" We don't sell the wine without touching the vine "
Arietta Hudson Vineyards Merlot 2012
No longer available.
| Country: | United States |
| Region: | California (Napa) |
| Winery: | Arietta Winery |
| Grape Type: | Merlot |
| Vintage: | 2012 |
| Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
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Morlet Family Vineyards Billet Doux Late Harvest Semillon 2012 (half-bottle) is made from Sémillon (65%) Sauvignon Blanc (31%) Muscat à Petits Grains (4%)
rowing in the gravelly soil of an ancient riverbed in the beautiful Alexander Valley, the old vines benefit from hot afternoons and cool, foggy mornings, favorable for the development of Botrytis (Noble Rot). Extremely small yields in the Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat vineyards lead to the immensely concentrated fruit. Just as one receives a note from one’s sweetheart, we present this wine as a precious ‘Love Note’ or ‘Billet Doux.’
Deep crystal clear gold. Intense and complex bouquet of dry apricot, pêche de vigne and Reine Claude yellow plum intermixed with notes of quince, honey, Muscat and a hint of sweet vanilla. Full bodied, the palate is reminiscent of the nose, with a creamy sweet texture and a great intensity. The large amount of sugar and glycerin creates a highlighted viscosity. Along with the wine’s great concentration, richness and opulence, the classical aromatic complexity reveals a flamboyant yet harmonious ensemble, leading to a very long, complex and smooth finish.
Proprietary name ‘Billet Doux’
Name meaning Love Note
Type of wine Late harvest white wine
Appellation Alexander Valley
Vineyard singularity 25-60 year old vines Loamy and gravelly soils from an ancient river bed One cluster per shoot ‘de rigueur’
Typical harvest date November Picking Manual, small lugs, refrigerated truck
Sorting Cluster by cluster
Fermentation In barrel through native yeast
Upbringing 16 months French Oak from selected artisan Coopers
Bottling Unfined, filtered to prevent Malolactic
Cellaring time Decades
Serving Chilled and decanted
Review:
Produced from 65% Sémillon, 31% Sauvignon Blanc and 4% Muscat, the 2012 Billet Doux has a medium golden color and profoundly scented nose of beeswax, honeyed nuts, orange marmalade, Manuka honey and preserved lemons. Full-bodied, full-on sweet, rich, concentrated and oh-so-unctuous, it delivers powerful flavor layers and epic length. 175 cases were made.
-Wine Advocate 97 Points
60% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot
The 2019 Paramour entices with notes of blueberry, iris, leather, chocolate cake, and cigar on the nose. A rich attack of layers of flavor include cherry, plum, coffee, and chocolate with bright acidity. Soft and silky tannins lead to a long finish, with cherry, blueberry, plum, and currant lingering on the palate.
Review:
A blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Merlot, the 2019 Paramour Proprietary Red was sourced from the Schifflet, Hudson and Stagecoach Vineyards. Blessed with floral notes, licorice and black cherries on the nose, this looks like the pick of the litter and is one reason why Napa Cabernet Franc prices are what they are. This is full-bodied and rich yet seemingly weightless, despite being concentrated, long and velvety. This is just lovely stuff.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 97 Points
Joseph Phelps Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot, 1% Malbec.
A classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with inviting violet, dark fruit, tobacco, subtle baking spice and earthy dried herb aromatics. The palate is filled with expressive black cherry, blackberry and dark plum, hints of spice box and sweet vanilla bean. A focused, concentrated wine with youthful energy and freshness nimbly balanced by supple tannin structure and finesse.
Review:
This wine is lovely in juicy red fruit, dried herb and hints of allspice, the tannin structure firm and giving. Offering refinement and structure, it shows nuances of black currant, cherry and toasted oak. This will do well in the cellar.
Wine Enthusiast Cellar Selection 94 Points
Morlet Family Vineyards Mon Chevalier Cabernet Sauvignon is made from Cabernet Sauvignon (86%) Cabernet Franc (8%) Merlot (3%) Malbec (2%) Petit Verdot (1%) .
Located on the hillsides of Knights Valley, near Calistoga, this vineyard benefits from its proximity to Mount St. Helena, whose warm and windy climate is ideal for the long ripening of the Bordeaux red varietals. Handcrafted by using classical winemaking techniques, this special wine is dedicated to our son, Paul Morlet.
