Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Friday, March 31, 2023 - A semi-dry wine from the original Le Haut-Lieu vineyard of Domaine Huet. Fermented spontaneously in old oak barrels and stainless steel. The fermentation is halted before the wine reaches dryness with racking and application of SO2. The MLF is blocked. 13,5% alcohol, 29,8 g/l residual sugar.

Deep, luminous and moderately evolved burnished golden color. The nose feels big, complex and quite seductive with rich aromas of acacia honey and quince jam, some pineapple tones, a little bit of apricot, light evolved notes of bruised apples, a nutty hint of almonds and a developed touch of Chenin waxiness. The wine is firm, somewhat evolved and pretty crisp on the palate with a medium body and focused flavors of ripe red apple and quince jam, some stony mineral tones, a little bit of honeyed richness, light evolved nuances of waxiness and woolly lanolin, a hint of sweet tangerine and a touch of chalky bitterness. The wine is wonderfully structured and refreshing with its bright, high acidity, but the residual sugar serves as a wonderful foil to the acidity, masking its most incisive edge and lending some viscosity to the otherwise quite airy and relatively weightless overall feel. The finish is crisp, lively and palate-cleansing with a lengthy off-dry aftertaste of ripe lemony citrus fruits and incisive steely minerality, some bittersweet notes of quince jam and fresh orange, light honeyed tones, a little bit of waxy richness, a hint of ripe red apple and a touch of stony minerality.

A fantastic, beautifully mature off-dry Vouvray that is in a magnificent spot right now, combining its refreshing acidity and almost angular mineral nuances with balanced richness from the residual sugar that never feels too sweet or overwhelming anything, only accentuating the ripe fruity flavors. Unlike some younger Huet Chenins, which can be wonderfully brisk and mineral but also rather linear and too straightforward in nature, this has picked up some wonderful developed complexity without losing its youthful vibrancy or turning too aged or tertiary in overall character. I'd say there is still quite a bit of room for further evolution, but the wine really doesn't call for any additional aging and even if the wine is going to be drinking beautifully for years more, I'm not sure whether the wine is going to actually improve from here or if any further evolution is going to be just lateral development. Whatever the case, the wine can be drunk now or kept for a good number of years more. A classy classic that is impossible not to love.

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