Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 90.5 points

  • Bit on the sweeter side

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  • Coravin. Light golden; aromatic, honey, white flowers and blossoms, apple and pear; palate is medium-plus bodied, medium-plus acidity, medium-plus sweetness, plenty of primary white fruits, floral, quince, excellent balance overall, well integrated 12.5% alcohol; finish is long, clean, and balanced. Overall a superbly balanced "sweet" wine, and this will age well for decades, and unfortunately may take at least 1-2 decades to really show its full potential. 94
    Remainder of bottle opened, shows as it did on first taste. Very youthful but impeccably balanced.
    Day 2: Youthful sweetness has settled down a bit and overall is showing much more complexity on the nose and palate. Honeyed without showing aged character, a bit of spice on the palate, vibrant without showing off its acid. 94+

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  • Le Haut-Lieu is the vineyard that is the origin of the Huet estate. The Huet family first visited the village of Vouvray in 1928 and was so taken with the property that now forms the winery and the five-hectare Le Haut-Lieu vineyard that they acquired both and founded the Huet winery. Le Haut-Lieu is located on the plateau of Vouvray and is characterized by deep brown clay with a bit of flint and chalk in the topsoil. The topsoil is locally called aubuis. The bedrock is yellow tuffeau limestone, and it is four meters deep.

    The grapes for Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux "Première Trie" were harvested in 2020 between September 7 (the earliest date in the winery's history) and September 25. As the vintage was strongly characterized by sun and warmth, mainly residually sweet wines were produced. As usual, the grapes were meticulously sorted, pressed and fermented spontaneously. Malolactic fermentation took place only in exceptional cases and in individual barrels. The wine was aged in used demi-muids. The Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux "Première Trie" is a residual sweet wine, in which the first grapes affected by botrytis have found their way in. In this case, residual sweetness means 71 g/l.

    The Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux "Première Trie" from the Le Haut-Lieu vineyard stands out from the Moelleux from the same vineyard by a higher sweetness and a higher percentage of perfectly sorted botrytis berries. This results in a bouquet that continues to offer the Moselan of this site with its liveliness, but also has a slightly more musty note of pears and apples, even quince and, in addition, a bit of mushroom. The always light-footed Le Haut-Lieu seems a bit more concentrated and dense here, showing notes of oranges, herbs and of a bit of light tobacco, of chalk and persimmon.

    On the palate, the Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux "Première Trie" spreads out full-bodied and comes across as silky, calm and sensual, flattering and quite opulent at first. But then the acidity shoots into the ripe yellow fruit and spice, providing the necessary freshness, making the Chenin Blanc juicy as well as lively and really making your mouth water, especially in combination with notes of salted almonds and lemons. Thus, in this Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux "Première Trie" one finds again the whole Le Haut-Lieu typicity and so much acidity as well as concentration that one does not have to worry about the long future of this wine.

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  • By Rebecca Gibb MW
    Interpreting Chenin Blanc (Mar 2021), 3/1/2021, (See more on Vinous...)

    (Domaine Huet Le Haut Lieu Moelleux Première Trie White) Login and sign up and see review text.

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