Huet has been the benchmark for ageworthy Vouvray Chenin since 1928, and Le Mont's green-tinged clay, shot through with stone and silica, gives this the crystalline, mineral-driven precision the site is known for. Hand-harvested by successive tries, separate passes through the vineyard for only the ripest bunches, under the biodynamic regime Noël Pinguet pioneered here. Le Mont is the estate's most reticent bottling and its most perfumed with age; this is patience in a glass.
Winemaker Notes
Viticulture: All grapes harvest by hand, which enables picking by successive tries - each tri being a separate pass by the workers through the vineyard, ensuring only the best bunches of ripest (or even botrytised) grapes. Noel Pinguet was one of the first French vignerons to adopt biodynamic viticulture and credit biodynamics with enhancing the personalities of the estate's terroirs. Vinification: Undergoes temperature-controlled fermentation in large, old oak demi-muids as well as stainless steel vats. There is no encouragement of the malolactic fermentation, thus many Huet wines remain rich in malic acid, a character that brings an age-worthiness to the wines. Aging: Aged in large demi-muids. Production: 2,000 cases. Vineyard: Purchased in 1957, Le Mont lies on the esteemed Premiere Côte. With less clay and more stone than Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont yields young wines of intense minerality. Size: 8 hectares.
Tasting Notes
Le Mont wines are often the estate's most reticent, but develop the strongest perfume with age. Mineral-driven with a crystalline purity, this is the precision we've come to rely on with Le Mont.
About the Producer
Since its founding in 1928, Vouvray’s Domaine Huet has been the standard-bearer for great, age-worthy Chenin Blanc. And to this day, year after year, the estate produces some of the world’s most compelling white wines—and in a remarkable range that spans sparkling, dry, semi-dry, and breathtaking dessert styles. Chenin Blanc has been identified with Vouvray since at least the 9th century, and many of its great vineyards were known by the 14th century. By those standards, the 90+-year-old Huet estate is relatively young.
