Cuvée Constance 2016 500ml

Wine description for Cuvée Constance 2016 500ml by Huet

Colour & appearance

Luminous, golden amber – a glass of liquid light that reveals visually, even before tasting, that this is no ordinary sweet wine.

Nose

A veritable fireworks display: rich honey and candied orange meet cassis, rhubarb and passion fruit. With every breath the picture shifts – Earl Grey, cardamom and galangal join in, accompanied by the fresh counterpoint of lemon balm, nettle and cassis leaf. Chenin Blanc in perhaps its most fascinating guise.

Palate

Oily and complex, the wine coats the tongue, yet its sumptuous sweetness carries a captivating freshness within. The mid-palate is powerful and mineral-saline, while the flow remains utterly stimulating thanks to its acidity and fine tannins. An elixir that invites both indulgence and contemplation.

Finish

Long and invigorating – the tension between sweetness and acidity lingers for minutes, demanding not a pause but the next sip.

Terroir & origin

Vouvray, Première Côte on the Loire: Domaine Huet has worked since 1928 with three great vineyard sites – Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont and Clos du Bourg – on limestone and clay. Gaston Huet introduced biodynamics as early as the late 1980s; the estate has been Demeter-certified since 1993. Beneath the vineyards lie deep tufa tunnels that serve as natural cellars.

Grape variety & vinification

100% Chenin Blanc – known here as ‘the grape of moonlight’. Cuvée Constance is produced only in exceptional years when noble rot (Botrytis) concentrates the grapes; bottled in half-bottles at 11.5% ABV in outstanding vintages since 1989. Whether Botrytis develops depends entirely on the weather, not the winemaker. Since 2020, cellar master Benjamin Joliveau has been responsible for the wines.

Food pairings

A wine for creative cuisine: a zesty grapefruit salad with Thai basil and toasted cashews, the opulence of a foie gras crème brûlée with cassis and beetroot ice cream, or simply a rhubarb meringue tart with fresh mint.

Special features

Regularly ranked among the greatest sweet wines in the world – with enormous ageing potential: better after ten years than it is today, and even finer after thirty. A collector’s item in the 500 ml bottle that already inspires dreams.