Wine Advisor
Huet, Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 2018
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
The 2018 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux is ripe and already quite open on the remarkably fine and precise nose where delicate chalky notes intermix with yeasty aromas of ripe apples and even very fine flinty hints. On the palate, this is a sweet, lush, salty-piquant and refined but tightly woven Chenin with structure, remarkable finesse, tickling salinity and serious but fine tannins, as if it was a Pinot Noir. Filigreed and feminine on the tongue, the 2018 develops a long, tensioned, tightly woven and stimulatingly salty finish. Great class and aging potential. Tasted in May 2019.
Reviewed by: Yohan Castaing
With 56 grams per liter of residual sugar, the 2018 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux opens with a subtly oaky and spicy bouquet of peanuts, ripe orchard fruits and pineapple, layered with a charming touch of reduction. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it is enveloping and round, framed by a refined thread of phenolic bitterness. While it maintains a beautiful equilibrium between sweetness and acidity, this cuvée is notably more powerful and structured than its 2022 Le Mont counterpart.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2018 Moelleux Clos du Bourg is fabulous in the way it captures the richness of the style while remaining so transparent. Quite simply, the 2018 possesses mind-bending elegance and a total sense of finesse. Tangerine oil, almond, dried flowers and chamomile all flesh out with a bit of time. What I admire most about the 2018 is transparency and the eternal finish. What a wine!
About the Producer
Since its founding in 1928, Vouvray’s Domaine Huet has been the standard-bearer for great, age-worthy Chenin Blanc. And to this day, year after year, the estate produces some of the world’s most compelling white wines—and in a remarkable range that spans sparkling, dry, semi-dry, and breathtaking dessert styles. Chenin Blanc has been identified with Vouvray since at least the 9th century, and many of its great vineyards were known by the 14th century. By those standards, the 90+-year-old Huet estate is relatively young. Yet it was this youngster that established, once and for all, that Vouvray was capable of world-class quality. The domaine’s founder, Victor Huët, was a Parisian bistro owner. However, with lungs and nerves shattered by his experiences in WWI, Victor re-settled to the town of Vouvray in France’s beautiful Loire Valley. He soon purchased the first of his great vineyards, Le Haut-Lieu, in 1928, and Domaine Huet was born. The Grand Crus For all his salesmanship, Gaston understood clearly that quality must come first—and that quality started with great vineyards. His Le Haut-Lieu parcel, which lies on Vouvray’s “Première Côte” (or “first slope”), is home to virtually all the appellation’s acknowledged grand cru vineyards. As the estate prospered in the post-WWII era, Gaston secured two additional prime vineyards on the Première Côte that would ensure the domaine’s stature: Le Mont (purchased in 1957) and Clos du Bourg (farmed since 1953, purchased in 1963). Collectively, these three vineyards, and the wines made from them, account for Huet being the greatest of all Vouvray producers.
