Vouvray

Grower Profiles

Domaine Huet


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Vintages - 2000 onwards
From the 1950s onwards, I have endeavoured to add in a list of the wines that are believed to have been produced from the different vineyards each vintage, although there may be some omissions here still.

2000
Another ‘classical’ vintage producing sparkling, sec and demi-sec wines that are not particularly complex. Spring was wet and the early summer was cool. This is an average year with the wines are drinking well now and although they may not improve, they will certainly hold for a few more years. This vintage saw the introduction of another vineyard, Vodanis, situated in Rochecorbon added to the portfolio, and although rented there was an option to purchase. The lease was given up in after the 2003 vintage. 
Vouvray Pétillant Brut
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Sec
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec

2001
This was a relatively small crop with the sec wines yielding 28hl/ha on average whilst the Clos du Bourg moëlleux was harvested at 18hl/ha. The demi-sec is the most successful style for the vintage.
Vouvray Pétillant Brut
Le Vodanis Sec
Le Haut Lieu Sec  
Le Mont Sec  
Le Mont Demi-Sec  
Le Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux

2002
A perfectly dry summer produced moëlleux wines similar to those of 1997, but in smaller volumes. This is a vintage distinguished both by the high quality of the wines and the range of styles that was produced. The analysis shows that the wines have more of everything this vintage: residual sugar, acidity, extract and alcohol, but the overall sensation is of great balance throughout the range. At this point in time the still wines are looking quite dormant, and should ideally be cellared a few more years.
Vouvray Pétillant Brut
Vouvray Pétillant Sec
Vouvray Pétillant Réserve Sec
Vouvray Mousseux Brut
Vouvray Mousseux Demi-Sec
Le Haut Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec
Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec ‘Non-Greffé’
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Mont Moëlleux
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux
Le Mont Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Cuvée Constance

2003
I remember Noël shrugging his shoulders when I asked him when he thought he would start the 2003 harvest. This was the first week of September. As it happened, the first grapes were picked on the 14^th of the month, for a token sec from the rented Vodanis vineyard in Rochecorbon. There followed picking for two demi-sec wines, but even here the analysis suggests they could have qualified as moëlleux.

Noël believes this vintage will age along the same lines as 1990. An interesting comment given that 1990 was a heavily botrytised year where 2003, with the exception of Cuvée Constance, was not. The 2003s are an unknown quantity. They may age quickly (like the 1990s and 1993s) due to their lower acidity. A comparison with the 1976 in the greater Loire might be better, in which case no one will be complaining.
Le Vodanis Sec
Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec
Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec ‘Non-Greffé’
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Mont Moëlleux
Le Haut Lieu Moëlleux
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux
Le Haut Lieu Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Le Mont Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Cuvée Constance

2004
Although the 2004 harvest in Vouvray was a difficult one, from a commercial perspective it was the vintage Domaine Huet needed. After 2003 when only sweet wines were made, there was a dearth of dry wines in the cellar. The constant summer  rain slowed down the maturation of the berries, and although September was kind, October was less so, and as a result only sec was made; one example from each of the four vineyards.
Le Vodanis Sec
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Sec

2005
This is a very highly rated vintage producing good volumes of all styles. Approximately 50% was selected for sparkling wine, and the Pétillant although ready and delicious, is not destined to be released until 2010. The conditions during the season were not particularly distinguished, and there was some blocked maturity caused by drought which resulted in some irregular ripening, even on the same vine, so a triage was necessary at the cellar door as well as in the vineyard. The only botrytis to appear was at the start of the harvest, and this was immediately isolated and vinified separately for release as Cuvée Constance. This is a generally low acid vintage, somewhere between that of 2003 and 2002, although this statement has to been seen in context of the region. This is a vintage to buy, although for me, Le Mont is the most consistent vineyard across the different styles. All the wines would certainly benefit with cellaring for another decade at least.
Vouvray Pétillant Brut
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Haut Lieu Moëlleux
Le Mont Moëlleux
Le Mont Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Cuvée Constance

2006
This was a very difficult vintage, although the lead-up to September suggested that the quality potential could at least match that of 2005. As is usual in the Loire , the quality of the vintage is determined in the last few days prior to harvest – and during the vintage itself.

