1989 Domaine Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie Essai Bio

1989 was the year when Noël Pinguet started his biodynamic farming in a parcel of the Clos du Bourg called Essai (by the way, the domaine never used weed-killers before). He picked and processed the grapes separately and vinified an independent wine: 1989 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Première Trie Essai. This wine has an exceptionally intense, deep orange to amber color and an explosive fruit on the nose. Highly ripe, concentrated and aromatic -- more like an apricot or blood orange chutney or confiture -- and underpinned with spicy and lemon-fresh aromas, this incredibly clear and precise nose indicates a great depth and concentration. Indeed this wine is like a syrup or nectar on the palate, so concentrated, so brilliant and intense in its fruit expression whereas the sharp, laser-beamy acidity is that of an Eiswein, as if the wine was still fermenting...! What I have here on my table is just the perfect bottle although one could argue the acidity is too dominant, the tannins are a little bit too grippy, and the style a little but too oxidative (think of white Port and sweet Sherries), but I love it when a wine is raising questions and doesn't let you go ahead with the next one. Here is so much finesse and elegance but most of all drama in this wine, as if it were Shakespeare's Macbeth interpreted by a winemaker. Exceptional. Eternal. According to Noël Pinguet, there was no botrytis in 1989: "The berries were absolutely healthy when they dried on the vines in a vintage that is the best I have ever made and stays side by side with the legendary 1947." (195 EUR)

The intensely golden colored 1989 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Première Trie offers a clear, deep, rich, spicy and intense stone fruit flavor intermixed with coolish earthy/mineral and some nutty flavors. Very fruit-intense, elegant and really sappy on the palate, with less concentration compared to the corresponding Le Mont but with a mineral and tannic tension, this is a full-bodied, dense and persistent Chenin that is still extremely young but should age well for for decades. According to Noël Pinguet there was no botrytis in 1989: "The berries were absolutely healthy when they dried on the vines in a vintage that is the best I have ever made and stays side by side with the legendary 1947." (145 EUR)

Dark tawny and a little oxidised. Round with a bit of burnt caramel. Lots of acidity – acidity dominates. Not a complete wine. But maybe another bottle will be in better nick? Medium-sweet impression. (JR)