Support Our Restaurant Partners!

April 4, 2020 Kurt DeLashmet

Here’s a list of all our De Nux customers and friends who are still offering to-go food and beverages!

Featured Winery: Williams Selyem

January 29, 2018 Kurt DeLashmet

De Nux proudly welcomes Sonoma county legend Williams Selyem to Arkansas!

Williams Selyem Winery began as a simple dream of two friends, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams, who pursued weekend winemaking as a hobby in 1979 in a garage in Forestville, California. In less than two decades, Burt and Ed created a cult-status winery of international acclaim. Together they set a new standard for Pinot Noir winemaking in the United States, aligning Sonoma County's Russian River Valley in the firmament of the best winegrowing regions of the world. Today John and Kathe Dyson, who purchased the winery from Burt and Ed in 1998, carry on the passion for Pinot Noir winemaking without compromise. As for the wines... they just keep getting better and better, consistently receiving top scores and acclaim from critics and consumers alike.

Today, the wines of Williams Selyem are primarily available through the winery's mailing list, created in 1987 out of a need to deal with increased demand from consumers. However, a small percentage of wine, both their flagship Pinot Noirs and smaller production wines like Chardonnay and Zinfandel, is released to distributors two times a year to find their way to top retail and restaurant accounts.

Our first round of wine is on its way! Available quantities are extremely limited for both retail and restaurant sales. Here's what to look out for:

2016 Unoaked Chardonnay

The yellowish-green color hints that this wine comes from a cool climate. The aromas are like a basket full of peaches, quince, and Asian pears. The fruit fragrance transitions to an alluring jasmine perfume. The palate is wonderfully balanced with flavors of pear and yellow apple that give way to stone fruit with a floral lift. Round and persistent throughout, the wine finishes with a refreshing and delicate minerality. Chardonnay is a great mate to barrel fermentation and ageing, but this is an excellent example of richness without oak. Previous vintage scores: 91pts Wine Enthusiast

2016 Central Coast Pinot Noir

The nose leads with aromas of plum and berries intermixed with crushed rocks. Notes of pomegranate are counterpointed with lively elements of orange peel and dried flowers. The entry is fat with a mid-palate lift of plum and flowers. The tannins are very tea-like, and carry on to the elegant finish with a touch of fresh acidity. An impression of minerals and earthiness is conveyed throughout the palate, adding intrigue and complexity. The palate is uniquely soft and chalky, and is filled with flavors of berry and mocha, with a subtle toasted almond finish. Previous vintage scores: 94pts Wine Enthusiast

2016 Sonoma County Pinot Noir

Sourced from the Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast AVAs, the Sonoma County epitomizes elegance. Notes of strawberry and cherry are complemented by blueberry aromas. Hints of dried herbs and allspice combine with a sensation of Earl Grey tea. The palate mimics the nose with pretty strawberry and cherry flavors, and an added essence of plum. There is enough acidity to provide freshness all the way to the cherry stone sensation on the finish. This is a serious wine that is fruit-forward yet can definitely be enjoyed in its youth. Previous vintage scores: 92pts Wine Enthusiast

2016 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

The beautiful garnet color of this wine is alluring. Prototypical in its aromatic profile, the 2016 Russian River Valley leads with dried rose petals, potpourri, red cherry, raspberry, and notes of Ceylon tea. Additional aromas of dried orange peel studded with cloves mix with vanilla bean and cedar shavings to perfectly compliment the primary fruit characteristics. Robust and rich on the tongue, the wine seems to fill every square inch of the palate. Flavors of maraschino cherry, ripe berries, and dried herbs combine to make a powerful flavor profile. The tannins are quite refined and convey a sense of sap and tenacity. Another excellent wine from a great growing region! Previous vintage scores: 94pts Wine Enthusiast, 90pts Wine and Spirits

2016 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

The 2016 Sonoma Coast highlights the wild side of Pinot Noir. This wine evokes the smells of walking a trail on the coast through a redwood forest. Notes of dried herbs and sous bois mix with wild berry fruits and cedar. The aromas are further complexed with dried citrus peel, clove, and allspice. The palate typifies the coastal tannin profile, with robust finishes of citrus peel and gravelly stone. The structured and mineral-driven palate exudes flavors of cherry pit, flowers, and coffee. Previous vintage scores: 95pts Wine Enthusiast

2016 Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir

There is always a fineness to Westside Road Neighbors, and the 2016 does not disappoint! The nose starts out with red cherry, wild berries, and plum, and brightens up with notes of juniper berry, citrus, and redwood shavings. A brooding element lurks in the background and evokes thoughts of Asian spices. With time in the glass, the wine opens up with aromas of flowers and lavender. The wine is very focused in the mouth, and has a very protracted mouthfeel. Flavors of raspberry, cherry, and cranberry, with a smoked meat finish are interwoven in the palate architecture. The full-bodied tannins are reminiscent of Oolong tea. Polished and balanced, the wine’s texture is superb and highlights the best of what Pinot Noir can be. Previous vintage scores: 93pts Wine Enthusiast, 93pts Vinous, 92pts Wine and Spirits

Happy hunting!!

