Wine Advisor
Huet, Vouvray Le Mont Demi Sec 2008
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: David Schildknecht
Almost 15 years old now, the golden-yellow colored 2008 Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec opens with a clear and elegant, wonderfully aromatic and fruity bouquet of ripe and stewed yellow-fleshed stone fruits intermingled with delicate honey and also flinty notes. Full-bodied, rich and also savory on the palate, with a gorgeous concentration of dried apricots and highly delicate acidity, this is a mouth-filling, very elegant, refined and charming, tight and tensioned Le Mont with fine but firm tannins and a seriously saline, crystalline acidity that gives grip and vibration at the same time. The finish is long, tight and aromatic and stimulatingly bitter. The 2008 is neither young nor already really matured but combines the vitality of a young wine with the texture of a matured Chenin. I'd rather keep it for another 10+ years before I'd serve it today. White truffles and straw notes as well as dried apricot, white chocolate and nougat aromas emerge from the empty glass. 13.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in March 2023.
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.
