Huet Le Haut Lieu Moelleux 2003

“From another early, low-acid vintage, the golden shining, botrytis-free 2003 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux Première Trie shows a beautifully intense, extraordinary clear, refined and elegant bouquet of ripe fruits intertwined with mineral flavors –– fascinating! Sweet, intense and delicate on the palate, this highly elegant and lovely concentrated Chenin is of great purity, balance and finesse. Its length is impressive, its generous flow is extremely sensual and its overall intensity and accessible generosity are absolutely gorgeous. This 2003 is great today, but will probably even more fascinating in 50+ years. The balance and drinkability is superb. Highly recommended.” 2015 – 2065
96+ Points, Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate, Nov 2015

Chenin grapes are hand harvested, which enables picking by successive tries – each tri being a separate pass by the workers through the vineyard. This enables the selection of only the best bunches of the ripest grapes, and the picking of individual botrytised berries. The best selection is destined for the première trie wines; these are not, despite the suggestion, solely derived from the first picking in the vineyard. These wines are made from the highest quality, botrytised fruit, which may of course be brought in on second, third or subsequent tries, depending on the weather and how rapidly or slowly the botrytis or pure maturity develops.

The original vineyard site, purchased by Gaston Huet in 1928 ws just 3 hectares, it now covers 9 hectares. As the name suggests, the house and the vineyards are situated on a plateau with a slight south facing gradient at one of the highest points of the appellation.
The Le Haut Lieu itself consists of 3 to 4 metres of heavy clay soil mixed with chalk, known locally as aubuis, which lies over a bed of limestone. It is this limestone subsoil that proves to be the constant link between the three vineyards owned by Huet. It is the vines proximity to the porous, yellow tuffeau that is responsible for the overriding style of wines produced from each of the sites.

This friable rock is from the Turonian Age and was laid down during the Cretaceous Period, which dates them at between 67 and 137 million years. The tuffeau is made up of fragments of bryozoa, sea creatures that lived in vast numbers in tropical oceans which, when mixed with fragments of mica and grains of sand then compacted, gives notable physical and chemical properties to the soil. The chalky, brittle quality makes it ideal for excavation; and the reason why Vouvray is made up of a labyrinth of caves and troglodyte dwellings. Of the three sites, Le Haut Lieu regardless of their style or sweetness, tends to offer the most precocious of wines, although this should be seen as a relative statement given that they are still capable of lasting many decades.

Moëlleux (best translated as meaning ‘full of marrow’, this term refers more to the textural quality of a wine than the sweetness).