Wine Advisor
Huet, Vouvray Clos du Bourg Sec 2018
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
The 2018 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Sec is the only dry Chenin produced at Huet that year. Tasted in May 2019, the Clos du Bourg opens with a delicate nose of white fruit and mirabelle plums, along with chalky and very fine sur-lie notes. The palate is intense, round and fruity but filigreed in its structure and persistent in its mineral grip and stimulating salinity. The yeasty texture gives this 13.5% alcohol Chenin a fine structure and mouthfeel. It's not very long or complex, but it's charming and pleasant to drink even young.
Reviewed by: Jason Wilson
From one of the appellation’s great vineyards. With 4 grams per liter of residual sugar, it’s actually dry and not just “Vouvray dry.” Ripe pear, quince, fresh mint, and lime zest throughout. It’s got relatively gentle acidity, but there’s a solid stony mineral core. Open and ready to drink, but with some complexity.
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.
