Domaine Huet

The Free Bacchus Story

Open a bottle of Huet from a good vintage forty years after the harvest and it will very likely still be developing. Not surviving — developing, moving somewhere, not yet finished with itself. Almost no white wine in the world does that, and Chenin Blanc's reputation gives no hint that it might.

The reason is partly underneath the vines. Vouvray sits on tuffeau, a soft chalky limestone that holds moisture through dry spells and gives the wines the acidity and mineral structure that make four decades possible. Huet farms three sites on it, Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont and Clos du Bourg, organically since the 1990s under Demeter certification, converted under Noël Pinguet, who ran the domaine for the Huet family for decades.

Gaston Huet was mayor of Vouvray for forty-two years, until 1989, and led the campaign against running the high-speed line through the vines in an open trench. The estate's owner put the TGV underneath the vineyards instead.

The same three plots produce the full stylistic range: sec, demi-sec and moelleux, plus pétillant and perlant sparkling wines, all under the same farming. The Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux has drawn 97 points from Wine Advocate and a Decanter Trophy. But the dry wines may be the more interesting proposition for anyone paying attention to price: a Huet sec from a strong vintage stands comparison with Burgundy or Alsace bottles costing a great deal more, and generally does not cost it.

Gaston Huet died in 2002 and the estate was acquired by Anthony Hwang, who has kept the biodynamic standard and the farming philosophy unaltered. Continuity of ownership is not usually something a drinker can check. Continuity of practice, in this case, is.