85 years-old! (Although if you’ve enjoyed some of our Peterson Winery deals, several of their wines have a good percentage of old vine Carignan in them.)
The 2021 vintage we are offering here has a 91-point rating from Wine Enthusiast and normally retails for $41. For the next day, however, you can get it for much lower than that…
Today’s deal gets you 4 bottles of the 2021 Markus Ancient Blocks Nicolini Ranch Carignane for just $XX.95 ($XX.XX/bottle). That’s a discount of XX%, SAVING you $XX a bottle!
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This 4-pack deal is available to ship to the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV and WY. (These states are dependent on the offering winery/licensee and are not representative of all our deals. Every deal can have different, sometimes more, sometimes less, states available.)
Shipping is a flat $7.99 per order, no matter how many 4-packs you buy. Packages ship via UPS Ground 5-10 days after the deal ends. If this is your first time ordering please check out the shipping section of our FAQ for more information. For your convenience you also have the option to select a UPS Store to ship to at checkout (with no extra fees) so you don’t have to be home to sign!
Read on for our full review.
Clicking on the Add To Cart button above will take you to our checkout at shop.reversewinesnob.com. Once there you can adjust the quantity of 4-packs in your order. Ends Wednesday 5/21/2025 at noon (PT).
From the winery:
One day while Markus was pruning the Church Block, Al Nicolini walked up and asked for help with his own vineyard. Though planted in 1936, the vines were in good shape, and Markus agreed. Now we are building on this history.
Pure Carignane with no blenders and no unnecessary winemaking can express itself as eminently elegant. In this bottling are tannins, but they contribute concentration rather than just body. The natural acidity of the variety balances loads of mouthwatering, refreshingly tart blackberries. A savoriness that is like a classic mirepoix infused with coffee builds on the lasting finish.
Think Pinot Noir or Cru Beaujolais when figuring out what to cook with it. Coq au vin or duck or something savory and herb-laden would be the right direction.
Student Jennifer Nava artfully expresses the graceful elegance from these old vines.
100% Carignane
HARVESTED: September 17, 2021 by hand at dawn
FERMENTATION: 74°F 7 days steel, native yeast, native ML
CELLAR: 18 months, all neutral oak
CASES: 400 cases bottled April 8, 2023, sterile filtered
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 0.30 g/L dry
pH: 3.66
TA: 5.80 g/L
RELEASED: July 2023Produced and Bottled by Markus Wine Co.
14.5% Alcohol
Cork
And now on to our review:
The 2021 Markus Ancient Blocks Nicolini Ranch Carignane needs a little bit of time in the glass but then it unleashes quite a savory aroma of blackberry, mulberry, black cherry, strawberry, lovely baking spice, coffee, lavender, a touch of wintergreen and much more. It’s simply lovely.
The medium-bodied wine tastes quite savory when tasting too. It’s smooth and easy to drink yet also has layers of flavors and complexity plus great acidity. I love this!
It ends dry, quite long, juicy and savory on the satisfying, mouth-watering finish. It also held up quite admirably to the spicy butter chicken we paired it with. It was just as good on day 2. We put this at the high end of our 9 Taste Rating at 92-93 points.
Cheers,
Jon
2021 MARKUS ANCIENT BLOCKS NICOLINI RANCH CARIGNANE
RECOMMENDED BUY
Here’s what people are saying about our Insider Deals:
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“We purchased several times and have been massively impressed. Thank you.”
Get the 2021 Markus Ancient Blocks Nicolini Ranch Carignane 4-Pack while you can! This deal ends Wednesday 5/21 at noon Pacific.
If you have more questions or any trouble ordering, please check out our FAQ or just click the Help button at checkout! No account is necessary to save your info for future orders or to checkout. GPay and Apple Pay are also enabled.
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