On the eleventh day of Christmas

The penultimate day of the official festive period sees db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay suggest a trio of Californian wines, including an “exquisite” 100-pointer that your true love will appreciate.

The wines: The Californian perfection case

Format: Yet another mixed case of three bottles of three perhaps slightly lesser known Californian superstars all now distributed through La place de Bordeaux.

Unique selling point: After the joys of the tenth day of Christmas you might not think that it possible for your true love to aim any higher, but here we reach a natural summit – three wines all released on la place de Bordeaux this autumn that have two things in common. They are all from California and each attained 100 points in my evaluation (and each for the first time). They are: Morlet’s Coeur de Vallée 2021, Paul Hobbs’s Cristina’s Signature 2021 and, one of the last wines I tasted in the campaign, Cardinale’s Estate Red 2021.

Yours for: Again, these are not the easiest wines to source even a few months after their release, though all are currently available according to wine-searcher in Europe (two of the three in the UK) for a total cost of around £600-700, duty and tax paid.

Morlet Coeur de Vallée 2021 (Oakville, Napa Valley; 95% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Cabernet Franc; 15.6% 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). Such an impressive wine, above all in this excellent vintage. The 2020 was fabulous, especially given the context of a difficult vintage, this is as brilliant in the context of an exceptional vintage (not least as there is no hint here of the drought conditions that were the challenge of this year). For me, alongside Cristina’s Signature and the Peter Michael wines, this is the pick of the US releases on la place this year. And of those this is also perhaps the most Bordelais. Cedar. Black cherry, black currant, bramble, damson, a little walnut and coffee bean and perhaps a suggestion of fine first-press peppery olive oil. Violet, iris and iris bulb too. Pen ink. There’s staggering concentration here, and great density – the effect achieved by the wonderfully authentic Cabernet Sauvignon tannins whose fine granularity engages to fight with the external parameters of the palate, never allowing the wine to veer far from a supremely well-defined central spine. That might imply a wine that’s a bit severe. But that’s not at all the case here. For this is so silkily textured. The quality of the pixilating tannins is remarkable and that gives this an incredible clarity and crystallinity in the mid-palate for something with so much extract and concentration. And that, in turn, allows the fruit to dance and play, to glisten and glide, releasing sapidity and the Cabernet Franc’s herbal florality, above all with gentle aeration in the mouth. Exquisite already, but with the capacity to age glacially (this is more of a vin de garde than the more immediately accessible 2020). The length of my tasting note indicates my sheer enthusiasm. Joyous. 100.

 

Cardinale Estate Red 2021 (Oakville, Napa Valley; 90% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Merlot; sourced from Napa’s mountain vineyards, Mt. Veeder, Spring Mountain, Howell Mountain and Diamond Mountain). Gorgeously classy cedar-inflected aromatics. Plush. Plump. Quite lifted. Gracious. There’s a touch of Napa oak, but it’s very delicate. This is a very finely detailed, layered and incredibly complex wine that really shows off the qualities of the exceptional terroirs from which it is sourced and the skill with which they have been brought together. I love the tight and well-focused core, the fruit tightly wound and interwoven binding it to an ever more pronounced central spine. The intensity of that fruit builds in a startling, striking and unexpected way. Incredibly youthful. It seems accessible from the aromatics and on the attack but this is a silken monster of a wine, deceptively powerful and that will need plenty of patient aging. Magisterial. 100.

Paul Hobbs Cristina’s Signature 2021 (Nathan Coombs Estate, Coombsville, Napa Valley; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.5% alcohol; tasted with Paul Hobbs and then at the Joanne press tasting). Full. Tight. Dense and compact. Graphite and a touch of cedar. So spherical in form – and, interestingly, one senses that already from the aromatics. Cinnamon, white pepper, cassis, a hint of blackcurrant leaf, sage, oregano. Peony and rose petal. So plush, plump and full in the mouth – that spherical form anticipated from the aromatics so vividly present on the palate. Crystalline and limpid, lithe and engaging. I love the little grip of the ultra-fine grained tannins – the Paul Hobbs signature – and the graphite that is the terroir signature, Cristina’s signature. Incredibly long and gently tapering towards a far-distant horizon. So pure and integral, so fine and elegant. A staggering wine with great aging potential that is already fabulously accessible and utterly beguiling. Spectacular. 100.

 

*The 11th day of Christmas actually falls on 4th January, but as the db offices are shut between Christmas and New Year, we thought we’d publish the  full list in advance of the festivities so you have time to get organised and stock up!

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