Domaine Huet, Noël Pinguet’s Final Vintage, 2012: The 2011 Vintage
The news about Noël Pinguet’s resignation broke upon his departure in February 2012, although I believe the decision was reached in late 2011. For me the timing of his departure makes 2011 Noël’s final vintage, as all that remains now for most of the cuvées is bottling, Noël having seen the vintage through all the viticultural hurdles of an unusual year right up to the decision to pick, as well as all the fermentations. This vintage was not a prodigious one as far as the production of the great moelleux cuvées is concerned, which is ironic considering the cause of the disagreement that led to his departure. Instead, 2011 (and the same can be said of 2010) is a vintage that gave Noël a rich supply of raw material for both the sec and the pétillant cuvées. As was the case throughout France and the Loire (and I will discuss this in more detail in my 2011 Loire vintage report), the growing season was bizarre, with unseasonably warm spring and autumn, and a cool summer. Although the year did not bring the extremes of temperature seen in 2003, on average 2011 was a warmer year than 2003, and is thus the warmest year on record for France. In many regions – not just Vouvray – an early harvest was expected, but these plans were put back by the cooler than expected summer months.
The decision to pick was made on September 8th, with Clos du Bourg first, the other vineyards following a week later. The vast majority of what was picked has been channelled into sec; only tiny amounts of demi-sec and moelleux have been made. Of the three sec cuvées, Le Mont is the most convincing for me, with Clos du Bourg very close in quality, whereas Le Haut Lieu is a certain step behind the first two wines. Le Mont has a pure style, rather fleshy but with a real sense of substance to it, and carries 8 g/l residual sugar. The Clos du Bourg was bright and characterful, defined, still very sec in style despite also possessing 8 g/l residual sugar, yet still very expressive and very close to Le Mont in terms of how much I would like to own and drink this wine. Trailing in somewhat was Le Haut Lieu. Although intrinsically a very good wine, I felt this was softer, more gentle and less exhilarating than the first two cuvées, despite the lower residual sugar at 7 g/l and slightly higher acidity on analysis. Le Mont and Clos du Bourg are on the première côte of course, whereas Le Haut Lieu is located further back towards the plateau; these differing locations are perhaps very noticeable in 2011.
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