From dry to anything but dry
Domaine Huet’s three vineyards above Vouvray are planted with nothing but Chenin Blanc, and each of them yields both dry and sweet wines.
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- Le Haut-Lieu sec 202333,00 €
- Le Mont demi-sec 202342,00 €
- Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1ère Trie 201869,50 €
Our pick
Gaston Huet was mayor of Vouvray for forty years and considered the Clos du Bourg the best site in the village. Of the sweet wines in this letter, I would buy the 2018 Première Trie first.
From the wine letter
Domaine Huet’s three vineyards above Vouvray are planted with nothing but Chenin Blanc, and each of them yields both dry and sweet wines. Which style a wine will take often becomes clear only during fermentation. “We don’t rush to pigeonhole the juice,” the owner, Sarah Hwang, told the wine writer Jamie Goode in February. In 2024 there were only dry wines, while in 2018 the range stretched all the way to Première Trie.
Victor Huet ran a bistro in Paris and had come back from the First World War with damaged lungs when, in 1928, he and his wife Constance bought the Le Haut-Lieu vineyard in Vouvray, complete with its stocks of wine. In the 1950s their son Gaston added Le Mont and the Clos du Bourg. His son-in-law, Noël Pinguet, tried out biodynamics in 1988 and converted the whole estate around 1990. It has belonged to the Hwang family for more than twenty years. Since the 2020 vintage the wines have been made by Benjamin Joliveau, who was born in Vouvray. This letter features six wines from all three sites.
P.S. The Moelleux Première Trie 2003 from the Haut-Lieu was still made by Noël Pinguet, who considered this a vintage of great potential. In 2015 Stephan Reinhardt gave it 96 points in the Wine Advocate, and Chris Kissack calls it “a very impressive, broad, imposing wine”. Approx. €117.50.
The wines in this letter
The Pétillant comes from the young vines of all three sites and is made by a variant of the méthode ancestrale, spending at least three years on its lees. It is given a brut dosage of older wines from the estate. Peter Liem calls Huet’s Pétillant “ridiculously inexpensive for the quality”. With Sainte-Maure, the goat’s cheese of Touraine.
30,00 €incl. VAT
The Haut-Lieu lies up on the plateau in deep brown clay, and the wine ferments with its own yeasts, half in tank and half in old barrels. Like the other dry wines of the vintage, it has only about three grams of residual sugar and tastes of freshly crushed apple, quince and spice. James Suckling gave it 94 points, praising the way the wet stone builds in the long, precise finish. With sole in beurre blanc.
33,00 €incl. VAT
On Le Mont the green clay is packed with fist-sized flints, and in Vouvray, soil like this is called perruches. The 2021 is dry and fills the mouth with pear, pineapple, nectarine and violet. Vinous gave it 96 points and attributes its tension to the flint and the coolness of the site. With zander and sauce nantaise.
37,00 €incl. VAT
Le Mont, a south-facing slope on the Première Côte directly above the cellars in the tuffeau, has been part of the estate since 1957. In 2023, twenty grams of residual sugar remained in the wine. John Gilman tasted quince, apple and a first hint of mirabelle and gave it 95 points. According to Vinous, it cools like spearmint on the long finish. With duck à l’orange.
42,00 €incl. VAT
According to the estate, the deep brown clay of the Haut-Lieu yields wines of fruit and freshness, and in the warm 2018 vintage it also yielded this Moelleux with 52 grams of residual sugar. In the Wine Advocate, Stephan Reinhardt gave it 93 points and found it sweet and lush, yet fine, salty and lively. With veal sweetbreads in morel cream.
37,00 €incl. VAT
The walled Clos du Bourg lies above the church of Vouvray, and its vines grow in a thin layer of clay and limestone directly on the tuffeau. The 2018 grapes were clean and free of noble rot, and 78 grams of sugar remained in the wine. The Wine Advocate gave it 96+ points and found white truffle, spices and baked pear over fresh acidity. With fried black pudding and apples.
69,50 €incl. VAT