Love Is All You Need (The Ballad of Luc And Jodie)

Love is all you need.  At least that’s how the song goes.  And so too, we would come to learn upon a visit from Sriti Fusillo, the national sales manager of Morlet Family Vineyards, as she told the beautiful story of a man and a woman, in love, and how we fellow wine fans could live vicariously through that love, with each sip of their wines.
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For a little background, Luc Morlet is a fifth-generation winemaker, with his Master’s in oenology from the Université de Science de Reims in Champagne, and having spent time as winemaker at Newton, and most famously, Peter Michael.  Beginning Morlet Family Vineyards in 2006 with his American sweetheart, Jodie, they began producing the kinds of wines you could swear were injected with oxytocin (the chemical your body produces when you’re in love).  Beautiful expressions of Napa Valley abound in all the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon they produce.

So back to early in the week, Sriti, along with our good friend Stacey Meyer from Heidelberg Distributing, dropped in for a bit of Breakfast of Champions’ tasting:

Pierre Morlet Brut 1er Cru Grande Réserve NV.  A beautiful Champagne from Avenay-Val-d’Or, this is a cuvee of all of the family lots.  Honeyed pear, brioche anise and stone fruit notes peer gracefully from the glass.  A delicious Champagne.

Morlet Chardonnay “Ma Douce” 2013.  From the Sonoma Coast, this gorgeous Chardonnay is round, rich and oh so voluptuous with supple vanilla cream and tropical fruits.  An homage to Luc’s wife, Jodie (Ma Douce means “my sweet”).

Morlet Pinot Noir Coteaux Nobles 2012.  Sonoma Coast again, this is a glorious rendition of the grape, showing the complexities of the California style with heavy influences of Luc’s French family winemaking style.

Morlet Pinot Noir Joli Coeur 2012.  Here’s where the wines went from surreal to absolutely ethereal.  Mind you, we tasted these wines at light speed, so it took a week for my subconscious to properly process these wines, yet while this too was a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, the fruit here was plucked from the Joli plot in the vineyards, right in the heart of the plot, giving up some of the best fruit to produce this stunner of a red.

Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon “Mon Chevalier” 2012.  Hailing from the Knights Valley in Sonoma County, there is a lot of love in this wine.  Yielding incredible ripeness, it shows off black and red fruits, spices, oak and chocolate nuances, the kind of wine you only meet a few times, the whole poetry I alluded to in an earlier post.  Time has begun to shift a little.

Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon “Passionnément” 2012.  Ground control to Major Tom… I am in orbit above the Earth, my mind is swirling around among the Heavens, and I cannot feel my body between the tip of my head to the bottoms of my feet.  Deeply sensuous, an absolute marvel, there is so much going on in this wine it would be difficult to know where to begin.  You’d almost have to go biblical with the whole “let there be light” statement.  This rivals the moment I first tried Verité.  Stunningly beautiful in every sense.

Morlet Late Harvest “Billet Doux” 2011.  A beautiful surprise, this homage to Sauternes is Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc with 4% Muscat in all its botrytised, honeyed glory.  Unctuous and dreamy, like tasting ambrosia in the clouds, you can almost hear the nocturnal cooing of young lovers in the dark (Billet Doux means “love note”).
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Ethereal joy is about the best description I can muster, as we concluded our tasting last week, and at this very moment, thinking back with the grandest grin on my face, and the warmest feeling in my heart, love truly is all you need.  Or at the very least, a sip of one of these wines.