Domaine Huet Le Haut Lieu Moelleux 2020
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The nine hectares of Haut Lieu have the richest soils and generally yield the most precocious wines.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
It might be delicate but the 2020 Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux is also rather succulent, coating the mouth with its sweet embrace. A combination of white flowers and nectarine creates an appealing perfume. There's a sense of energy that runs through the wine, providing a sense of direction and purpose. The core of sweetness (50–60g/L) doesn't tip over into lushness but is held together by its acidity and structure.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux is clear, pure, fresh and concentrated on the lemon and pineapple-scented nose. You wouldn’t guess this is sweet from the nose, as the bouquet is precise and fresh. Round and mellow but also refined and elegant on the palate, with a stimulating mineral freshness and lingering salinity and piquancy, this is a gorgeous, very delicate and perfectly balanced Vouvray to drink even young, but as experience tells me, this Chenin Blanc from the now 15-hectare Ur vineyard of Domaine Huet can also be aged for decades, even if the wine is not really dramatic in all its pristine beauty.
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Wine Spectator
This round white showcases a creamy, alluring texture, with lovely layers of quince, glazed pear, elderflower and honeysuckle notes detailed with heather, ginger and marzipan accents. Offers great length and harmony. Drink now through 2036.
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James Suckling
A very fresh and moderately sweet wine for this style of Vouvray with stacks of mandarin-orange, hibiscus and honeycomb aromas. Impressive depth and elegance, plenty of fine tannin and lively acidity anchoring the richness very neatly. Long mandarin-orange and spice finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
Other Vintages
2022- Vinous
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Robert
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Today, Domaine Huet may be making its most consistently great wines. As was one of the earliest adopters of biodynamic practices, and with years of experience working with the appellation's greatest terroirs, winemaker Jean-Bernard Berthome and his team are achieving a fascinating level of transparency, purity, and knife-edged balance in the wines.
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
An important white wine appellation in the Touraine and one of the top in all of the Loire, Vouvray uniquely specializes in a wide range of styles from dry to sweet, and still to sparkling, each with its own definitive character. Vouvray is almost always 100% Chenin blanc (however up to 5% Menu Pineau is theoretically allowed but not often used).
Vouvray is also the name of a pretty little town just east of Tours on the northern bank of the Loire—its vineyards surround it to the northeast. Houses and cellars are carved out of the local tuffeau, a chalky or sandy, fine-grained limestone. Vineyards inhabit clay and gravel topsoil over tuffeau on the plateau, the best of which have a slight slope with a southerly aspect.
Chenin blanc’s high acidity and natural adaptability allow it to produce a wide range of styles with enormous success. Styles under the Vouvray name include sparkling, both Brut and Demi-Sec and still: Sec (dry) and Tendre (off-dry) as well as Demi-Sec (noticeably sweet), Moelleux (very sweet) and Liquoreaux (botrytized). Most can age about five years but the best quality versions will continue to improve over decades.