Morlet, Coeur De Vallée 2018
Napa Valley
USA, USA
Regular price£1,110.00
/
Arriving: Late 2025
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| Style: Red | Packaging: OWC |
| ABV: 15.5% | Closure: Cork |
| Organic: | Drink from: 2018 |
| Biodynamic: | Drink to: 2040 |
| Grapes: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc | |
Critic scores
97 RP, 95 AG, 97 JA, 98 DC, 98 DB
Critic reviews
"The first vintage to come entirely from Morlet's own vineyard, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur de Vallee features loads of mixed red and blue fruit. A blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc, it's full-bodied and plush yet nicely balanced and bright, with fine freshness and verve, framed by soft tannins. Perhaps it's a touch less concentrated than some other vintages, but it's absolutely charming and delicious."
Joe Czerwinski, October 2024, RobertParker.com
"The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur de Valle is a gracious, elegant wine. Silky tannins and mid-weight structure give the 2018 superb polish. Sweet florals and spices are laced into a core of inky red/purplish berry fruit. This is an especially understated vintage for the Coeur de Valle, but all the elements are so impeccably balanced. This is a remarkable wine for a vineyard that were just four years old at the time."
Antonio Galloni, February 2021, Vinous.com
"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."
Jane Anson, July 2025, JaneAnson.com
"Such a delicious wine from Luc Morlet, the first vintage to use entirely estate-grown fruit. Caramel, toasted edges, fragrant and highly scented, perfumed with toasted edges. Strawberries, ripe and fragrant. Liquorice, graphite and blueberries, the nose is really quite compelling. Subtle and so seductive in a quiet way. Really gentle and lightly footed. There's concentration and complexity but this has lost its baby fat and any pent up power and has started to relax and give lots of enjoyment. Long but not too much, it’s graceful and effortless. The texture is incredible - a touch of crispness, flesh and grip with some warming spice and heat towards the finish too. Leave to air and enjoy. Starting to really hit its stride but will continue to age beautifully. It’s fiery but delivered so excellently. A gourmet wine, have with food and a cold winter’s night."
Georgina Hindle, July 2025, Decanter.com
"(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."
Colin Hay, August 2025, DrinksBusiness.com
Joe Czerwinski, October 2024, RobertParker.com
"The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Coeur de Valle is a gracious, elegant wine. Silky tannins and mid-weight structure give the 2018 superb polish. Sweet florals and spices are laced into a core of inky red/purplish berry fruit. This is an especially understated vintage for the Coeur de Valle, but all the elements are so impeccably balanced. This is a remarkable wine for a vineyard that were just four years old at the time."
Antonio Galloni, February 2021, Vinous.com
"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."
Jane Anson, July 2025, JaneAnson.com
"Such a delicious wine from Luc Morlet, the first vintage to use entirely estate-grown fruit. Caramel, toasted edges, fragrant and highly scented, perfumed with toasted edges. Strawberries, ripe and fragrant. Liquorice, graphite and blueberries, the nose is really quite compelling. Subtle and so seductive in a quiet way. Really gentle and lightly footed. There's concentration and complexity but this has lost its baby fat and any pent up power and has started to relax and give lots of enjoyment. Long but not too much, it’s graceful and effortless. The texture is incredible - a touch of crispness, flesh and grip with some warming spice and heat towards the finish too. Leave to air and enjoy. Starting to really hit its stride but will continue to age beautifully. It’s fiery but delivered so excellently. A gourmet wine, have with food and a cold winter’s night."
Georgina Hindle, July 2025, Decanter.com
"(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."
Colin Hay, August 2025, DrinksBusiness.com