Vouvray

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 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 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

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.

A wonderful burnished copper colour Savoury caramel and beurre-noisette notes on the nose. Dry on the palate, savoury and serious, full-bodied and chewy, complex, but completely dry on the finish, long and fine though. One for dry wine purists..
Chris Pollington, Account Manager

This was a challenging vintage which only produced Sec & Demi Sec wines. The nose displays caramelised lemons, almost alike a toffee apple, but with lemon along with a crisp, very fine almost Sauvignon Blanc angle. This is reflected on the palate with very high acidity, well developed - certainly for drinking now possibly with a young goats cheese and toasted walnuts.
Gary Owen, Account 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

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 





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 

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

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.

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

Huet's vineyard Le Mont consistently produces their most focused, intense & minerally Vouvray. A wine that will impress you in its youth and seduce with age. Maybe it's down to that streak of green calcareous clay (?) that underpins the old vineyard; a vineyard that sits atop the chalky Vouvray 'bench' overlooking Tours. Tasting Le Mont over the years has re-affirmed its elevated quality; Haut-Lieu is prettier and more accessible; Clos du Bourg is fatter, more 'gras' & inclined to perform best in the Demi-Sec and Moelleux styles. And backed by the sunny 2009 vintage, Huet's Le Mont can be appreciated or kept for a couple of decades!
David Berry Green, August 2011

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. .

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