2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur De Vallée

Auslieferung bis zum Frühjahr 2026!
Delivery until Spring 2026!

(Oakville, Napa Valley; 97% Cabernet Sauvignon; 3% Cabernet Franc; 15.5% 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; 2007 was the first vintage here). Beautifully crystalline with that lovely ‘Morlet’ hint of cordite and struck match, also flint on flint! Sparky! Black cherry. Blueberry. Black raspberry. Cassis. Goji berry. A hint of Kirsch. Beeswax. A suggestion of tobacco leaf. Bay leaf too. There’s a lovely classical cedar note too. Pink rose petals. A little lily of the valley. Saffron. Dark chocolate-coated violets. Walnut oil. And that’s just the aromatics! This is incredibly spherical at the core. Dense and compact but not excessively so. It’s reminiscent of the 2020, if perhaps a little cooler at the core and it gives the impression of having a little less alcohol (though we’re still at 15.5%). Pencil shavings reinforce the sense of classicism here. This is a very Bordeaux-styled Napa! Texturally sublime. This is layered, but it’s actually more like the concentric circles of the cross-section of the old oak tree – with greater and greater density towards the centre! Dark at the core. There’s perhaps a little more residual oak than in the most recent vintages I’ve tasted at this stage. But the quality of the tannins is incredible and the aging potential colossal.
98/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business

Bitter black chocolate, powerful, concentrated, red pepper spices, tapenade, red liquorice, baking spice, cassis. Always an extremely impressive wine that has real uplift and power, and a ton of Napa generosity. Mature and ready to drink, but will easily hold for another decade or more. 100% new oak in 600l casks. Unfiltered and unfined. Harvest October 11 to 18, from a season that allowed for long, slow ripening. Daughter Clare Morlet is now joining the estate, fresh from her masters in science and business and has been working with them for past 12 months. Released in the States previously, this is the first release in Europe.
97/100 Jane Anson