2009 Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu

The Huet 2009 Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu – harvested at the beginning of October – manages to remain dry tasting despite harboring ten grams of residual sugar, which represented the only means of keeping alcohol at bay. (The trio of 2009 sec bottlings doesn’t exceed 13.5%, which Pinguet says he considers the maximum acceptable for their genre.) Fresh lime, chalk dust, and salt spray in the nose promise a prominence of citrus and mineral elements uncommon for the vintage, a promise largely fulfilled on the palate and in a prolonged finish, albeit accompanied by a considerable sense of citrus pip and rind bitterness. The clay-rich, more water-retentive soil of this site (vis-a-vis Huet’s others) does not seem to have conduced to noticeably better acid retention – if anything to the contrary – despite the prominence of flavors associated with citrus. But there is a lovely sense of levity here that is very welcome for its vintage. This may well gain further complexity with 2-3 years in bottle, though I don’t perceive it as well-suited for extended cellaring. Noel Pinguet professes great confidence in his 2009s and pleasure in one of those rare vintages where it was possible to bottle everything from sec through Cuvee Constance. That said, he admitted that achieving a balanced dry wine was challenging, and total production of sec was down from the estate norm; that of demi-sec, surprisingly, even more so (represented by a single bottling); virtually half of the vintage production being moelleux. While acknowledging similarities to 1996, Pinguet finds 2008 most closely resembles 1988. His is one of the few 2008 collections from Vouvray or Montlouis that is clearly less consistent than the corresponding 2009s, which he also finds more interesting. Importer: The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA; tel. (800) 999-4342