Dark red with a hue of purple. Intense and complex bouquet of red, black and blue berries intermixed with notes of blueberries, minerals (graphite, wet river rocks) licorice, fresh blond tobacco and a hint of lavender. Full bodied, the palate is reminiscent of the nose, with a richly tannic yet round frame and a great intensity. The hillside tannins and the classical aromatic complexity create a harmonious ensemble, leading to a very long and elegant finish. Built to age for decades, this collectible wine opens up after a few years of cellaring and is particularly representative of this special vineyard from the hillside of Knights Valley. Mon Chevalier features the interaction of the loamy, well drained and rocky volcanic soil, the typical sunny mountain climate and the low-interventionistic Morlet winemaking approach.
Property Name: Mon Chevalier
Name Meaning My Knight Named after our son, Paul Morlet
Type of wine Vineyard designated
Appellation Knights Valley
Vineyard singularity Morlet Family Estate Hillside 1100-1200 feet elevation Rhyolitic, loam & volcanic ash
Typical harvest date End of October
Picking Manual, small lugs, refer truck
Sorting Cluster by cluster, berry per berry
Fermentation Through native yeast Tank and Puncheons
Upbringing 16 months French oak from artisan coopers
Bottling Unfiltered
Cellaring time Decades
Serving Room temperature
Decanting recommended
Review:
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Mon Chevalier comes from the Knights Valley, just north of Napa Valley in the larger Sonoma County, and it always seems to me to have one foot in Napa and one foot in Sonoma. Boasting a similar ruby/purple color (as do all of the releases here), it’s slightly more reserved and stately (knightly, if you will), with building aromas and flavors of blackcurrants, toasted bread, dried violets, baking spices, and loamy earth. These carry to a pure, full-bodied, multi-dimensional Cabernet that’s flawlessly balanced, has ripe yet certainly present tannins, a notable sense of minerality, and a great, great finish. It’s just another incredible wine from Luc Morlet that can be drunk today with ample pleasure or cellared for 20-30 years if, for some reason, you feel the need to delay gratification.
-Jeb Dunnuck 99 Points
Pulled from a Gentleman's cellar, all wines from this cellar have been purchased by the owner either from the importer or direct from winery. They stayed in his cellar until being moved to the Timeless Wines warehouse.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards Bramble Hill Pinot Noir is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards in South Africa has developed an international reputation over 40 vintages for unusually restrained, classically styled Pinot noir, with deep structure and spice balancing fruit opulence. Hamilton Russell Oregon aims to express this stylistic philosophy with the very best Willamette Valley fruit - showcasing the restrained, structured classicism of great European Pinot noir and the bright purity of Oregon fruit. The celebrated Bramble Hill vineyard in Ribbon Ridge, delivers a particularly bright, pure, lively minerality to complement the complex lifted fruit the best Oregon Pinot noir is known for.
Review:
Limpid ruby-red. Fresh red berries, blood orange, floral and baking spice qualities on the incisive nose. Juicy, focused and lithe on the palate, offering subtly sweet raspberry and cherry flavors and building spicecake and cola nuances. Closes long and nervy, with discreet tannins framing repeating floral and spice notes.
-Vinous 93 Points
Product Description
Produced from the oldest planting of grapes on Lee Hudson’s heralded vineyard in the Napa Carneros, this latest offering of Arietta Merlot is one for the ages. Certainly a classic vintage, 2012 delivered fruit with brilliant purity, structure, and a strong sense of place. This unique—one might say historic—block of Merlot shows the best that this variety has to offer in California. Well-proportioned, fresh, flavorful, dark and complex, this wine is sure to impress lovers of Pomerol, and show that California is capable of producing Merlot wines with strength, yes, but also nuance, delicacy, and multiple layers of interest. This wine should continue to open and develop over the next decade, and age gracefully for another decade or two.
Review:
Arietta's 2012 Merlot emerges from the oldest vines on Lee Hudson's vineyard in Carneros. A dark, super-expressive wine, the Merlot is endowed with serious depth, power and structure. Brambly red fruit, smoke, tobacco and grilled herbs emerge from a surprisingly big, structured wine that should drink well for many, many years. -Antonio Galloni Vinous 95 points
Winery: Arietta Winery
Arietta Winery:
Arietta, an ultra-premium Napa winery specializing in limited production Bordeaux-style blends, is owned by wine specialist and auctioneer Fritz Hatton and his wife Caren. One of America’s most celebrated winemakers, Andy Erickson, crafts the Arietta wines from carefully chosen blocks in the cooler climates of Napa Valley. The Arietta wine portfolio currently consists of four red wines—H Block Hudson, Variation One, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Quartet—and one white wine, On The White Keys.
