January 15, 2023 - Pretty dry, lots of beeswax, fruit is peach driven but secondary to wool, wax, and rocks, B+/A-
February 26, 2018 - Dinner at Formento's (Chicago, IL): Wow, this is stunningly fresh and youthful. Aromatics are all florals and bright fresh, juicy peaches. Palate is moderately rich and semi-sweet. Peaches, tropical fruit with some earth tones. Very long. Ageless!
February 26, 2018 - Dinner at Formento's with Michael (Chicago, IL): I'm not sure what to make of this wine. It's supposed to be demi-sec but really the perception here is that the wine is fully dry. Oh well, that's ok, I'm fine with dry chenin (it's not riesling after all). There's a really nice earthiness on the nose and palate here, with a beautiful perfumed honey quality as well. It's a very delicate wine and at this point almost bone-dry on the palate. Despite the linear acidity, there's a roundness in texture here that's probably what's left of the sugar.
July 23, 2017 - Its age was obvious from the color, the brownish gold of sorghum syrup, but clear and vibrant as well. A little shy at first, like fresh summer rainwater, but air brought out waves of stonefruit and flowers with a hint of lanolin, together with both off-dry sweetness and brilliant acidity that kept it rich but nimble. Its complexity and balance of weight and acidic structure allowed it to pair brilliantly with the variety of fresh vegetable-centric seasonal fare that Staplehouse delivers so well, working as well with a rich but not heavy chicken liver tart as with a haunting combination of raw and roasted carrots with a vadauvan sauce and sorrel cream.
I'm sad that it was my last bottle, but it will be an immortal part of my memories.
December 20, 2015 - Gold colour. The nose has some truffley development with some honey and ripe apricots. The palate is very fresh for a 45 year old and quite strong acidity. The sugar is not so prominent, and the finish is decent. Interesting to drink a wine of this age, maybe better with some food to provide a foil to its acidity.
October 23, 2012 - Two Loire Classics and a Rising Star (Restaurant Charles Barrier, Tours, France): Full yellow without browning. Beautiful high toned perfume with an initial burst of honey, then amazingly fresh fruit. Just off dry in the mouth. A wine of great texture, length and complexity, as one would expect in a perfect 40+ year old example. Its incredible core of acidity is perfectly integrated and has kept it alive and well for all these years. The honey is reprised as the bottle aerates. A great experience. I doubt we'll drink a better wine this trip. Yes, indeed, these old Huets can be nearly immortal.
July 20, 2012 - Was lucky enough to live near a Spectator Grand Award winning restaurant that just so happened to have a bottle (or 2) of this in their cellar. It being a celebratory evening (wife got a job, I got a raise), we took the plunge and got to experience a wonderful, legendary bottle of wine.
After nervously watching the waitress work the cork out of the bottle, a quick sniff & sip confirmed that all was well, no, better than well and we were off. This being my first ever foray into aged wine, I mean, really aged wine, I didn't know what to expect, but I knew from the luscious golden color that I'd be in for a treat. Beautiful nose of honey, almonds, and yes, still a bit of citrus. Palate was even more other-worldly, I've never tasted anything like this. Still plenty of fruit, a shocking amount of acidity, and yet a warm fresh-baked apple cobbler feel to it all. A friend described it as "Jedi wine," couldn't agree more. What a night.
June 30, 2011 - Double decanted and consumed over one evening. Paired well with a honeyed goat cheese. Deep golden in color with a subdued but elegant nose…. so seamless on the palate, layered flavors starting to lean towards the apricot/decaying fruit realm but still retaining some of the brighter green apple type fruit flavors. Wow, at 40 years old this wine is still not at full maturity. There’s still a wonderful acidic framework keeping everything fresh and vibrant on the palate, but again, nothing stands out here, just so well balanced and integrated. I can still taste this the next day. An excellent wine, but wine to contemplate, not a wine that will bowl you over, everything is so well integrated that it takes a while for it all to sink in. I’m starting to believe that these Huet wines are going to outlive everything else in my cellar…. In a great spot now, at its “peak” for my palate, but this still probably has at least 5-10 more years before it really gets into that mature decayed fruit realm and begins its slow descent into old age. What a treat.
November 10, 2007 - If anything, fresher than the last bottle (and the fill was horrendous on this one), but less complex. Could have been the company, however, as I had this along with some legends.
November 9, 2007 - Huet fete part III: Schildknecht comes to town. (Dougherty's.): I may have had this wine more than any other from Huet as when I worked at Garnet, around '99-'00 we received something like 5-8 cases of it and were selling it for $36.99. I bought a bunch and most of my friends bought the rest, so for the past seven or so years, it's always found its way into a dinner. While it's always been an excellent wine, over the last two or three years this wine has just gone into an absolutely stellar phase. This bottle is simply the best bottle of demi-sec I've had and is one of the most profound dryish whites, period, that I've ever had. It shows typical flavors and aromas of quince, yellow flowers, a touch of apple and shoe polish to go with the requisite intense minerality, but what really made this wine so incredible was the depth of these flavors and how perfectly in-tune the wine is. It's just balanced perfectly and makes you want to both guzzle the wine because it's so good, yet spend time savoring every drop. A+/A.