Winemaker Notes
The 2017 ‘Coeur de Vallée’ is a complete and fantastic wine. The tannins are compact and full, with grace and elegance, and there is a creaminess to the fruit character, showcasing very pure and pretty currant and black fruit notes. Make no mistake- this is a beautiful and fragrant wine with excellent polish in its own right.
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
In 2017, this wine marks a year of transition for the Morlet family. A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc is sourced from the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard and the Morlet Family Cœur de Vallée Vineyard across Highway 29 in Oakville. It’s a complete and fantastic wine, crafted from smaller yields and picked well before the fires that year. The tannins are compact and full, with grace and elegance, and there is a creaminess to the fruit character, showcasing very pure and pretty currant and black fruit notes. The character is a bit more austere than the 2016 and perhaps not as suave, but make no mistake—this is a beautiful and fragrant wine with excellent polish in its own right.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Lots of smoky black fruits, graphite, and mineral notes emerge from the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur De Valle, which comes from a mix of To Kalon and the Coeur de Vallee Vineyard and is 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc. It shows the more plush style of To Kalon and is one of the more approachable Cabernets in the lineup, offering full-bodied richness, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a plush, sexy mouthfeel. It still has enough underlying tannins to warrant a few years of bottle age, but it’s going to drink beautifully for a solid two decades.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur de Vallee is a transitional vintage for this cuvée, with a portion of the fruit coming from Beckstoffer To Kalon and the rest from the young vines at Morlet's own Oakville vineyard. Scents of cedar, vanilla and tobacco accent cassis and plum on the nose, while the medium to full-bodied palate is nicely textured, turning velvety and chocolate-inflected on the finish.
-
Vinous
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Cœur de Vallée is an attractive wine. It is also the first edition of this Cabernet to include fruit from Luc and Jodie Morlet's estate vineyard in the center of St. Helena. Plum, leather and licorice accents give this mid-weight Cabernet lovely complexity. A dollop of Cabernet Franc from Beckstoffer To Kalon rounds out the blend. Overall, this is a lighter style than what Morlet fans are likely to expect, but all the elements are nicely balanced.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Home to some of the most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignon in America, Napa Valley’s Oakville district stretches across the center of Napa's valley floor and foothills between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains. This AVA is home to the legendary To Kalon Vineyard and Martha's Vineyard, as well as many powerhouse wineries including Screaming Eagle, Silver Oak, Robert Mondavi, Opus One, Far Niente and Groth.
The climate is generally warm and agreeable, resulting in year after year of favorable vintages. Summer days see a gentle tug of war between warmer inland air and the cool air coming in from the San Pablo Bay, creating an ideal environment to grow red varieties. Oakville's diverse soils, namely ancient sea bedrock, clay and gravel, are well-drained, and perfect for high-caliber viticulture.
Cabernet here is often bottled varietally but is also popular in Bordeaux Blends. Oakville wines are known for their silky, sensual textures, structured tannins, dark and brooding fruit and lovely aromatics. These age-worthy and prestigious wines are favored by collectors throughout the world.