The harvest started on the 26^th September and was finished in 18 days, a shorter period than average, although lessons have been learnt that by drafting in more pickers and harvesting quicker (and over the weekend) more fruit would have made its way into the cellar. Le Clos du Bourg was the first vineyard to be harvested. Some grapes were already botrytised, so these were picked, berry by berry, for 1ere Trie. At the time, it was believed that Huet was the only domaine to have produced a sweet wine this vintage (at least without recourse to chaptalisation). A total of 120hl was harvested from the six hectare clos. Rain, however, arrived at the start of October and much triage in the vineyard was required to eliminate the unclean fruit. A separate table de trie was set up in the winery. With very high humidity, rot became a real problem: Noël pointed out that it would be a bumper harvest for champignons this season.

The average yield for the vintage was just 22hl/ha, when 38-40hl/ha could have been expected. In Le Haut Lieu, only sec was made with the equivalent of six of the nine hectares of fruit being jettisoned in the vineyard. As is usual, Le Mont was harvested last, with the younger vines being picked before the older ones. In terms of vintage comparisons, 2006 is somewhere between 1996, with similarities to 1994 in its youth. In spite of the problems, this was a much needed sec vintage; the only problem being that there wasn’t enough of it.
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1ere Trie

2007
The mild winter of 2006/7 compounded by an early spring saw advanced budding; four weeks ahead of normal and the earliest in living memory. A late frost would have brought about catastrophic results, but growers throughout the Loire were fortunate. Flowering occurred over a prolonged ten day window in June, due to the cool and rainy conditions, and this ultimately leading to uneven ripening. July and August were miserable, with black rot becoming a real threat. I walked through vineyards in Pouilly and Sancerre the first weekend of September and feared the worst. In Vouvray, Huet’s vines didn’t look too healthy either. From being a month ahead in May, growers were now up to two weeks behind. September, however, saved the vintage. A north wind helped to dry out any rot and the sun shone for most of the month and into early October. As with 2006, the conditions for harvesting late ripening Chenin were difficult, and in order to achieve any sense of quality it was essential to harvest by hand as machines simply cannot distinguish rotten and unripe berries. Thankfully, manual harvesting at Huet is systematic, which cannot be said of the majority of the appellation.

The harvest started on the 20^th September, two days after the ban de vendange and the domaine was forced to use all its vendangeurs for six days a week to ensure that the conditions of 2006 were not repeated. Even so, the harvest went for 20 days, with the last grapes being picked, for the Clos du Bourg moëlleux, on the 15^th October (130hl - representing around 8% of the total harvest). Nöel describes 2007 as a ‘classic’ year ; normal in terms of yields, with around 75% being bottled as much needed sec. There were a total of six still wine releases this vintage, plus a pétillant which was released early in 2012.

There is one common thread that connects all the wines of the Loire this vintage - the sensation of malic acid; its influence shows through regardless of colour and cépage, offering a real freshness in the wines – even in the reds where the malic acid is converted. Ultimately, this is a classic vintage, despite the topsy-turvy conditions of the growing season. However 2007 will go down in history, much in the same way as 2003 did, as reason to believe climate change is already upon us.
Pétillant Brut
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Mont Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Sec
Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux

2008
Paysan myth has it that there is never good fruit in a leap year, and for the first time in over 30 years, there were outbreaks of mildew at Domaine Huet. The problems began following the events of the afternoon of Saturday 31^st May when two separate storms converged over the vineyards of Vouvray, depositing 150mm of rain within 90 minutes. Torrents of water gushed off the plateau and down through the streets of the town, flooding cellars, ripping up roads and overturning cars. The incident made the national news and a video clip, filmed outside the Huet cellar, can be viewed on YouTube (just type in the words vouvray flood). The vineyards themselves were instantly water-logged, making it almost impossible for machines to access the vines in order to apply preventative sprays. Jean-Bernard had been working in Le Mont the day before the storm, treating the vines against a possible attack, and these remained relatively untouched, but around 50% of the crop was lost in Le Clos du Bourg, whilst in some parcels of Le Haut Lieu yields were reduced to 5hl/ha. Across the river in Montlouis, it just rained a little…  

The outcome is that for the first time since 1988, non-organic sprays were used at Huet in order to save the vintage, putting the domaine back to en reconversion, where they will remain until the 2011 vintage.

Regardless of the effects of the storm, flowering occurred around the 15^th June under normal conditions, but for the rest of the growing season whilst there was sufficient light it was cold and the vines started to close down prior to the harvest and failed to respire the harsher malic into tartaric acid, despite the grapes being physiologically ripe. As with 2007, it was the drier and warmer conditions during September that saved the harvest. Picking commenced on the 25^th of the month and lasted for 12 days, with the grapes for moëlleux selected throughout the harvest, even though there was very little botrytis present this year.

