2017 Domaine Huet Haut Lieu Vouvray Petillant Brut

Certified Ecocert organic. Smells of sweet peas – heady fragrance. Quince and sweet peas, jasmine and Parma Violets. So fragrant in the mouth but also indelible. There’s a sweet leafiness, something like lemon verbena and the newest of baby-green fennel fronds, that comes with the sugar-shock snap of bright-green just-picked mangetout peas. It’s tiny green-gold figs and the chalk-tannin-tang rasp of crabapples and a lemon-dipped slice of Granny Smith apple. Complex, dainty, a wine that draws you in with slender fingers. Very, very fine lacework of bubbles. (TC)

The 2017 Brut Vouvray Pétillant is a lightly sparkling demi-sec style. This is a round and lightly biscuity expression with very fine delicate bubbles but not fully sparkling - the second fermentation uses some residual natural sugar that is retained from the first fermentation. Left on lees for around three years, it develops a light pastry character alongside floral notes and a salty sensation. The mouth-watering acidity combines with an attractive, textural roundness and weight.