Vouvray

This 2017 Sec is simply superb, with slightly lower acidity than the ’16, but extra weight and texture owing to the warmth of the vintage. The nose is characterised by orchard and stone-fruit, and a hint of almond. Vincent’s Sec is blended from a handful of parcels, all farmed organically. It is raised in foudres and 400-litre barrels (5% of which are new).

Expect the 2017 develop gracefully in bottle for up to a decade, or enjoy it today with sushi or shellfish. Drink now to 2027.
Will Heslop, Burgundy Buying Assistant (spring 2019)

This is superb, with the beguiling bruised apple aroma characteristic of Chenin alongside a distinct smokiness, which speaks of the Peu Morier vineyard’s flint-rich soil. The palate begins taut and mineral then broadens, revealing a hint of residual sugar, before zeroing in once more for a long finish redolent of lemon zest and oysters shells. A thrilling wine.

Vincent is a young producer, and he’s going places. This sparkling Chenin Blanc is made in the méthode ancestrale. Partly fermented in tank, the wine is then put into bottle with some residual sugar, where the fermentation continues, with no further yeast or sugar added. Unlike some producers, Vincent does disgorge the wine – meaning it is clearer than many of its trendy Pét Nat counterparts. The results are delicious: an apple-and-honey nose leads to a nervy palate with a line of citrus and minerality, softened by a hint of sweetness. Try it as an apéritif or with Asian cuisine.

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. This wine comes from the original vineyard, Le Haut-Lieu (literally meaning “the high place”) which surrounds the house and extends for some nine hectares. Its wines are opulent and approachable when young but are genuine vins de garde and benefit from long-term ageing.

Burnished gold in colour, the nose is full of spiced orange, cloves, a touch of quince and lemon rind, and hints of anise. This wine is lovely and mouth-filling and yet has surprisingly high acidity and a dryness that gives the wine a beautiful mouth-watering snap.

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. This wine comes from the original vineyard, Le Haut-Lieu (literally meaning “the high place”) which surrounds the house and extends for some nine hectares. Its wines are opulent and approachable when young but are genuine vins de garde and benefit from long-term ageing.

A big, deep, rich honeyed bouquet leaps from the glass. The palate is, unsurprisingly, youthful, but is also wonderfully luscious. There’s plenty of sweet, mouth-filling fruit and enough acidity to make one involuntarily drool. Drink it now or tuck away for decades.

An intriguing nose that draws you in, Caramel, honey, straw and wet wool are all here. Sweet, even luscious on the palate, but with great acidity that stops it being cloying. Full-bodied and rich, notes of toffee and sugar cane honey are balanced by that wonderful acidity, making it clean on the finish. Truly exceptional.
Chris Pollington, Account Manager

First things first – 1989 is a stunning vintage, one of the best in the 20th Century for the Huet wines. Essai relates to a 1ha vineyard parcel of Le Clos du Bourg which the Huet family decided to apply biodynamic principles. There is a distinctly greater level of development and general largesse to the palate here over the ‘usual’ 1989 Moelleux. This is an expansive and mouth filling wine, lusciously sweet and tropical this has decades of age ahead of it but perfectly balanced meaning it can be enjoyed now. .
Gary Owen, Account Manager

Honeyed botrytis notes on the nose, with hints of caramel toffee. Rich and honeyed on the palate, very full bodied, sweet yet fine still with a lovely balancing acidity. Notes of dark caramel, long, toothsome, crisp and fine. Delicious..
Chris Pollington, Account Manager

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. This wine comes from Huet’s most famous vineyard, Le Mont. It is from this site’s green-tinged soils and late-harvesting vines which Gaston produced his longest-lived and arguably most famous wines.

This is a jam-packed glassful with waxy lemons and fresh orange peel on the nose, then a bitter toffee character. The combination of ripe nectarine sweetness with refreshing acidity delivers a perfectly judged and beautifully balanced wine. Quite simply, you can taste the care taken in producing this wine.

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. This wine comes from the Clos du Bourg, a vineyard purchased by Gaston in 1953. It is the oldest site in 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.

An intense gold colour, there is plenty on offer on the nose: lanolin, caramel and apple crumble to name but a few notes. Gloriously honeyed on the palate, there is a streak of vibrant freshness that stops any cloying sweetness. The finish is incredibly long and persistent. Wonderful!

An exceptional vintage and made by Gaston himself (who returned from war in early spring). This was the most complete wine from a tasting of old Vouvray with Huet Pinguet in September 2012. Tiny quantities were made of the 1er Trie, where the grapes are picked berry by berry. It is exceptionally concentrated, yet delicate at the same time. Roasted apples, hazelnuts, honey and caramel on the palate with a linear saline note that lifts the wine and is explosive on the finish. 
Fine Wine Team

There was a much smaller quantity of the 1945 wines made due to frosts for eight days in May. It would seem this concentrated the quality and the finest rounds of natural selection took place as what was left has made astonishingly fantastic wine. The nose is a tumult of preserved and lightly caramelised lemons. Beneath this there is layer upon layer of complex white nuts and subtle dairy, almost creaminess framed by a focussed subtle dryness.
Gary Owen, Account Manager

