1983 Vouvray Moelleux Clos du Bourg, Domaine Huet

1983 Clos du Bourg Moelleux, Domaine Huet

Noticing that there was a slight leak through this 1983's cork and that the level was a little low, we decided that it was time to pull the cork on this 1983 moelleux. 

Despite the slightly low level and a cork that crumbled, so that the lower part of it ended up in the wine, necessitating decanting. Irrespective of the condition of the decanting was a good idea, as it often is for white wines, as it enabled the 83 to open up. 

I made a classic mistake of rather over-chilling the wine, so that initially the 1983 was very austere, especially in the finish, and not at all clear why it was a moelleux. However, given time to open up in the decanter along with the rise in temperature, the 1983 took on more concentration and richness – a lovely bottle.

The Huet wines appear to resist low levels. This 1985 was only slightly down in comparison to a 1976 Huet Moelleux that I opened a few years ago with at least a third of the bottle gone. Remarkably the 76 was still on form!    

Early signs of Spring in Touraine vineyards

 9th April 2015: first signs of budbreak I've seen in an AC Touraine 

I am assuming this is Sauvignon Blanc  as it is amongst the first to bud

Rare wild tulips in Le Haut-Lieu vineyard 

(Domaine Huet, Vouvray)

Apparently these tulips are only found amongst the vines in Vouvray  

and I'm told not in the other communes of the appellation

Across the road from Le Haut-Lieu parcel 

 – vineyard with many replacement vines showing 

the serious ravages of the vine disease Esca 

 

 Weeping vines at Château des Bidaudières

(cultivated by Domaine Perrault-Jadaud,Vouvray)

Traditional celebration of the arrival of Spring in some vineyards

 – turning vineyards orange and gold 

(above and below)

 (from above) ..... to achieve this

Brilliant! – 2010 Le Mont Sec, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

2010 Le Mont Sec, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

The 2010 vintage in the Loire is looking increasingly good and, unusually, is showing well across the region's wide diversity of styles. There are some lovely reds almost as rich and weighty as 2009 but better balanced. The dry whites are very good: again a lovely balance of fruit and acidity. Then the sweet wines, especially from Anjou, are spectacularly good. Like the 2002 vintage balance is the keyword here.

This 2010 Le Mont Sec is a brilliant example of how good a dry white or really, in this instance, a slightly off-dry white from this vintage can be. The touch of sweetness is wonderfully off-set by a backbone of ripe but austere acidity. I have no doubt that this will last 30 years and more but it is delicious to drink now. 

2010 turned out to be Noël Pinguet's penultimate vintage and this is part of a wonderful legacy. 

 Noël Pinguet and Anthony Hwang during 

the 2010 vintage@Domaine Huet

   

Dinner with the Wine Doctor and Tony Aspler

 2012 Le Haut-Lieu Sec, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

 2012 Clos du Bourg, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

Taking advantage of the Decanter World Wine Awards we held a dinner with Chris Kissack (The Wine Doctor) and Tony Aspler, Canada's leading wine writer and wine novelist.

We started by tasting the second bottles of Domaine Huet's 2012 Le Haut-Lieu Sec and the Clos du Bourg Sec. Chris and I had tasted both wines back in early October and been disappointed by them – see here. It would be good to be able to report that a further six months in bottle had given these two wines greater complexity and interest. Sadly they were little changed with the Clos du Bourg the more exciting of the two but both lacked depth and length of fruit. The 2012 Le Mont, tasted at the pre-Salon des Vins de Loire Renaissance event in Angers, was certainly the best of the three Huet 2012s.    

 2013 Chenin Château Petit-Thouars, 

AC Touraine or IGP Val de Loire?
Excellent label design!

After the two Huets we tried the first Chenin Blanc produced from Château du Petit-Thouars from vines planted three years ago. This was bottled at the beginning of April and I have been holding off trying it just to allow time for the wine to recover from the shock of bottling. Although still obviously very young, this is an impressive start with both concentration and character along with Chenin typicity. I have two more sample bottles to try, so it will be very interesting to see how this Chenin develops. 

 1995 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine, 

Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papi

  

As the first course was cerviche of salmon and smoked haddock with some salad leaves I thought the 1995 from Pierre Luneau would be a good and interesting idea. Sadly the wine initially had a mushroomy character. Hoping that this would disappear I served the wine but although initially there were some other interesting characteristics, full blown TCA became all too evident especially in a glass with a wide bowl. The unusual frustration of having kept a bottle for several years only for the cork to let you down!  

In the light of the TCAed Luneau the Domaine Ogereau 2007 Clos le Grand Beaupréau, Savennières was pressed into service – with a quick spell in the freezer! – its attractive concentration and racy acidity worked well with the fish.   

Onto the main course a daube of beef with black olives, sundried tomatoes, orange juice and peel and some mushrooms. I chose to hightlight a couple of Loire Pinot Noirs. We started with the 2006 Cuvée de la Comtesse, Reuilly from Denis Jamain (Domaine de Reuilly). Over the last couple of years we have treally enjoyed the 2005 Cuvée de la Comtesse that spends a year in local oak barrels. Sadly the 2005 was too good and we have polished off all the bottles, so it is onto the 2006, which has good and attractive concentration but needs some more time in bottle to develop further.  

