2017 Vouvray Demi-Sec Moelleux Le Haut-Lieu
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Tasting notes
The 2017 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec displays an intense yellow color and offers a fascinatingly pure and chalky/smoky bouquet of crushed stones intertwined with sur-lie notes, oat milk and ripe, well-concentrated fruit aromas. After lots of aeration, you get some lactic notes here as well. Round, lush and intense on the palate, this is a full-bodied, juicy, very refined and elegant Vouvray with delicate tannins, good structure and sensual, slightly sweet fruit. The finish reveals great power but also grip, salt, finesse and enormous length. This is a pretty great wine, and it can age for decades, although it already drinks very well. Tasted in March 2019.
Critic scores
Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec is also brilliant, and readers should snatch a case of this beauty. Offering up a smorgasbord of quince, green apple, honeysuckle, and flinty minerality, it’s medium-bodied, has bright, juicy acidity, beautifully integrated sweetness (it’s off dry), and a balanced, lengthy style on the palate. It’s impressive today, with an already complex, layered style, but it’s going to age beautifully for two decades or more. It’s a smoking value.
Toasted nuts, woolly and honeyed. The picture of classic Chenin, and the sweetness is so well interwoven with the structure. Crackles with acid, and clearly benefits from the extra ripeness that the sec bottling is lacking. (RH)