2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur De Vallée

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The texture is luscious, with a cut of orange zest adding depth and balance, full of Napa character in terms of its muscularity and pleasure. Blueberry, damson, black cherry, rose bud, capsicum, olive paste, cocoa bean, espresso, tobacco, all fermented in 600 litre french oak casks. A dry season, with rain only really falling in January and February, and although temperatures didn't climb too high, and the wines have an intensity to them that is arresting and full of charm. 85% new oak barrels for ageing, Darnajou and Gauthier Frères. Luc Morlet, always one of the most thoughtful winemakers in Napa, is the owner at this exceptional vineyard that has the To Kalon creek running through it. Organic farming, bottled unfiltered and unfined.
95/100 Jane Anson

Coeur de Vallée’ is deep garnet-purple in color. After a little swirling, the nose erupts with scents of boysenberry preserves and blackcurrant jelly leading to nuances of wild sage, violets, and underbrush plus a hint of tapenade. The medium to full-bodied palate has wonderful freshness, with firm, plush tannins and bags of black fruit and mineral layers, finishing on a lingering mineral note.
98/100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown; The Wine Independent

Morlet Coeur de Vallée 2021 (Oakville, Napa Valley; 95% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Cabernet Franc; 15.6% alcohol; aged 16 months in French oak, 85% of which was new; tasted in person with Luc Morley at the CVBG press tasting; essentially the last part of the Oakville Valley to be planted though historically vines had been grown there; a terroir of gravel on a very fine-grained loamy subsoil, the alluvial deposits washed down from the Kalon Creek; picked four rows at a time with a team of 8 at night; naturally fermented in 600-litre French oak puncheons; unfined and unfiltered). Such an impressive wine, above all in this excellent vintage. The 2020 was fabulous, especially given the context of a difficult vintage, this is as brilliant in the context of an exceptional vintage (not least as there is no hint here of the drought conditions that were the challenge of this year). For me, alongside Cristina’s Signature and the Peter Michael wines, this is the pick of the US releases on la place this year. And of those this is also perhaps the most Bordelais. Cedar. Black cherry, black currant, bramble, damson, a little walnut and coffee bean and perhaps a suggestion of fine first-press peppery olive oil. Violet, iris and iris bulb too. Pen ink. There’s staggering concentration here, and great density – the effect achieved by the wonderfully authentic Cabernet Sauvignon tannins whose fine granularity engages to fight with the external parameters of the palate, never allowing the wine to veer far from a supremely well-defined central spine. That might imply a wine that’s a bit severe. But that’s not at all the case here. For this is so silkily textured. The quality of the pixilating tannins is remarkable and that gives this an incredible clarity and crystallinity in the mid-palate for something with so much extract and concentration. And that, in turn, allows the fruit to dance and play, to glisten and glide, releasing sapidity and the Cabernet Franc’s herbal florality, above all with gentle aeration in the mouth. Exquisite already, but with the capacity to age glacially (this is more of a vin de garde than the more immediately accessible 2020). The length of my tasting note indicates my sheer enthusiasm. Joyous. 100.
100/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business