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IT A class of its own …
The Domaine Huet, located in Vouvray on the Loire, ranks amongst France’s most significant wine estates. It was founded in 1928 when Victor Huet and his wife Anna-Constance discovered the building whilst searching for a new home and new employment opportunity. They acquired the house together with the vineyard site Le Haut-Lieu, which lies directly adjacent to the property. It was their son Gaston who made the estate famous – for instance with the vintages 1945 and 1947 from this very vineyard. In 1953 he additionally acquired the Clos du Bourg, a vineyard that has existed since the 8th century. In 1957 he purchased the vineyard Le Mont. That’s it.
These three vineyards exist, all held in sole ownership and planted exclusively with Chenin Blanc. After Gaston’s son Jean showed no interest in winemaking, Noël Pinguet, Gaston’s son-in-law, took over the management of the estate in 1976. He steered the estate towards biodynamics and produced great vintages. When Gaston died in 2002, there were four children who disagreed about the estate’s future. Eventually they sold to the Filipino-American Hwang family with a minority stake held by Noël Pinguet. Since 2012, the year Pinguet stepped down, Sarah Hwang, external operations manager Jean-Bernard Berthomé and oenologist Benjamin Joliveau – son of one of Noël’s best friends who essentially grew up at the estate – have run the Biodyvin-certified winery.
2022: A vintage of abundance
In Vouvray, six categories of Chenin Blancs are traditionally produced. However, only when the vintage permits. These are sparkling Pétillants naturel (Pet Nats), dry wines (Sec), off-dry wines (Demi-sec), sweet wines (Moelleux), late harvests with light botrytis character (Première Trie) and noble rot selections (Cuvée Constance). After the weather in 2021 permitted only three Secs, in 2022 almost the entire range was produced.
The year began with a winter that was barely a winter at all. There was hardly any frost or snow, and in February it became so mild in the Vouvrillon, as the landscape around Vouvray is called, that the plants already anticipated spring and awoke from their winter slumber. All winemakers on the Loire know a thing or two about how dangerous this is; for the region has suffered from late frosts in almost every year in the past. Bud break began at the end of March – and Vouvray remained spared from frosts. Instead, it became unusually hot as early as 9 May, fortunately only briefly, so that flowering progressed quite normally and ended on 14 June. At that time I was on the Loire, it was up to 40 °C hot, and the river carried hardly any water in some places. And summer had barely begun. Three further heat waves followed in July and August. Fortunately, the often old vines are rooted in the Tuffeau, a porous limestone typical of the region, which had stored water from winter and spring so well that the vines experienced no stress and did not halt their growth. The dryness, however, had a positive effect in that there was no fungal pressure. Thus harvesting could begin on 8 September. The ripening progression was, however, so heterogeneous that many passes through the vineyard were necessary, which is why the team set a new record. The 24 harvest workers laboured in the vineyard for six weeks. During the first pass, the vines were leaf-stripped so that the grapes could take a sun bath, which they needed for their late ripeness and the Oechsle degrees. Since there had not been excessive thinning beforehand, the quantity of grapes meant that the sugar distributed itself well and ultimately all the wines typical of Huet could be produced.
The style of the vintage is classically Huet – Chenin Blanc from Demi-Sec to Moelleux
At Domaine Huet it has always been the case that the ageing of the wines follows the course of the vintage. „It is important that the wines remain pure, energetic and balanced and that we view our terroirs through the lens of each uniquely individual growing season,“ Sarah Hwang sums it up. Accordingly, together with oenologist Jean-Bernard Berthomé, she decided on the ageing of all variants.
The Le Haut-Lieu from Huet’s oldest vineyard site with approximately four metres of brown clay and loam soil (Aubuis) on tuffeau presents itself in 2022 as graceful, sensual, silky and dense. The Demi-Sec is already a great seducer. As a Moelleux it presents itself denser, in the Première Trie variant it gains perfectly selected, clean botrytis. This wine too already comes across as open and inviting. I served it with pasta and clams, a touch of chilli and coconut milk, which harmonised beautifully.
The Clos du Bourg vineyard site presents itself as outstandingly harmonious, deep and offering complexity, with wines that come across as somewhat drier, smokier and spicier. Here too, you want to drink even the Première Trie in generous gulps.
With Le Mont, the typicity of the vineyard defined by perruches (clay and flint) shines through absolutely clearly and precisely across all variants. The wines have high energy and density, presenting themselves spicy and always slightly smoky, tobacco-like and earthy.
Across the entire range, the wines are consistently refined, elegant, charming and full of energy. The ripe acidity is complemented by fantastic minerality. This is as classically Vouvray as one could wish for. Moreover, they are – if one looks across to Burgundy and compares – impressively affordable given that some truly great and age-worthy wines are being produced here.
Oh yes, something else should be mentioned: Huet has released an absolute rarity with the 1993 Le Haut-Lieu Première Trie, which was released 30 years after harvest. The 1993 was the last wine from some still ungrafted vines that produced legends such as the 1945 and 1947 vintages. Equally profound, complex and stunningly beautiful are Le Haut-Lieu 2003 Moelleux and Première Trie – two twenty-year-old Late Releases.
Text and wine expertise: Christoph Raffelt