Le Haut-Lieu sec 2022 375ml

Le Haut-Lieu is the vineyard that forms the origin of the Huet estate. The Huet family first visited the village of Vouvray in 1928 and were so taken with the estate that now forms the winery and the five-hectare Le Haut-Lieu vineyard that they acquired both and founded the Huet winery. Le Haut-Lieu is located on the plateau of Vouvray and is characterised by deep brown clay with a little flint and chalk in the topsoil. The topsoil is locally called Aubuis. The bedrock is yellow tuffeau limestone, and it is four metres deep.

The harvest began in 2022 on 8 September and ended six weeks later (the harvest workers, 24 of them this year, have never picked for so long). As the vintage was heterogeneous and heatwaves and drought led to very heterogeneous ripening grape material, all varieties of Chenin Blanc from the base wine for pétillants to 1er Trie could be harvested. As usual, the grapes were meticulously sorted, pressed and spontaneously fermented during the many harvest passes. Malolactic fermentation only took place in exceptional cases and in individual barrels. The wine was matured in used demi-muids. The residual sugar in this 2022 wine is 5.6 grams.

medium straw yellow

The 2022 edition of the dry Chenin Blanc from Huet's oldest single vineyard Le Haut-Lieu is a wine that possesses lightness and density and easily manages to pour its complexity into a drinkable, floral character. It smells of flowers, especially dog rose, lots of apple and pear with a little peel and a little hibiscus. The wine is reminiscent of cool iced tea, but not an artificial one, rather a homemade one with peach.

The 2022 edition of the Le Haut-Lieu Sec is a sensual, silky and dense wine that is currently at its most open and refined. It offers elegant fruit in a mixture of white-fleshed stone and pome fruit, some wax and tobacco with an excellently integrated acidity. The alcohol is not noticeable. As you would expect, the wine offers a fine, savoury bitterness of zest and herbs with slight hints of green nuts. It is a pure Haut-Lieu with a slightly chalky minerality, an elegant acidity and a slight salinity, which tempts you to drink this wine now and forever. You can do that, but you should keep a few bottles for later, because the Chenin Blanc will of course continue to develop brilliantly.