Vouvray

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 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.

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.

From this excellent vintage for dry Chenin Blanc, a tangerine-dream of a wine that builds on a prime chalky vineyard location, vinified in a mix of cement cuves and old french oak, to give a zesty, orange blossom wine riven with immense purity, minerality and life, thanks surely to the application of organic and biodynamic principles. Tastes dry but laced with 7.6 grams of residual sugar. Best cellared until 2016 and then paired with seared bream or creamy fowl dishes.
(David Berry Green)

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

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

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

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

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