2005 Huet Le Haut Lieu Moelleux

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Yixin

Yixin
You know, someone was complaining to me the other day about Huet - how they're like the Yquem of Vouvray - very good, never the best (according to him) in any vintage, and boring.

Well, fuck him. I'm surprised it is still open, but boy am I glad I buy the wines every year, thinking that someone in 50 years' time will be thankful. It's nice, very nice now, but it's just the spring blossom, and the fruit down the road (you know, you just know) will be as succulent as any you've tasted, and it's so bountiful that you'll have to make preserve as well, which will be simply stupendous with credit to the material rather than the maker. So - very pretty and wondrous now, but different and just as satisfying later.

Drink and hold, baby, drink and hold.
 
i had my lone bottle of 1996 clos du bourg demi-sec the other night and it was a complete kaleidoscope of complexity and perfection. i bought it at the tasting room in spring of 1999. it of course has decades ahead of it, but it wasn't drunk too soon. captivating.

people who whine about huet have bigger problems.
 
Has anyone out there ever tasted a bottle of Huet that was over-the-hill? Not a bottle with a bad cork or seepage or a storage problem. A bottle that was clearly past its prime? Just wondering.
 
originally posted by Robert Vodicka:
Huet questionHas anyone out there ever tasted a bottle of Huet that was over-the-hill? Not a bottle with a bad cork or seepage or a storage problem. A bottle that was clearly past its prime? Just wondering.
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I think the '98s are generally on the downslope, but not in the ditch.

You could definitely say the same about the '46 and '48 LHL secs.

Maybe '70 CdB moelleux.
 
Some of the stuff from '86 which I picked up at auction in London, I guess. Tasted just slightly past it, and not obviously damaged, but who knows?
 
originally posted by Robert Vodicka:
Huet questionHas anyone out there ever tasted a bottle of Huet that was over-the-hill? Not a bottle with a bad cork or seepage or a storage problem. A bottle that was clearly past its prime? Just wondering.
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I need to check on a couple of 2009s. They should still be good, but might have been better back in the winter.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
I need to check on a couple of 2009s. They should still be good, but might have been better back in the winter.
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I've only been drinking the secs but my last bottle of Clos du Bourg Sec last week was definitely tighter than they have been showing. Although that could have been for any number of reasons, it wasn't the best restaurant environment.

Still, it was better than a recent bottle of 09 Epire Cuvee Speciale. Why was I expecting more from that?
 
Haven't tasted Cuvee Speciale in '09 but the Grand Cru d'Anjou from d'Epire around new years eve was stunning.
I've kicked myself around the block a few times for not buying more.
 
originally posted by Yixin:
originally posted by Rahsaan:

Still, it was better than a recent bottle of 09 Epire Cuvee Speciale. Why was I expecting more from that?
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They need time.
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Really? The material didn't seem that great. When one drinks the 09 Huet secs they are obviously full of great stuff even if certain ones can be cranky.

But hey, I don't presume to understand these things.
 
The material is different - Anjou (schist) versus Vouvray (tuffeau). Alongside the Clos du Papillon and Roche aux Moines/Coulee de Serrant, their vineyards are perhaps the best-sited in Savennieres.

I think the winemaking is a bit more old-fashioned, but the track record is quite compelling. A '99 a few years ago was captivating, not something I would have thought likely at release. Just don't expect Baumard or Closel (or for that matter, any of those made across the river e.g. Mosse, P-P, Baudoin).
 
originally posted by Yixin:
I think the winemaking is a bit more old-fashioned, but the track record is quite compelling. A '99 a few years ago was captivating, not something I would have thought likely at release.
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Interesting, the chapter on Epire in Kermit Lynch's book suggests that any cuvees other than that/those made for him became too modern after the death of M. Bizard in 1985.
 
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