We followed the Reuilly with a rare bottle of La Pertétuelle, Sancerre 1996-2008 from Claude and Laurent Champault. This comes from a solera system that Claude and Laurent started in 1996. The wine is aged in a 600-litre barrel. They take out a third every year and refill with the same quantity. It had good, sweet Pinot character and drank well. 

Rather mischieveously I asked Chris and Tony to guess the vintage. Chris went for 2008, so was half right!   

Following the daube we moved onto the 1998 Menetou-Salon from Bertrand Minchin and the 2007 Cuvée Sarah Coteaux du Saumur from Domaine des Champs Fleuris to partner the cheese. 

 

1998 Menetou-Salon Morogues, La Tour Saint Martin

Bertrand Minchin 

This 1998 Menetou-Salon was a strong candidate to be wine of the dinner with lovely aromatics – ripe but restrained asparagus notes and yellow plum, good concentration and a long finish. Additional complexity from aging in the bottle but still at its best and not at all in decline after nearly 16 years. 

2007 Cuvée Sarah, Coteaux de Saumur, 

Domaine des Champs Fleuris  

Attractive mid-weight sweet wine from Saumur with sweet citrus flavours not one to match with desserts but a good foil for blue cheese or as an apéro or equally after a meal or as an alternative to a dessert. 

 marc sancerrois Famille Vacheron

A curiosity to end with a marc sancerrois from the time of Jean Vacheron. A touch rustic but with a mark of the terroir. Ideal to set us up for the first flight tomorrow@the 2014 Decanter World Wine Awards! 

Domaine Huet and La Revue du Vin de France: a clarification

Sarah Hwang in discussion with Chris Kissack@

2014 Salon des Vins de Loire (above and below)

On 18th February La Revue du Vin de France published a story about Chris Kissack and I being banned by Sarah Hwang from tasting the 2013 Domaine Huet wines during the 2014 Salon des Vins de Loire. Unfortunately the words ascribed to me (highlighted below) are not mine but are from Zelda Sydney. We had both commented on Chris Kissack's post here.I was not contacted by La Revue du Vin de France.

RVF article:

 'Clash entre le domaine Huet et deux bloggers

 Published by La Revue du Vin de France: 18th February 2014

'Jim Budd explique ce banissement du stand du domaine Huet par le fait que les nouveaux propriétaires (la famille Hwang) depuis 2004, "exercent un étroit contrôle sur tout ce qui se fait chez eux, et ce qui se dit à leur propos. Ils ont peur que leur marque soit ternie. La marque a pris le pas sur le terroir".'

What I actually wrote on the Wine Doctor blog:

Initially I quoted Zelda's earlier comment. Perhaps when commenting I should have put Zelda Sydney in brackets but the comment was in quote marks and mine started – Zelda etc. 

Zelda Sydney – name now added for clarification: ‘My understanding is that the new owners bought a brand, not terroir, and that they’ll assume control over anything (winemaking, criticism…) that they think is damaging to their concept of the brand. Brand trumps terroir.’

My comment: Zelda. I think it is important to distinguish between the father Anthony Hwang and his children. Anthony bought the domaine in 2003 after the death of Gaston Huet, the previous year. Anthony was always charming, a great supporter of Noël Pinguet and my impression was that Noël was happy working with Anthony and for the first time he had a stake in the domaine. Noël’s relationship with his father-in-law, Gaston Huet, was not always easy – both have (or in Gaston’s case had) strong personalities. 

At some point Anthony handed over the running of the domaine to his children and I don’t know the history of this changeover but Noël’s relationship with the Hwangs fell apart subsequent to this handover.

I’m sure that Anthony understood full well the quality of the terroir/site, especially the Clos du Bourg and Le Mont, that he had bought.'

I have asked La Revue du Vin de France to correct this error.

Anthony Hwang@Domaine Huet during 2010 vintage

 

2014 Renaissance tasting - Saturday 1st February 2014

Lunchtime@Renaissance 

Jean-Noël Millon, La Source du Ruault

Kenji Hodgson (above) and Maï Sato (below), Champ-sur-Layon 

I liked their clean and concentrated 2012 Faia, 100% Vin de France

 

Benjamin Joliveau, Domaine Huet, Vouvray (above and below)

I tasted the 2012 Le Mont Sec, which hadn't been released when I bought the bottles of 2012 Le Haut-Lieu and the Clos du Bourg towards the end of September last year. I was much more impressed with Le Mont than I had been with the 2012 Le Haut Lieu and Clos du Bourg. It is a success for the vintage with more weight and complexity than the other two were showing in October 2013. I plan to taste Le Haut Lieu and Clos du Bourg, which have now sold out, at the end of April. It will be interesting to see how they have developed and whether they have taken on more weight. 

Jean-Bernard Berthomé, Domaine Huet, Vouvray (above and below)

Vincent Carême, Vouvray – I particularly liked his Ancestrale Pet Nat

Thibault Ducleux of Les Roches Sèches

Paul Gillet was has taken over Les Maisons Brulées

from Michel and Beatrice Augé

Mme Gillet

Mark Angeli, Ferme de la Sansonnière, Thouarcé

Philippe Delesvaux, St Aubin de Luigné – lovely range of sweet wines 

including a delicate 2012 Passerillé

15%-16% potential picked 29th-30th October

Joël Menard, Domaine des Sablonnettes