4/20/2024 - hankj wrote:

Big bad peppery licorice over sharp red fruit. Massive medicinal herbal alcohol on the nose, but not at all in a bad way.

Buckle your chin strap and get after this one - it's a bull, so grab it by the horns and enjoy the ride

From magnum

4/19/2024 - hankj wrote:

Well drank another one of these, and unlike the previous it was very good. Golden colored but not super oxidized like the last one.

Same case same storage, and it seems like the bottles freely vary from fantastic to sink dumpers. Such is Huet.

4/16/2024 - hankj wrote:

This bottle was well oxidized. It's such a bummer the bottle variation in the same wine same vintage, such a high strikeout rate even though many good bottles too. Worse than aWhite Burgundy even.

3/19/2024 - hankj wrote:

Quite a nice surprise. 14 experienced tasters, double blind. This one came out second of eight Northern Rhone wines, all more expensive and most quite prestigious. Very close to first place actually. Balanced European style with clear channelled complexity. Would be a very good food wine too.

1/14/2024 - hankj wrote:

This is getting better, positively singing with clean tertiary channels. Wonderfully balanced wine that's not too heavy.

1/2/2024 - hankj wrote:

Perfectly in window. Drink now and for next 5 years. I don't know how to score a wine like this. Have consumed many 98, 99, 100 point wines (pro-scores) and this certainly isn't any worse ....

12/2/2023 - hankj wrote:

This is about peak drinking right now if your palate doesn't want to trade thinner acidity for remaining fruit. I'd give the aromatics a 93 and mouth 89 if I could split the score.

11/24/2023 - hankj wrote:

maybe just starting to creep past peak drinking? It's thinned down and picked up some tertiary aromatics. Quite a good wine, quite noticeably Sicilian with that terroir aspect that makes their wines read a little bit like Nebbiolo. Pop to drink with food.

11/24/2023 - hankj wrote:

Starting to come around. Masculine for a Margaux, saddle, tobacco, menthol and a bit of funk. If you like that BDX profile you'll enjoy this wine.

Didn't decant, popped and poured an hour later.

10/15/2023 - hankj wrote:

Over the hill gnarly acidic at this point. Spend its life in a 56° cellar.

9/18/2023 - hankj wrote:

Good, not special. I wish it had just a little more acid, though I realize the house style is a bit on the flatter end.of the Sauternes spectrum. To my palate Guiraud has some Muscat like characteristics. Not a bad thing on its face, but give me Climens for instance seven days a week for Sauternes, particularly in 2005.

5/18/2023 - hankj wrote:

Powerful honeysuckle, orange tropical fruits, pineapple, lemon curd, touch of exotic spice, touch of cream. A powerful white with strong acidity and the littlest bit of a golden tone without little bit of nuttiness Huet ought to have.

It's not a great Huet, but certainly a good one. In a very nice place at the moment as well.

5/12/2023 - hankj wrote:

Seemed prematurely advanced in its age curve? Hmmmm. Need to open another one soon to see if it was just an off bottle ....

4/10/2023 - hankj wrote:

Good wine, good value. Getting into the later part of the prime window.

12/17/2022 - hankj wrote:

Well almost 20 years down the line the wood in this is finally settling in. Call it the early part of the window. Very good and will be good for the next 10 years no problem.

11/19/2022 - hankj wrote:

Drinking absolutely wonderfully. It's like delicious fig flavored motor oil, hard to imagine but that's the best I can do.

11/4/2022 - hankj wrote:

IMO in the absolutely perfect place right now. Tertiary characteristics are present, but perfectly in balance with the remaining primary and secondary aspects. If you let it have some air in the glass and come up a little warmer than refrigerator temperature, it's astoundingly long for Champagne. Absolutely classic PC Chablis palate.

Soon it's going to start tipping into more sherried and truly aged character - perhaps a more geeky stage but definitely will be less pleasing to people still who like a little freshness. I mean I was able to reinsert the time-compacted cork between pourings, so the wine is definitely settled into its 18 years of age.

10/12/2022 - hankj wrote:

Benefits from a bit of slow ox, not to soften but to fluff it up a little. This is right in the window. It's not going to go deep and make a miraculous transformation.

10/4/2022 - hankj wrote:

In a great place right now.

7/24/2022 - hankj wrote:

I like aged Champagne plenty, but this wasn't taking age well. Rancia and decomposing yeast tainted the usual tertiary aromas, and the primary palate was faded and flat.

