Domaine Huet : Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux 2022

Characteristics and tasting notes of the Vouvray "Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux" 2022 from Domaine Huet

Tasting notes

Colour
This white wine reveals a pale to light golden yellow hue, luminous and crystalline.

Nose
The bouquet reveals fine complexity, opening on bitter citrus aromas such as mandarin and grapefruit zest, mingled with ripe stone fruits like peach, pear and apricot. With aeration, notes of honey, candied fruit and white flowers emerge, underpinned by a subtle stony minerality.

Palate
The attack is round and silky, offering a remarkable balance between sweetness and a lively natural acidity. Notes of noble bitterness cleanse the palate, leading to a lingering finish marked by touches of dried herbs, zest and a delicate salinity.

Food and wine pairing

This wine pairs beautifully with refined seafood such as grilled langoustines or roasted lobster. It also enhances spicy and Asian cuisine, particularly a Thai duck curry. When it comes to cheese, it pairs ideally with aged goat cheeses or blue-veined cheeses, as well as fruity desserts such as a caramelized apple tart.

Service and storage

This 2022 vintage can be enjoyed in its youth, slightly chilled, but also boasts an aging potential well beyond fifteen years, allowing it to evolve over several decades.

Other characteristics

This sweet white wine stands out for its residual sugar concentration, perfectly balanced by the grape variety's natural freshness.

The richness and balance of a sweet white wine from Vouvray

The estate

Founded in 1928 by Victor and Gaston Huet, Domaine Huet is a benchmark name in the Loire Valley. Located in Vouvray, this pioneering estate adopted biodynamic principles as early as 1990 to preserve the vitality of its soils. Now run by Sarah and Hugo Hwang, the estate spans some thirty hectares. The family upholds a demanding philosophy, combining respect for natural cycles with rigorous plot selection, to produce wines that reflect the purity and singularity of their terroirs.

The vineyard

The historic Haut-Lieu plot, acquired when the estate was founded, spans fifteen hectares on the Vouvray plateau. This terroir is characterized by deep brown clay soils, scattered with flint and chalk at the surface, resting on a tuffeau limestone bedrock. Cultivated without any synthetic chemical products and worked by hand, the vines benefit from a biodynamic approach that respects natural rhythms, encouraging deep rooting and an authentic mineral expression.

The vintage

The year 2022 was marked by contrasting weather conditions. After an early frost episode, an intense summer drought and heatwaves slowed the vegetative cycle. Fortunately, saving rainfall in early September helped ease the water stress, reviving an uneven but qualitative ripening of the berries through to harvest.

Winemaking and aging

Hand-harvesting through successive selective picking passes allows for the selection of berries at optimal ripeness. Gentle pneumatic pressing precedes cold settling. Fermentation begins naturally through indigenous yeasts in old half-barrels, deep within the tuffeau cellars. To preserve the wine's liveliness, malolactic fermentation is not sought. Aging continues in old barrels for a few weeks before spring bottling.

Grape variety

Chenin Blanc (100%).