1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux Première Trie, Domaine Huet, Loire

  • White
  • Luscious
  • Medium Bodied
  • Chenin Blanc
Ready - mature
Stephan Reinhardt
99/100
Product: 19898111957
1989 Vouvray, Le Mont, Moelleux Première Trie, Domaine Huet, Loire

Description

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.
Colour White
Sweetness Luscious
Vintage 1989
Alcohol % 13
Maturity Ready - mature
Grape List Chenin Blanc
Body Medium Bodied
Producer Domaine Gaston Huet

Critics reviews

Stephan Reinhardt 99/100
Luminous golden-yellow in color, the ginger-flavored 1989 Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Premire 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. According to Nol Pinguet there was no botrytis in 1989: The berries were absolutely healthy when they dried on the vines in a vintage that is the best I have ever made and stays side by side with the legendary 1947. (145 EUR; 243 GBP)Stephan Reinhardt - 30/11/2015
Stephan Reinhardt, RobertParker.com (Nov 2015)

About this wine

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.
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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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