Vouvray Moelleux Le Haut-Lieu, Domaine Huet 2018

Domaine Huet is the undisputed leader of the Vouvray appellation on the north bank of the Loire River where the chenin blanc grape is king. The exemplary house style here is one of purity of expression and the wines are legendary for their tautness and minerality. Huet is certainly the greatest domaine in all of Vouvray, if not all of the Loire and its current proprietor is Chinese-American financier, Anthony Hwang, also owner of the famed Királyudvar estate in Tokaji in Hungary.

Huet makes the whole spectrum of Vouvray styles, from bone dry through to fully sweet and sparkling. The vintage conditions determine which wines are made in any one year; in less good vintages only dry or sec wines tend to be made. Most vintages produce demi-sec, whereas the sweetest style, moelleux, and the special cuvées of sweet wines are only produced in more favourable years.

The tuffeau limestone-rich soil helps provide near perfect conditions for chenin, a relatively easy grape to grow, though a difficult one from which to make consistently top quality wine. It is prone to the benevolent fungus botrytis cinerea, or noble rot, which adds complexity to sweeter styles when conditions are right. There are three vineyard sites, all of which are managed on biodynamic lines and certified so: Le Haut Lieu, the original vineyard of the domaine and tends to be the earliest to mature, Le Mont, which is usually the last vineyard to be picked and lastly, the iconic walled vineyard, Le Clos du Bourg, which is the most regular producer of sweeter styles from grapes either affected by botrytis or passerillage. The wines from the latter are amongst the greatest and longest lived white wines in the world.