Wine Advisor
Huet, Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie 2020
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Rebecca Gibb
Succulent yet refined, the 2020 Clos du Bourg Première Trie Moelleux offers elegance and focus despite its sweetness. There's no sense of heaviness nor unctuosity (yet there's 93g/L residual sugar). Expect pineapple and smoky notes, florals and apple strudel, along with masses of concentration and impeccable balance. A real delight that has plenty of drinkability even in infancy but will evolve over the coming decades. Finished sample.
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
The white-golden colored 2020 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Première Trie shows CO2 pearls in the glass, and it indeed opens somewhat reductive, asking for a Burgundy glass. Yet even though the 2020 Clos du Bourg asks for patience, it already indicates a terribly concentrated bouquet of lemon chutney and humid chalk. On the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich and juicy, very elegant and generous Chenin from this ancient six-hectare grand cru (one of the oldest in France, as the domaine assures). It is immediately attractive, stimulatingly piquant and nourishes hope for a great future. The potential is doubtlessly there, but 7-10 years of our patience is presumed. Tasted as a sample in May 2021.
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.
