2019 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Mont

WA 94+ – “Again, Huet’s 2019 Vouvray Le Mont Sec reflects the unique, south-facing nine-hectare vineyard with its pebbly flint (silex) and green clay soils wonderfully! Pure, fresh and flinty on the deep, intense yet also floral and herbal nose that represents a concentrated and firm white stone fruit aroma with lemon and grapefruit notes as well as fennel, anise and cumin hints. The bouquet gets darker and stonier with a lot of aeration (during days, to be honest). The leitmotif, though, remains the characteristic mix of aromatic fruit aromas with flint stone and volcanic basalt tones that, at this early stage and poured straight from the bottle, remind me of the Rieslings from Forst, Pfalz (Germany). In any case, this is like perfume on rocky stones! On the palate, Le Mont Sec is a rich, lush and round, very concentrated yet silky textured, elegant, vital and tightly structured 2019 with a powerful, intense and long finish with lingering salinity intertwined with tight, perhaps slightly dry tannins. I recommend cellaring this round yet tight and concentrated Chenin for a decade and then drinking it slowly over many years and with, hopefully, even better integrated tannins. 13.5% alcohol. 30,000 bottles made. Tasted in July 2020.”

D95 – “Scents of lemon, pomelo, spring flowers and jasmine intermingle in the complex but fresh bouquet of Le Mont 2019. The mouthfeel is taut and finely etched but there is a chalky element and limestone-based tension enhanced by racy acidity on the finish. The long finish conveys such an aerial, uplifting, vertical expression that we are compelled to shout bravo!”