Domaine Huet Sec & Pétillant, 2014: Pétillant, Other Vintages
Having already looked at several bottles of the 2002 Pétillant and 2002 Pétillant Réserve in my examination of the wines of the 2002 vintage, this leaves me with just a trio of pétillant wines from other vintages to report on. Having finished my bottles of the 1998 Pétillant and 1998 Pétillant Réserve not that long ago, the three remaining wines in my cellar are the straight pétillant cuvées from the 2001, 2005 and 2007 vintages. I have heard murmurings about a release of a pétillant cuvée in the 2009 vintage, but I haven’t seen any listed by the merchants I usually buy from as yet. I will have to ask Benjamin Joliveau about it when I next see him.
Three Pétillant Vintages
I kick off here with the 2007 Pétillant, a very classically styled wine full of pithy fruit, the sinewy flesh of modern Huet, and plenty of tense, taut, minerally frame. It is a wine that I have found convincing from the outset, and I have concluded – having tasted it at least three times now I think – that it would age very well. If I could only leave my bottles alone for a sufficient length of time, there is a chance we might actually find out.
Moving on, the 2005 Pétillant caused some slight consternation when the first bottle showed obvious signs of oxidative degeneration. Curiously, this was much more overt than any such nuances suggestive of oxidation that I managed to spot in the wines, both sec and pétillant, from the 2002 vintage. I wondered for a brief moment whether I might be worrying about premature oxidation in the wrong vintage, and perhaps I should be looking more closely at 2005. None of the other sec cuvées from this vintage showed any problem though, and a second bottle of the pétillant 2005 was absolutely correct in terms of its structure, brightness of aroma and flavour, and fine minerally backbone. I also haven’t heard any other mutterings about 2005 from other drinkers of Huet. This seems to be a very good wine, again with plenty left to give yet.
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