Huet: the domaine that made Vouvray

Just east of the city of Tours, the Loire town of Vouvray is most known for fine wines made from Chenin Blanc. In the Middle Ages, monks and monasteries organised local viticulture, while in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, local wines were mostly shipped off for blending. Vouvray owes its modern fame largely to one man. Between 1929 and 1976, excepting the years of the Second World War which he mostly spent as a POW and desperate for a glass of wine, Gaston Huet made Vouvray that entranced drinkers worldwide with its intensity and ageability. These days, while Huet is no longer in the family, Vouvray native Benjamin Joliveau makes the wines. He has changed very little in the vineyard and cellar practices he inherited, and the high scores Huet has received for the recently-released 2023s are testament to the approach. 

The very best Vouvray vineyards come from the première côte, the first, south-facing slope between the town and the river, where all of Huet's vineyards are sited. Haut-Lieu ('high place') was the first vineyard the domaine ever acquired. The richer, clay-on-limestone soils tend to make a more approachable wine. Le Mont is a very stony site that makes mineral wines of length and finesse. Clos du Bourg overlooks the village church, and from very stony, poor soils, makes the most powerful wine in the line-up. 

The Huet wines have always been made in varying degrees of sweetness, according to the site and the vintage conditions. The sec wines have around 4-5 grams of residual sugar and taste dry. Demi-sec is recognised by purists as the definining style of the appellation, and will have around 18-20 grams of residual sugar. The mellow moëlleux is a sweeter style, typically with around 30 grams of residual sugar. In all of these wines, residual sugar helps to rein in the striking acidity. Chenin Blanc has naturally high acidity, here abetted by Vouvray's northerly latitude and the fact the wines do not go through malolactic conversion. (It's not encouraged, and the cellars are probably too cold). The high acidity is the main reason these wines really want some time in the cellar, and can be phenomenally long-lived. /NT