2009 Domaine Huet Haut Lieu Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Premiere Trie

Pungent candied citrus rind, smoky black tea, iris, quince preserves, and a distinctly alkaline note inform the strikingly intense nose of the Huet 2009 Vouvray Moelleux Le Mont 1er Trie. This elixir of close to 100 grams residual sweetness makes the corresponding “regular” moelleux taste like demi-sec alongside. It boasts an extraordinary mineral presence for a wine so rich, viscous, and honeyed, with saline, smoky and alkaline elements all offering counterpoint, and tightly-wound (or should that be “fast flowing”?) springs of fresh citrus convey energy and refreshment also uncommon in a wine of this ripeness. Here too is the sense of levity that in the best instances accrues to wine from air-dried, subtly desiccated fruit. Expect this seamless beauty to have a glorious future of three or more decades. Noel Pinguet professes great confidence in his 2009s and pleasure in one of those rare vintages where it was possible to bottle everything from sec through Cuvee Constance. That said, he admitted that achieving a balanced dry wine was challenging, and total production of sec was down from the estate norm; that of demi-sec, surprisingly, even more so (represented by a single bottling); virtually half of the vintage production being moelleux. While acknowledging similarities to 1996, Pinguet finds 2008 most closely resembles 1988. His is one of the few 2008 collections from Vouvray or Montlouis that is clearly less consistent than the corresponding 2009s, which he also finds more interesting. Importer: The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA; tel. (800) 999-4342