2023 Domaine Huet Vouvray - Le Mont Sec

Connoisseurs of Loire Valley chenin blanc need no introduction to Domaine Huet, but just in case: Huet is the iconic producer in Vouvray, founded in 1928 by Gaston Huet with the vineyard Le Haut Lieu, to which he added the vineyards Clos du Bourg (1953) and Le Mont (1957). The vineyards have been farmed biodynamically since 1990. Gaston Huet died in 2002, and the estate was eventually purchased by American siblings Sarah and Hugo Hwang, who have maintained the key vineyard and cellar team and invested further in the estate.

For the 8-hectare cru Le Mont, we quote Huet’s importer, the Rare Wine Company: ‘For many insiders, the argument over Vouvray’s greatest vineyard comes down to two sites: Le Mont and Clos du Bourg. Indisputably a grand cru vineyard, Le Mont enjoys a choice site on the Première Côte. With less clay and more stone than Le Haut-Lieu, including a high content of green mica, Le Mont yields young wines of intense minerality and often the most linear and precise wine in the Huet lineup. With age, the wines develop great length and finesse.’

This obviously is the Sec (dry) wine from Le Mont; in many vintages, although not in 2021, Huet also makes a Demi-Sec (off-dry) and Moelleux (sweet but not too) from the same vineyard. The wine is aged in large, old oak demi-muids (600-liter barrels) as well as in stainless steel vats. You could drink it now, preferably in a larger stem, with time in a decanter, and slowly. But it definitely will repay further bottle aging from 3 to 20 or more years. Drink it with white fish, soufflé, or goat cheese.