2023 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec

The 2023 version of Le Mont Sec from Domaine Huet is another outstanding wine in the making. As is so often the case, the wine shows a bit more mineral personality in comparison to the chalkier foundations of the Le Haut Lieu bottling. The wine is beautifully measured in its ripeness, tipping the scales at thirteen percent octane and offering up a refined aromatic constellation of quince, a touch of fresh pineapple, lemon, limestone minerality, dried flowers, orange peel and incipient notes of beeswax in the upper register. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and quite elegant in profile, with a good core of fruit, fine focus and balance, lovely mineral undertow and a long, complex finish. This is a touch less expressive out of the blocks than the Le Haut Lieu Sec, and of the two cuvees, I would be inclined to drink the Le Haut Lieu out of the blocks and tuck away the Le Mont in the cellar right from the start and let it blossom down the road. 93 points

The 2023 Vouvray Sec Le Mont is precise, upright and flinty. It`s less immediately charming than the styles we`ve seen in recent warmer vintages, but it was only tasted three weeks after bottling—this is one to revisit. There`s just the right amount of juicy, peachy flesh within this light-bodied yet concentrated wine. It has the potential to charm but does so without showing off. Flinty and tightly sewn together, it has curves in the right places, but you`re just going to have to wait for it to take shape. 95 points