The Hattons founded Arietta in 1996 in partnership with winemaker John Kongsgaard and his wife Maggy. The partnership was born of a shared passion for fine wine and classical music. The vinous inspiration for Arietta was an extraordinary 2.3 acre block of Cabernet Franc on the Hudson Ranch in Napa/Carneros. The fruit from this block of Cabernet Franc serves as the core of the Arietta Red Wine H Block Hudson Vineyards. The Arietta project grew with the selection of additional superb blocks of Merlot and Syrah on the Hudson Ranch, which made possible the addition of two wines to the Arietta portfolio: Arietta Red Wine Variation One, an innovative blend of Merlot and Syrah, and Arietta Merlot Hudson Vineyards, produced only in selected vintages.
Pursuing our principle of purchasing fruit only from the very finest vineyard blocks, Arietta in the 2003 vintage purchased a small quantity of Cabernet Sauvignon from Howell Mountain vineyards farmed by famed Napa grower David Abreu. This fruit afforded us the opportunity to release a small quantity of Arietta Cabernet Sauvignon in the 2003 through 2005 vintages, as well as the Arietta Claret 2004 and 2005. In 2006 Arietta leased a fabulously situated 1.6 acre block of clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon in Coombsville, which became the new core of the Arietta Cabernet. The same year saw the introduction of Arietta Quartet, a blend four Bordeaux varietals. Since 2009 the core of the quartet has been a jewel of a three acre vineyard in Coombsville, painstakingly laid out and planted by famed viticulturist David Abreu in 2003.
Erickson crafted Arietta’s first ever white wine, Arietta “On The White Keys” 2005, from very rare hillside blocks of Sauvignon Blanc on Sonoma Mountain and two tiny old vine Semillon blocks in the Hyde Vineyards in Napa Carneros. Barrel fermented and aged for eight months in a combination of stainless steel, new oak, and French oak barrels, the Arietta White Keys, with its distinctive combination of vibrant flavors and a grand finish, was an instant success upon release in the fall of 2006.
Arietta's label features the manuscript of Beethoven's Arietta movement from his last Piano Sonata, Opus 111, written long after the composer had lost his hearing. Opus 111 is one of the most transporting and revolutionary pieces of music ever composed. Serene yet complex, rich yet ethereal, Beethoven’s Arietta provides an inspirational model for great winemaking.
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Alejandro Bulgheroni Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Alejandro Bulgheroni Estate Lithology is a series of single vineyard and AVA-designated wines made from select sites within Napa Valley. Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is produced solely from fruit grown in the historic Beckstoffer to Kalon Vineyard planted in 1865 by W.H. Crabb and represents Oakville's famous bench land.
Review:
The 2019 Cabernet Franc Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard just shines for its bouquet, which is classic To Kalon with its floral, incense, spicy, red and black-fruited aromatics. These all flow to a medium to full-bodied, utterly seamless Cabernet Franc that’s balanced, has laser-like precision, and a great finish. This isn’t the biggest or richest wine in the lineup, but it’s Cabernet Franc in all its glory, with soaring aromatics and complexity, ample richness and texture, and a beautiful sense of finesse and elegance. It’s going to keep for 15-20 years with no issues.
-Jeb Dunnuck 98 Points
Composed of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Lithology Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is a barrel sample with a deep garnet-purple color. It needs a fair bit of coaxing to unlock scents of blackberry pie, warm blueberries and cassis plus suggestions of spice cake, underbrush, candied violets and chocolate box. The full-bodied palate brings forth loads of earthy layers to accent the rich, black fruits, framed by plush tannins and lovely freshness, finishing long and fragrant.
-Wine Advocate 97 to 99 points
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is one of the very finest wines I have tasted from Alejandro Bulgheroni's Napa Valley project. The 2019 To Kalon captures all the pedigree of this iconic Oakville vineyard, and yet also remains nuanced and wonderfully finessed for an intense wine. To Kalon Cabernets are rarely this elegant, but the Bulgheroni 2019 sure is.
-- Antonio Galloni 97 Points
Capra Marco Sireveris Dolcetto d'Alba is made from 100 percent Dolcetto.
From Marco Capra's family estate in Piedmont, founded at Santo Stefano Belbo in 1945, "Sireveris" is a classic Dolcetto d'Alba. The grapes are grown at around 400 meters on limestone soils and hand-harvested in September; despite the name, which points to the fruit rather than the wine, Dolcetto finishes dry.
Deep ruby with violet highlights, it leads with ripe cherry and dark berry fruit and closes full and dry, with the gentle, almond-tinged bitterness that is the mark of the variety. An easy, supple, food-friendly red made to enjoy young.
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