This is a small vintage (25hl/ha on average, with some parcels delivering as little as 4hl/ha), with tiny, thick skinned berries with holding little juice, making it difficult to press with any real force without over extracting. There are seven different wines this vintage including two sec in Le Haut Lieu (30,000 bottles) and Le Clos du Bourg (6,000 bottles), although with 15 and 13g/l residual sugar respectively, these are both distinctly sec-tendre in style. There is also a pair of demi-sec, Le Haut Lieu (20,000 bottles) and Le Mont (19,000 bottles), both with 27g/l residual sugar and a trio of sweet wines. In 2003 a small (20%) proportion of Le Mont moëlleux underwent spontaneous malolactic fermentation and was the first time either Noël or Jean-Bernard had ever experienced this phenomenon in the Huet cellar. More bizarrely, in 2008, Le Clos de Bourg moëlleux 1ere Trie underwent an 80% secondary fermentation before the alcoholic one. This, apparently, is quite common in white Burgundy , but was a unique occurrence here. At 4.5g/l TA (Total Acidity) the wine has almost two grams of less acidity that its Le Mont counterpart. It was described by Noel as ‘very special’. No base wine for pétillant was produced this vintage. 

With such high levels of malic acidity within the wines, it is hard not to draw comparisons with the the 1971 vintage, and whilst 2008 might be considered atypique by Noël, it is, I believe, the greatest demi-sec vintage since he took over the running of Domaine Huet in 1976.
Le Haut Lieu Sec
Le Clos du Bourg Sec
Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec
Le Mont Demi-Sec
Le Haut Lieu Moëlleux
Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1ere Trie
Le Mont Moëlleux 1ere Trie

2009
After the turbulent conditions of the 2008 growing season, normal business was resumed this vintage. My own view is that the barometer for assessing the overall quality of any vintage at Huet is dependent on the range of wines that are produced in a single year; 2002 and 2005 being perfect examples of this, when everything from pétillant to moëlleux are produced. The 2009 vintage falls into this category.

Whilst the climatic conditions of any given year will always dictate the style of wines that are produced in the appellation, it was an objective this year that Huet should at least try harvest grapes at a level suitable for the production of sparkling wines, since none has been made since the 2005 vintage and stocks are badly depleted. In order to achieve this, Noël Pinguet has been experimenting with leaf-plucking during the growing season to try and reduce the surface area of the canopy and restrict the ripening, something which is contradictory to what would have happened just two decades ago, when lack of maturity in the fruit was an important issue. Noël sees this as clear sign of the problem of the change in climate. If successful, he’ll adopt this system in all the vineyards to try and bring down the alcohol levels, which are undoubtedly creeping up.

Although the conditions during the growing season were generally good, the 2009 harvest was a complicated one. The 15 day flowering period, much longer than usual, meant that ripening was not homogenous and Huet needed to send the vendangeurs out three times, even for the sec and demi-sec, in order to harvest at the optimum time. This, again, emphasises the importance of hand harvesting in an appellation like Vouvray.

The harvest started, with grapes for pétillant, on the 26^th September, and continued until the 27^th October. The majority of the grapes for the 1er trie wines came in on the second pass, whilst the fruit for Cuvée Constance was harvested, with around 50% botrytis, mostly from within Le Clos du Bourg and Le Mont , during the first few days. As is normal, Le Mont was the last to be picked; its ripening retarded by the colder clay soils, but also this year by the delayed flowering (it commenced seven days later than in Le Clos du Bourg).

In the cellar, it was found that the berries were small and contained less juice than normal, meaning that carefully controlling the pressing cycle was essential in order not to extract any phenolic compounds. Noël is generally fanatical about this stage of the winemaking process, but one can understand the importance under such conditions. Regardless, the harvest came in at an average of 48hl/ha, which is considered correct, and twice that of the 2008 vintage. Fermentations were protracted and certainly more difficult this year, with Le Mont being the slowest to finish.

