1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux, Fin Pressée, Domaine Huet

1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux, Fin Pressée, Domaine Huet

Product: 19898108502
Prices start from £815.00 per case Buying options
1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux, Fin Pressée, Domaine Huet

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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Description

Such was the quality of the 1989 vintage the Huet family decided to create a number of special cuvees of their Moelleux, Le Clos du Bourg. The ‘Fin Pressee’ designation here is used to identify this cuvee as one where the juice has been left overnight to macerate on the skins – essentially a red winemaking red wine technique. What this process adds to an already beautiful and fantastic wine is additional structure and texture.

It is capacious and opulent but as with all Huet wines it is delineated, refreshing and wonderfully enjoyable. This wine verges on being the perfect desert wine, complex enough to stand up on its own and dominate the table and conversation, but also with the ability to complement a whole range of dishes. .
Gary Owen, Account Manager

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate100/100
Such was the quality of the 1989 vintage, that Noël Pinguet decided to create a number of special cuvees of Huet's Moelleux Le Clos du Bourg. Huet's 1989 Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Première Trie Fin de pressée – this special designation is used to identify this cuvee as one where the juice has been left overnight to macerate on the skins – has a deep but clear and luminous amber color, similar to the corresponding Clos du Bourg 1ère Trie Essai. Its bouquet is deep, intense, absolutely precise and fresh in its spicy expression of white pepper, nutmeg, laurel, blood oranges, tangerines and noble ripe Chenin raisins that were, according to Noël Pinguet, not attacked by botrytis cinerea, although he picked very late in 1989. On the palate this Le Mont is just perfect: very intense and concentrated, honey-sweet and smooth in its gorgeously ripe fruitiness, but also piquant, mineral, and full of finesse and tension. It is very compactly structured but with a lot of perfect fruit flesh. It is velvety textured, with even more power and fruit concentration than the Début de pressée version, which is more silky and tender but shares the same pronounced acidity. The finish of the Fin de pressée is endlessly long and aromatic, and the wine will surely survive most of us. This is the kind of wine that's – like the 1947 Le Haut-Lieu – kindly asking for a 100+ scala. Pinguet himself designates the 1989 as the best vintage he's ever made and puts it straight next to the legendary 1947.

Drink 2015-2100

Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com (Nov 2015) Read more

About this WINE

Domaine Gaston Huet

Domaine Gaston Huet

 
Gaston Huet and his wife built up a domaine with a formidable reputation over the years following its creation by Victor Huet, his father, in 1928. Gaston, war hero and one-time mayor of Vouvray, managed the family domaine from 1947 until his death in 2002. He was a prisoner for most of the Second World War and longed for his home and for the taste of his Vouvray. He managed to arrange a special wine celebration in the POW camp. "It saved our sanity… Talking about wine and sharing it made all of us feel closer to home and more alive. It was only a thimbleful but it was glorious and the best wine I ever drank."

The Huet Style
The entirety of the vineyard plantings at the estate were given over to the versatile and often under-appreciated Chenin Blanc. Climate plays a huge part in the wine-making in each vintage with warmer years creating unctuously sweet wines (mo?lleux for which Huet is renowned and doux the sweetest of all styles). Cooler vintages result in fruit which is used in the production of vivacious demi-sec, bone-dry sec or pétillant sparkling wines. It is important to emphasise that regardless of the sweetness level, the hallmark of Chenin Blanc and indeed Domaine Gaston Huet is an unmistakable freshness and natural acidity which permit the wines to age for centuries

Biodynamic techniques have been used at all of Domaine Huet's vineyards since 1990. The estate comprises three vineyards, all with their own unique blueprint and personality: Le Haut-Lieu, Le Clos du Bourg and Le Mont. The original vineyard, Le Haut-Lieu (literally meaning ‘the high place’) surrounds the house and extends for some nine hectares. The soil is made up of three metres of clay at the surface, underpinned by Vouvray’s famous sedimentary limestone. Its wines are opulent and approachable when young but are genuine vins de gardes and benefit from long-term ageing.

Le Clos du Bourg, which was purchased by Gaston in 1953, is the oldest site in the appellation of Vouvray, dating back to the eighth century. The allure of this vineyard is not entirely contained within its neat and historic walls but moreover its reputation for producing formidable sweet wines. The final musketeer completing the trio is the most famous, Le Mont, with its green-tinged soils and late-harvesting vines from which Gaston produced his longest-lived and arguably most famous wines.

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Vouvray

Vouvray

Based just outside Tours, in the Touraine district of the Loire, the small, 2,000-hectare semi-continental Vouvray appellation covers a range of dry, through off-dry, sweet to sparkling styles. Its Chenin Blanc vineyards, perched above chalky tuffeau cliffs give the wines vibrant acidity and a stony, floral and at times waxy character.

Ideally, under perfect skies, the producers aim for moelleux sweet wines, hand-harvested by trie, often imbued with noble rot and rich with residual sugar.

A less successful season would deliver more demi-sec, sec and, if really tough, sparkling mousseaux. Vinification is principally in large, inert vessels such as stainless-steel, old oak foudres and demi-muids. Malolactic fermentation is avoided.

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Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc is an important white grape variety planted in the Anjou-Saumur and Touraine regions of the Loire Valley and the most widely planted varietal grape in South Africa.

In the Loire it produces high quality dry wines in Savenniéres, and luscious sweet, dessert wines in Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume. In Vouvray and Montlouis it can be dry, medium dry, or sweet, and still or sparkling. Whether dry or sweet, the best Loire Chenin Blancs possess marvellously concentrated rich, honeyed fruit together with refreshingly vibrant acidity. It is Chenin Blanc's high acidity that enable the wines to age so well.

In South Africa Chenin Blanc is easier to grow and is prized for its versatility. It is used as a cheap blending option with Chardonnay, Colombard, and Muscat but also bottled unblended. The best producers keep their yields low and produce impressive mouthfilling wines.

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