Le Mont Moelleux 2018

Wine description for Le Mont Moelleux 2018 by Huet

Colour & appearance

Medium golden yellow with a youthful sheen – a wine that already announces in the glass that it has decades ahead of it.

Nose

Vibrant, powerful and fresh all at once: quince, pear and honeydew melon meet fragrant, almost floral notes. Ripe yet never cloying – rather invigorating and beguiling. Still closed in its youth, so decanting is essential.

Palate

Creamy fruit and sweetness on the attack, followed by a fine salty note and lively acidity that lend the wine an almost dance-like quality. With air, candied ginger, cinnamon and a hint of clove emerge. One is tempted to drink it up – yet that would be almost a pity.

Finish

Long, citrusy and herbal, with a minerality that lingers persistently. A finale that speaks of limestone and time.

Terroir & origin

Le Mont lies on the Première Côte above the domaine’s historic tuffeau cellars – nine hectares of gravelly flint soil and deep green clay on a south-facing slope. Less clay and more stones than its sister vineyard Le Haut-Lieu: this yields intensely mineral wines that gain length and finesse with age.

Grape variety & vinification

Pure Chenin Blanc – the vine they here call “moonlight”. Nature sets the pace: whether a Moelleux is produced depends on the vintage, not the winemaker. Matured in the domaine’s deep rock cellars at constant temperature in neutral vessels.

Food recommendations

The tension between sweetness and acidity makes it an ideal partner for poultry soup with coconut milk and Thai basil – chilli and galangal find their counterpoint in the residual sweetness. Equally superb with fried sea bream with lemon. For dessert: Tarte Tatin with marzipan and apricots, where caramel and fruit mirror the wine.

Special features

Domaine Huet has been farmed Demeter-certified biodynamic since 1993 – pioneers long before Burgundy followed this path. Cellar master Benjamin Joliveau, a native of Vouvray, has carried on the legacy since 2020. The result: a Moelleux that moves you today, will be even better in ten years – and finer still in thirty.