Featured Winery: Corison

November 7, 2017 Kurt DeLashmet

Few wineries in the Napa Valley have the ironclad reputation of Corison, one of California's great Cabernet Sauvignon institutions. The Corison Winery is located right on the main drag in St. Helena on Highway 128, surrounded by the one of the oldest Cab vineyards in the valley. Housed in a modest barn which serves as both the winery and tasting room, tucked between vanity chateaus and giant names like Provenance, Opus One, and Del Dotto, Corison has developed a cult-like following by producing a decidedly different style of wine than most of their neighbors, one that favors aromatic complexity, freshness, and balance to flavor density and ripeness.

Behind these wines is Cathy Corison, the first female winemaker-proprietor in Napa Valley. Cathy grew up in Riverside, California. She studied biology at Pomona College and caught the winemaking bug after taking an wine tasting class while still in school. After she graduated in 1975, Cathy moved to Napa Valley to search for a career in the wine business. She later went on to earn a Master's in Enology from UC Davis.

In the early days of her career, Cathy experienced resistance from the male-dominated wine community in Napa. Even while in school at UC Davis, she was told by her professors and other industry folk that she would never be hired as a winemaker in Napa Valley. At the time, many women were barred from working on the production floor and instead were encouraged to do lab work. Corison decided against working in the lab and in 1978 she eventually found work as an intern at Freemark Abbey. A short time later, she became a winemaker for the winery.

This was just the beginning for Cathy. Her success led to a 10-year residency at Chappellet winery, where she produced some of the winery's most iconic vintages. She went on to produce wines for several other notable names, such as Staglin Family Vineyard, York Creek Vineyards and Long Meadow Ranch. Many years of winemaking for others honed her skills and left her eager to express her own winemaking voice. In 1987, she founded her own label and made the first vintage of Corison Cabernet. Two years later and Cathy had quit her day job, cellar-hopping between different wineries producing wine for her personal label. In 1995, after years of searching, she finally found Corison a home: a old vineyard in St. Helena on Bale loam, a stony, alluvial soil, rare for the valley and ideal for the Cabernet vine.

The wines of Cathy Corison set a standard of elegance for Napa Valley. Her methods are guided by a simple philosophy: to let the wine speak for itself. Methodical care for her old-vine Cabernet vineyard (organically farmed for 20+ years), a careful selection of oak, and a gentle, precise touch in the winery result in wines that are both powerful and delicate, finishing at around 13% with amazing aromatic complexity and structure.

Cathy has received various accolades and awards over the years, including being named the San Francisco Chronicle's Winemaker of the Year in 2011, and the wines consistently earn top scores every vintage. We absolutely love these wines here at De Nux and we are thrilled to be bringing them here to the state of Arkansas. Here's the lineup for the fall of 2017:

2013 Corison Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - $95.00 approximate retail

"Harmony and unity define this vintage. With a year in the bottle, the 2014 is beginning to blossom. A warm spring, following one of the driest winters on record, got the ball rolling early with the set of small, concentrated berries. Moving into summer, the remainder of the season was moderate, giving us the long, cool season I hope for. Leaning more toward the darker end of the Cabernet fruit spectrum this year, the wine exhibits plum, black raspberry and blackberry aromas and flavors while maintaining the red cherry core typical of Corison Napa Valley Cabernet. Hints of exotic garrigue include savory thyme, rosemary, violet and rose scents. Minerality adds verve, and top notes of smoke, baking spices, cedar and dark chocolate complete the kaleidoscopic complexity." - Cathy Corison

2013 Corison "Kronos" Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - Restaurant Only

"Wow. This inky wine jumps out of the glass with ripe boysenberries and floral perfume. 2013 was a near-perfect vintage with ideal spring weather for flowering, which resulted in a bumper crop of deliciousness. With highs seldom climbing out of the 80F’s and chilly nighttime lows, an unseasonably cool summer gave the wine its firm structure. Lush ripe red fruit with balancing natural acidity complement the characteristic Kronos viscosity. The tannins are assertive but feel like velvet." - Cathy Corison