2011 Passionnement

Now drinking beautifully, the deep purple-hued 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Passionnement offers a textbook Napa, medium to full-bodied, opulent style with more Bordeaux-like aromatics of blackcurrants, toasted spices, lead pencil, truffle, and hints of chocolate. It's ripe and has moderate acidity, wonderful, velvety tannins, and the balance and depth to continue evolving for another decade at a minimum. It doesn't quite have the grandeur of some of the top vintages of this cuvée, but trust me, you won't be disappointed with this beauty.

(85% of the fruit is from Oakville): Bright red-ruby. Vibrant aromas of cassis, licorice and peppery herbs. Moderately fleshy and a bit rougher than the Estate bottling, with flavors of blue fruits and fresh herbs showing oaky torrefaction notes of chocolate and cocoa powder. Morlet describes this as "the most feminine of our wines" but this very young cabernet will need time in bottle to absorb its slightly edgy oak-powered tannins.

The inky-colored 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Passionnement (100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 125 cases produced) reveals lots of sweet toasty oak, beautiful upfront black currant and licorice-infused blackberry fruit, medium to full body, low acidity and ripe tannin. Consume it over the next decade. The Morlet brothers, Nick, who works at Peter Michael Winery and Luc, who has his own family estate and also works as a consultant, are two of the hot commodities in northern California, both producing world class wines. From fruit purchased from some of the finest Napa Valley vineyards, the Morlet Family Vineyards is making some of the most exciting wines of the region. The Cabernet Sauvignon cuvees range in production from 200 to 1,200 cases, and their newest project, a mindboggling 2012 Cabernet Franc Force de la Nature is likely to be a game changer once it’s released. The 2012s appear to be spectacular efforts. Kudos to Morlet Family Vineyards! Tel. (707) 967-8690