The 2009s have given us a broad range of styles, but more important, the objective of producing much needed Pétillant and Sec has been achieved. Whilst 2008 was seen as a year for Demi-Sec, the strength of the 2009 vintage lies with the drier wines, although overall this year will rank alongside 2002 and 2005 as being one of the best vintages of the decade. The defining character of the vintage is the good levels of acidity (between 4.5 and 5.0g/l), which will ensure these wines will all have a very long and distinguished life ahead of them.
2009 Le Haut Lieu Sec
2009 Le Clos du Bourg Sec
2009 Le Mont Sec
2009 Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec
2009 Le Haut Lieu Moëlleux
2009 Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux
2009 Le Mont Moëlleux
2009 Le Clos du Bourg Moëlleux 1er Trie
2009 Le Mont Moëlleux 1er Trie
2009 Cuvée Constance  

2010
Spring was cold but dry and flowering was a little later than usual but was completed by the end of June. Summer conditions were good and there were no issues with disease. With the primary objective for the year being to fill the cellar with sparkling and dry wine s picking needed to start early whilst simultaneously ensuring that grapes were still fully ripe. The harvest began on the 27th September with bunches destined specifically for Pétillant. Climatic conditions during this period were changeable which meant that Noël had to make some spontaneous decisions as to when to harvest certain styles with the only Demi-Sec and about 600 litres worth of 1er Trie (from Le Clos du Bourg) both being picked during the middle of the harvest. There were a total of three passages through the vines with the last grapes coming in on the 12th October. 

In the cellar, fermentations were long and protracted, not just an issue at Huet, it would seem, but throughout the appellation. It would appear the wine s struggled to convert the last few grams of sugar which Noël ascribes to his decision to pick the grapes for sec riper this vintage. 

I tasted the wines for the first time in the first week of January 2011 with Noël and his team, although they were still in ferment and final decisions on the range and blends at that stage had not been made. With the wine s now in bottle and re-tasted, we can confirm that there is a sec produced from each of Le Haut Lieu, Le Mont and Le Clos du Bourg. In addition there is the one Demi-Sec from Le Clos du Bourg whilst the tiny volume of Le Mont Moëlleux 1er Trie is being offered to French private clients in the first instance. It will also be a healthy vintage for Pétillant, although we will only see the benefit of this in about five years time. Whilst it was a complex harvest, the 2010s have delivered us with a sound commercial vintage of much needed sec.
2010 Le Haut Lieu Sec
2010 Le Clos du Bourg Sec
2010 Le Mont Sec
2010 Le Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec
2010 Le Mont Moëlleux 1er Trie

2011
Could this be the last vintage vinfied by Noël Pinguet? During my conversation with him at the Salon in Angers in February 2012, he muted that this might well be the case. 

The conditions of the growing season were somewhat bizarre. Winter was hard, but March and April were warm and by the start of May the vines were already four week ahead of what would be considered normal. Flowering began at the end of May without issue. The rest of the summer was cold but dry which helped to slow down the exaggerated ripening, but even so, Huet were predicting that they would harvest even earlier than they did in 2003. The weather broke at the end of August, with 40mm of rain falling just prior to the harvest, provoking an instantaneous outbreak of grey rot. The decision to start harvesting was made on the 8th September, commencing with Le Clos du Bourg; harvesting in Le Mont started one week later. There was a break in the middle to allow the vines to dry out following the rain which allowed the crop to re-concentrate to a degree, although as Benjamin explained to me, this is never ideal since it leaves the component parts of the grape out of balance. 

This was another year where Huet set out to make dry white wines as well as sparkling. Token amounts of Demi-Sec (44hl) and Moëlleux (18hl) were produced, both at the end of the harvest. There was some pétillant produced, but Huet have kept only a single tanks worth; the balance being sold off to the négoce.

The 2011 vintage is a sound one at Huet. Whilst Philippe Foreau is likely to have produced wines he feels suitable for a Réserve Moëlleux and possibly even a Goutte d'Or, Huet elected to concentrate on the production of sec, delivering wines with the same freshness and precision as in 2010. Noël belives that Le Clos du Bourg produced the best wine of the vintage, although my personal preference for the wines (tasted as tank samples in February 2012) is for Le Mont sec. 
2011 Le Haut Lieu Sec
2011 Le Clos du Bourg Sec
2011 Le Mont Sec
2011 Le Mont Demi-Sec
2011 Le Mont Moëlleux 1er Trie

Domaine Huet
L’Echansonne
11/13 rue de la Croix Buisée
T: + 33 2 47 52 78 87
F: + 33 2 47 52 66 74
contact@huet-echansonne.com
www.huet-echansonne.com

 

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