2009 Morlet Family Vineyards Brut Millésime Premier Cru Champagne 750 ml

It may be just a few miles from Wine Access HQ, but going to The French Laundry is an extremely rare treat for us. So when we get the chance to dine at Thomas Keller’s three-star icon, we start the night off with vintage Champagne. 

We consider the 2009 Millésime Brut Premier Cru from Champagne Pierre Morlet et Fils to be the steal of the cellar. It sits two-thirds of the way down the list from the $925 Agrapart, above the $1,100 Jacques Selosse, and fits right in with those one-percenter bottles. It just happens to come at a best-on-the-list price that could be mistaken for a misprint: $150… which makes our price a no-brainer.

Grown in the vicinity of Krug and Bollinger and now aged a full decade, this Pierre Morlet Champagne shows a seductive brass color, aromas of mandarin blossom and Sicilian lemon, and a symphony of flavors on the palate: confected lemon, ginger, and marzipan, accented by toasted notes. It finishes with a luminous and cleansing acidity that always makes our mouths water for another bottle—which we usually order, since The French Laundry is THE ONLY place we’ve ever been able to find this 2009 Pierre Morlet.

We’ve long wished we could partake in this special bottle at home. Today, because of how Wine Access members have responded to our offers of wines from Morlet Family Vineyards, we’ve managed to secure an allocation of this exquisite, decade-aged Champagne. 

The Morlet name is monumental on this side of the Atlantic, mainly because of Luc Morlet’s 100-point Cabernets from the Napa Valley and 100-point white wines from the Sonoma Coast. But the California chapter is just the latest in a long family history: The Morlets have been cultivating vines in Champagne since the mid-1800s.

For a long time, they were focused on selling their grapes to the region's Grandes Marques, until Gaston Morlet created the Champagne Pierre Morlet label, naming it after his son, who showed an intense interest in viticulture and œnology. Pierre’s mission was to establish high-quality vineyards in the center of the Champagne region. 

He knew that varied terroirs would result in the best wines, so Pierre supplemented the family vineyards on the hillsides of Avenay-Val-d'Or by clearing and leveling higher-elevation blocks in the area known as Mutigny—aided by his son Eric, who purchased and cleared more parcels in the 1980s. These were located near Mareuil-sur-Ay, and on the hillsides of Aÿ—and if those names sound familiar, it’s because Champagne houses like Bollinger, Krug, Billecart-Salmon, Henriot, and many others have holdings there.

It was Eric’s oldest son Luc (the Cabernet wizard now famous for his 100-point California wines) who restarted his grandfather's practice of partially aging the wines in wooden demi-muids. Today, Luc’s brother Paulin oversees the vineyards and winemaking, and Champagne Pierre Morlet et Fils has earned a reputation that rivals the best in one of the world’s marquee regions.