2011 En Famille Pinot Noir
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The 2011 Pinot Noir En Famille exhibits a darker color along with more substance and richness. Damp forest floor and autumnal notes vie with red and black currants as well as a beautiful spiciness to create a fuller, more expansive style of Pinot Noir. Drink it over the next 6-8 years. This is one of the up-and-coming superstar producers in Northern California. Owned by Luc Morlet, who comes from a French family that has long been making wines in Champagne, and who cut his Napa Valley teeth first for Newton and later Peter Michael. His American wife, Jodie, assists Luc Morlet, who still does consulting work at Peter Michael, although it is brother Nick who runs the show at Peter Michael from a winemaking perspective. The debut vintage for the Morlet Family Vineyards was 2006, and they have hardly missed a beat since then in turning out sumptuous Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, Bordeaux-based blends, smaller proportions of a killer Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc blend, and a Cote Rotie-like Syrah. All of the following wines represent striking examples or Morlet-s talents. As for the 2012 Chardonnays, all will be bottled over the next four or five months. It is another great vintage for Morlet. All the wines come from the same sources, are 100% Chardonnay, see full malolactic fermentation, and are bottled unfined and unfiltered. Fermentations are all done by indigenous yeasts and the wines are aged sur lie with lots of lees stirring. The 2012s are slightly more intense. The Pinot Noirs come from a vineyard on the second ridge of the Sonoma Coast appellation, all planted between 1,000 to 1,250 feet with a field selection brought in from one of the great grand cru vineyards in Vosne-Romanee. The 2011 production ranged from 150 cases of the Joli Coeur to nearly 200 cases each of the Coteaux Nobles and En Famille. Readers should not forget about the Morlet Family Vineyards- remarkable Syrah, which is a dead-ringer for a top-notch Cote Rotie given its floral character. I was sure some Viognier was included in the blend, but that-s not the case. The wines from this small boutique winery are not to be missed. Tel. (707) 967-8690
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(Morlet ferments his pinots in puncheon, then ages them in one-third new, one-third once-used and one-third twice-used barrels; previously he used 50% new oak): Good dark red. Pungent aromas of crushed raspberry, wild herbs and a hint of leather; high-pitched and primary. Then juicy and penetrating, even youthfully tight, in the mouth, with a strong acid spine and firm tannins keeping the dark berry fruit under wraps today. But I still find the essential roundness of 2011 in the background.