Not flawed at all, just over the hill a bit early? My bottle came from wine.com a few years post release, so maybe they didn't store it properly for those first two or three year before my ideal cellar ....

6/29/2022 - hankj wrote:

Corked, obviously and no question. This is a trend in these 2007's. Not correlates but kind of a s***** cork too. Darn shame in an expensive wine meant to be held for long aging.

5/29/2022 - hankj wrote:

in a great place right now - developing serious tertiaries but still has structure and lots of dried fruit. Dead-center in the window

5/27/2022 - hankj wrote:

Smack in the middle of the drinking window. Outstanding QPR on a complex old world style wine that still has a bit of fruit.

4/22/2022 - hankj wrote:

This is dead center and it's drinking window right now if it was stored properly

4/10/2022 - hankj wrote:

Yet another badly sherried Huet from a recent vintage. 8 out of last 10 consumed noticeable sherried/cooked, all purchased in The USA PNW. I've probably consumed approaching 100 Huet in my lifetime and this one s a recent problem. Pains me to scratch Huet off my must purchase list, not too excited about trying my remaining 70 bottles .....

3/23/2022 - hankj wrote:

doesn't happen often, but this overlooked bottle in my cellar did the Burgundy magical transformation, greatly gaining depth, complexity, and length. Full gamut of normative aromas in a cranberry-driven Burg, nicely integrated tertiary aromas too - sandalwood, tea etc.

Awesome surprise, far better than the last one I opened many years back, maybe just the specific bottle ....

3/10/2022 - hankj wrote:

Delightful light weight full palate big earthy tertiary-nosed Brunello. A bit simple on the palate but fattens up nice with some air. It's the apotheosis of pizza wine.

3/10/2022 - hankj wrote:

Drink this blind in a lineup of nine other top shelf CdP. 8th place with the most last place votes. This is among a panel of highly experienced enthusiasts.

I thought it was pretty good when I popped it open 4 hours before the tasting in my cellar. Left it uncorked in the cellar. By the time we tasted it it was overbearingly big with a blown out sort of rancia aspect like a fat Brunello that's been held too long.

It got two third places, from the Parker palate and the big Washington palate of our group of 12. You might think that our group are lean acid aesthete snobs, but not all the case. We are plenty fond of bigger and richer wines, but compared to basically all the other top labels this bottle was definitively off-putting.

I think it was better without air so there's that.

3/4/2022 - hankj wrote:

has that same sherried, oxidized, apple cider vinegar aspect that is common in 2017 Huet. My guests loved it but have (way) old world palates. It's like a cross between Huet and a Spanish white from the 1990's. Not my style of Huet but maybe works for you

3/4/2022 - hankj wrote:

textbook palatable hearty Pommard. A hair simple but not one dimensional. Might be peaking? Could just be the bottle I opened. Doesn't drink like it's going to transform deep into the aging curve. I'll be finishing my remaining half case in the next 3-5 years (in ideal storage)

2/6/2022 - hankj wrote:

Just starting to fade just a little, at least my bottle was. This is a big lush wine that's not going to benefit greatly from tertiary development. Although waiting longer won't severely punish, it's in a good drinking window now.

12/24/2021 - hankj wrote:

Been tracking this wine for a decade. It's just starting to fade a bit. Any positive character of age it has developed does not make up for the decline in depth. Attack is more subdued, mid palate more watery, finish shorter.

Still a good wine, enjoyable, but starting down a hill from which it won't come back.

12/21/2021 - hankj wrote:

Farther along in development than the 2006 and 2007, this bottle was resolved and showing low to mid level tertiary character. In a very good window right now so worth checking in.

12/3/2021 - hankj wrote:

91+ It's a little backwards right now. Crognolo is an anomaly in being a $30 bottle of wine that needs and improves with 3 years minimum cellar aging. To my mind this one has the structure to drink well 10-20 years after vintage if cellar conditions are ideal.

11/29/2021 - hankj wrote:

In a great place with plenty of cellar life ahead, this bottle is a QPR super star!

Nose, according to my 12 year old girl who's got a great instrument (she doesn't drink wine, just evaluates aromas), in order: dark blackberry, pipe tobacco, cedar, dark cherry, saddle, licorice, a fresh green vegetal note.

It's interesting to me that she didn't pick up much of any tertiary notes, she does have a good nose for those. I didn't get much in the way of mushroom sandalwood tea decomposing alcohols etc either.

Slightly big on the palate but carries itself well. This wine can work well with food or not, pairing spans from pizza to meatier cuts of steak.

Last of my three, happy with all of them!