The colour of toffee with sweet scents of pineapple, mango and guava leap from the glass. At the risk of making you hungry, the undertones remind me of sweet flaky pastry, spun sugar and tropical fruit ripeness. Perhaps with crème anglaise and grated orange peel too. Never has a wine with nearly 70 years of age been so vibrant and moreish, perhaps with thanks to the structure from the layers upon layers of fresh fruit flavours and toffee. A must try.
Laura Atkinson - Private Account Manager

A lustrous, burnt gold colour. Plenty of baked Bramley apple and lanolin on the nose, with a touch of wet grass as well. Beautifully balanced between freshness and a touch of sweetness. Developed yes, but remarkably youthful as well. This is a remarkable wine, especially when you consider all that was going on around it in 1945.
Fergus Stewart - Private Account Manager

This masterpiece shows a lush and altogether rather gorgeous side to it which develops into something firmer.   It’s one of those extraordinary wines that keeps evolving while you taste it, lush then firm then lush, closing off with a very assured finish that lingers on and on.  Truly victorious.
Tom Cave, Cellar Plan Manager

1989 Vouvray, Le Clos du Bourg, Moelleux Première Trie, Domaine Huet
1989 Vouvray, Le Haut-Lieu, Moelleux, Domaine Huet
1989 Vouvray, Le Mont Moelleux, Première Trie, Domaine Huet
1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux, Fin Pressée, Domaine Huet
1989 Vouvray, Le Clos du Bourg, Moelleux Essai, Domaine Huet
1989 Vouvray, Haut Lieu, Moelleux, Première Trie, Domaine Huet

1989 Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Premiere Trie
uminous golden-yellow in color, the ginger-flavored 1989 Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Première Trie shows the subtle and herbal-flavored, coolish and aristocratic bouquet typical for this lieu-dit, which is adjacent to the Loire with its green-tinged marl and silex soils. Very clear and delicate yet intense and concentrated fruit aromas, along with chamomile and mineral flavors on the nose, migrate to an extremely finesse-full and highly elegant palate with sweet peach aromas and a great and intense, stimulatingly pure, precise and salty but most of all endless finish.

This Le Mont seems terribly sweet but isn't technically spoken: 79 grams per liter is 13 grams less than in the Haut-Lieu 1ere Trie and just a third of the Clos du Bourg 1ere Trie Essai. However, there is no fat or boldness here since the sugar is lapped around from the vivacious acidity and the crystalline minerality of this straight, filigreed yet firm and absolutely delicious wine that seems almost eternal in its vitality and energy. A gothic cathedral built on Chenin Blanc. 
99/100 Stephan Reinhardt  eRobertParker.com #Interim - November 2015 Nov 2015 

This case contains 1 Magnum bottle of each of these 3 Huet wines:

1989 Domaine Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie
The intensely golden colored 1989 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Première Trie offers a clear, deep, rich, spicy and intense stone fruit flavor intermixed with coolish earthy/mineral and some nutty flavors.

Very fruit-intense, elegant and really sappy on the palate, with less concentration compared to the corresponding Le Mont but with a mineral and tannic tension, this is a full-bodied, dense and persistent Chenin that is still extremely young but should age well for for decades. 
97/100 Stephan Reinhardt  eRobertParker.com #Interim - November 2015 Nov 2015 

1989 Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux
From a praised vintage, Huet's golden colored 1989 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux displays a very clear, subtle and lovely delicate bouquet of ripe, yellow-fleshed fruits (peaches, pineapples, raisins) along with a delicious earthy/chalky background. Round, rather semi-sweet and very delicate on the palate, this elegant and balanced Chenin reveals a great finesse, vitality and lingering salinity.

Medium-bodied but intense and fine, this wine is lifted by its delicate and ludic acidity, whereas the tannins are slightly austere in the beginning but delicate after aeration. The finish is stimulating in its finesse and tender grip. This is an excellent wine to be enjoyed over the next 30+ years
96/100 Stephan Reinhardt  eRobertParker.com #Interim - November 2015 Nov 2015 

Extreme weather conditions have produced a compact battleship of a wine. From a very small area and balanced by 62 grams of residual sugar, it's bolstered by the implacable terroir and a brilliant biodynamic approach: a wine that will run and run. .

For those tasked with working the land, it is a rarity when nature’s bounty bestows a set of perfect conditions for cultivation. In the words of Noel Pinguet himself, 1989 was just such a year. This mixed case explores the nuances of style, sweetness and site, in a vintage where quality is both unquestionable and unparalleled.
 
This case comprises one bottle each of:

1989 Le Haut-Lieu, Molleux
1989 Le Mont Molleux, 1er Trie
1989 Le Haut-Lieu, Molleux, 1er Trie
1989 Le Clos du Bourg, Molleux 1er Trie
1989 Le Mont, Molleux, Fin Pressée
1989 Le Clos du Bourg, Molleux Essai. 

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

This wine is an education in the nervous energy and fine line which can exist between wines which have luscious tropical fruit and vibrant, linear acidity. Sweet, certainly true to the Moelleux label but with very high, refreshing acidity this is eminently drinkable. Still on the young side at the moment and very capable of several more years in the cellar. .
Gary Owen, Account Manager