2023 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec

There is no Demi-Sec from the Le Haut Lieu vineyard in 2023, but the Le Mont version seems destined to ultimately be ranked as one of the finest wines to be found anywhere along the Loire River in this vintage! The bouquet is pure, precise and already beautifully complex, wafting from the glass in a mix of sweet quince, apple, incipient notes of mirabelle, chalky minerality, a gentle touch of lanolin, bee pollen, orange peel and a lovely floral topnote of white lilies. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and supremely elegant in personality, with a great core of fruit, lovely acids and grip, fine focus and a long, seamlessly balanced and very complex finish. I love the elegant personality of this wine, which closes with superb lift and backend energy. There is an old school aspect to this wine that is not found anymore in summers with more heat and drought, which seems to be the norm seven years out of ten these days in our age of global warming. This is a stunning, throwback vintage of Le Mont Demi-Sec! 95 points

The 2023 Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Mont boasts a residual sweetness (20g/l) that brings a sense of tenderness and amplitude to a terroir that`s big on precision and tension. The flint component in the soil and the natural freshness of the 2023 vintage provide persistence and momentum. Pure and tender, there’s a distinctive spearmint-like cooling sensation on the long finish. 94 points