Domaine Huet Sec & Pétillant, 2014: Sec, Other Vintages
Having thrown the spotlight onto the 2012 and 2002 vintages, focusing solely on the sec and pétillant wines, I thought I should probably pull some other vintages from the cellar to see how they are getting on. In the remainder of this report I concentrate on these other vintages, beginning here with the sec cuvées.
I pulled, popped and poured another nine sec cuvées alongside those already described, three from each of the Huet vineyards. Largely these come from very recent vintages, from 2010 back to 2005, but I did uncover one bottle from 1995 as well, so I have included that here also. As described in my introduction to this four-part report, these wines were tasted at home, over the course of the last two months. This means each bottle was given appropriate time to shine, and show all that it had to offer.
Le Haut Lieu Sec
This is the original Huet vineyard, purchased by Victor & Anna-Constance Huet in 1928, and so it seems appropriate to start here. I tasted just three vintages, 2009, 2007 and 2005. The 2009 Le Haut Lieu Sec now shows a lovely expressive character on the nose, loaded with orchard fruit nuances backed up by bright citrus zest. This same character comes through on the palate, and importantly – considering my experiences with one or two other domaines, where the wines in this vintage can be a little soft – there was adequate acidity on the palate to keep the wine feeling fresh, defined and alive, aided as it was by some tarter nuances coming through from the fruit. It is clearly a wine full of potential.
The 2007 Le Haut Lie Sec has a very smoky and flinty character with a very grey and reductive, matchsticky edge to it. This is especially pleasing in light of my examination of some wines from the 2002 vintage, which have been reported to be suffering from oxidation. There was no such problem here though. As for the 2005 Le Haut Lieu Sec, this showed a beautifully harmonious evolution; there were still notes of orchard fruits and citrus zest here, as well as a somewhat more confident acid backbone then can be found in the 2009 described above. But the wine also has a charming, polished, integrated character which when I find it always seems to remind me of face cream. I apologise as I know that isn’t a very helpful tasting term, and which may therefore cause confusion, but that is what it reminds me of. It is partly aromatic, partly textural (not that I eat face cream) and related to balance and harmony, but what is perhaps most important to get across is that I view it as a very positive characteristic in Chenin Blanc.
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