2012 Morlet Family Billet Doux Late Harvest Sémillon

The 2012 Billet Doux is a Tokaj look-alike and offers full-bodied, sweet, yet still fresh and vibrant notes of caramelized pineapple, rose petal, honey apricot, and iris flowers. It’s exotic, layered, and decadent, and a terrific sweet wine. I loved these latest releases from Luc Morlet and family, and they show a sensational mix of classic, balanced, even old-school, characters mixed with killer California fruit. As a whole, the 2014s show more elegance and complexity, with the 2015s possessing more power and richness. These are rockstar wines.

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.

Morlet's 2012 Billet Doux is soft, open-knit and gracious, with plenty of apricot jam, honey, mango and ginger signatures. This is an especially racy, voluptuous vintage for the Billet Doux. Drink it over the next few years.