11/4/2021 - hankj wrote:

This bottle was wildly different from the last. Not sure why. The previous wasn't flawed in any normal way. Dumb phase? Nah, there's no way it went from zero fruit ultra-austere to bright, rich and earthy.

Here's the best way I can describe the difference between the two bottles, which I know is likely impossible: the density and flavor of the wine sank to the bottom of the tank. The former bottle came from the top, this most recent from the bottom.

I know this is not how it works, but I'm at a loss. I'm good at (that is, formally trained in) detecting and understand flaws in wine. Nothing wrong with the first bottle. Maybe a different barrel of slightly different wine?

At any rate, Burgundy is mysterious, and I'm glad this latest bottle was so good. Outstanding little Burg and nice value at $30. Hopefully my remaining 3 follow suit.

10/12/2021 - hankj wrote:

Powerfully rich high acid wine, deep and complex. I really love Huet, but this bottle like so many other has notes of apple cider vinegar, and POx. I maintain +-70 bottles of various Huet in my cellar, really love it. But so many bottles have VA in the vinegar stage, and/or premox! Huet is the only label I know that is worse than white Burgundy in frequency of bottles flawed by volatile acidity and/or premox. It's a shame because it's such a great wine, but it feels like you have to buy four bottles to get one in ideal shape, two that are passable but flawed, and one that is verging on undrinkable. I wonder if because they're a natural leaning winemaker they are holding back too much on the sulfite?

Or maybe somehow it's a house style? I'm not bothered by white wines that are slightly sherried intentionally, but with QA it seems as if the sherrying is random - same wines from the same vintage can range from perfectly clean to undrinkably oxidized.

In any case, as much as I love it, I'm going to slow down my buying of Huet ...

9/21/2021 - hankj wrote:

From magnum. Decent burgundy, of the nothing special variety. Needed some air on pop before the aromatics lit up a bit, light cherry and strawberry, orange peel, cola, dried flowers, a little bit of Earth and vanilla. Quite primary on the palate, a little light on the stuffing. Fairly quickly faded into a more primary wine dominated by cherry.

Some more time will help a bit, but this does not have the stuffing to transform into something special. Good but unremarkable.

9/12/2021 - hankj wrote:

From magnum

meaty and full, highly aromatic, a hair reductive on the pop, plenty of life left but some tertiary character showing. In the early part of the
prime window, but of course the magnum slows development.

If you like quality CdP with bluer fruit, licorice, and power this is a good choice.

7/31/2021 - hankj wrote:

Fun blend, mature and just starting to fade a tiny bit. Def in drinking window

6/9/2021 - hankj wrote:

Still holding up no problem. Spicy full rich wine with character and broad appeal. Great qpr.

5/24/2021 - hankj wrote:

Drinking spectacularly right now - has added significant, but not heavy, tertiary elements, and still remains fresh. If you like 'em well settled with character but still pleasingly primary now's the time.

Classic Dom profile and complexity. I'm a fan of 2004 in general, underrated vintage. My score feels high but this is my wheelhouse.

5/20/2021 - hankj wrote:

Drinking about as well as aged WA wine drinks right now. To my taste it's too full bodied a wine to hold into very old age, but the current level of tertiary character works just right.

4/19/2021 - hankj wrote:

Fine fat creamy delicious Sauternes that is very nicely settling into itself. Opulent style full of apricot, honey, pineapple, vanilla and orange peel, firmly (enough) supported by key lime and lightly musky botrytis.

If you prefer the zingier "old copper coin" style Sauternes this isn't for you. But if you like the ones that can give gout just by looking at them 2014 Doisy-V is great value.

Excellent Sauternes to spring on casual wine drinkers who don't know Sauternes - high yummy factor.

4/12/2021 - hankj wrote:

Still going strong. Starting to pick up more gamey tertiary aspects, and probably many good years ahead of it if you like your wines mature.

3/30/2021 - hankj wrote:

This wine is at peak maturity, maybe creeping down backside of the hill.

2/26/2021 - hankj wrote:

Solid classic Barbaresco. Don't expect a rich cocktail wine. Do expect this to fill out very nicely over the next ten years. No doubt this wine will improve significantly.

2/21/2021 - hankj wrote:

Peaking now

2/19/2021 - hankj wrote:

Mildly out of balance acetic acid slightly blunting other aspect. Not bad enough to call a flaw, but took away from complexity.

2/19/2021 - hankj wrote:

Mildly out of balance acetic acid slightly blunting other aspect. Not bad enough to call a flaw, but took away from complexity.