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5 bottles per lot
Details
RARE VOUVRAY FROM HUET
Domaine HUET is a 35 ha. (85 acres) estate in Vouvray, which for decades has been supreme for the quality, complexity and sheer beauty of its wines. Its owner, Gaston Huet, was a legend in his lifetime. He was mayor of Vouvray for 40 years, and died in 2002, aged 92. His son-in-law Noël Pinguet led the Domaine into bio-dynamics in 1987 (by 1991 it was 100. He has been the Domaine's guiding light since the 1976 vintage.
Top Vouvray is one of the world's greatest wines, yet it is appreciated by, and known to, only a few. It comes from just one grape variety, the Chenin Blanc. This gives wines which vary on the sweet-dry scale, depending on the weather each year. This diversity of sweetness and styles - Vouvray also exists in sparkling form - contribute to its being little understood, and often under-valued.
What distinguishes great Vouvray from other dessert wines, and other wines with varying levels of residual sugar. For Jacques Puisais, there is a triangle of elements always present, but which vary in their strength: Vif Ferme/Tendre Lively Firm Gentle. And the length of flavour. "Today, people think too much about the body of a wine. A wine without length of flavour is like a bird without a tail - he will not fly far. A product without a tail will leave no image in your brain".
There is no new oak ageing here, yet remarkable golden-amber colours are achieved. This is a precious, beautiful attribute. Another, great particularity of Vouvray is its freshness, and this is retained by early bottling. At Domaine Huet, the rule is for bottling to take place in March or April following the harvest.
At harvest time, they usually go through the vineyards three times, not more. Selection is made on the vines, not on a sorting table in the vat-house. This is the key spot for Nol Pinguet during the vintage, where he directs his bunches or berries to different pneumatic presses, playing on the presses like an organist. In the greatest vintages, the finest wine comes from the first picking, known as the 1re trie.
Domaine Huet has this extraordinary reserve of old bottles because Nol's father-in-law Gaston Huet always held back quantities of the greatest vintages for ageing. This took place in wonderful, hollowed-out galleries, deep in the limestone tufa rock, overlooking the Loire. There is constant temperature, and high humidity. Levels in all cases are superb, and all corks have either been replaced for this auction, or were changed during the last 10 years.
What are the differences in character between the three vineyards ? Le Haut Lieu is the original, family holding, and its wine encapsulates the minerality, and also the balance, intensity and freshness of the district. Clos du Bourg is one of Vouvray's premier vineyards for long aging. "Le Clos du Bourg is a rugby-man, a powerful presence. Le Mont is more feminine - a dancer, a Princess." These distinctions surfaced as we tasted the 1959s, side by side, in 2004.
"These wines are not ultra-rich dessert wines, with massive sweetness. You feel like taking a second glass, they are elegant. They are full of the clear light of Touraine." The exception vintage is 1990, with its great levels of residual sugars.
At what age do they mature? Tasting 5 wines from the 1930s in 2004 - all are in the sale - Nol remarked : "These wines have secondary, not tertiary, aromas - they are still young! The vintages of the 1930s are now mature, yet also still youthful, like a sprightly septuagenarian."
10 Celsius is the recommended serving temperature.
Anthony Hanson MW
Mr. Hanson wrote the above introduction for the sale of wines direct from Huet in a Christie's London sale in 2004. The wines in this consignment were purchased in that sale and stored in the United States until being removed from temperature controlled storage for this auction. All of the wines, per the 2004 Christie's catalog, were recorked for that sale, or in about 10 years prior.
Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu, Moelleux--Vintage 1924
Loire, Gaston Huet
Levels: 1.5cm or better; two slightly protruding corks, one lightly nicked capsule
"Deep amber-golden, with piercingly fresh aromas which include crystallised mandarin, clove, acacia flower, mushroom. This is the quintessence of Vouvray, and valued by many connoisseurs even more highly than wines from ultra-ripe years. It is full and sweet - without any trace of sickliness - having lovely acidity, and great length." AH
5 bottles per lot
Domaine HUET is a 35 ha. (85 acres) estate in Vouvray, which for decades has been supreme for the quality, complexity and sheer beauty of its wines. Its owner, Gaston Huet, was a legend in his lifetime. He was mayor of Vouvray for 40 years, and died in 2002, aged 92. His son-in-law Noël Pinguet led the Domaine into bio-dynamics in 1987 (by 1991 it was 100. He has been the Domaine's guiding light since the 1976 vintage.
Top Vouvray is one of the world's greatest wines, yet it is appreciated by, and known to, only a few. It comes from just one grape variety, the Chenin Blanc. This gives wines which vary on the sweet-dry scale, depending on the weather each year. This diversity of sweetness and styles - Vouvray also exists in sparkling form - contribute to its being little understood, and often under-valued.
What distinguishes great Vouvray from other dessert wines, and other wines with varying levels of residual sugar. For Jacques Puisais, there is a triangle of elements always present, but which vary in their strength: Vif Ferme/Tendre Lively Firm Gentle. And the length of flavour. "Today, people think too much about the body of a wine. A wine without length of flavour is like a bird without a tail - he will not fly far. A product without a tail will leave no image in your brain".
There is no new oak ageing here, yet remarkable golden-amber colours are achieved. This is a precious, beautiful attribute. Another, great particularity of Vouvray is its freshness, and this is retained by early bottling. At Domaine Huet, the rule is for bottling to take place in March or April following the harvest.
At harvest time, they usually go through the vineyards three times, not more. Selection is made on the vines, not on a sorting table in the vat-house. This is the key spot for Nol Pinguet during the vintage, where he directs his bunches or berries to different pneumatic presses, playing on the presses like an organist. In the greatest vintages, the finest wine comes from the first picking, known as the 1re trie.
Domaine Huet has this extraordinary reserve of old bottles because Nol's father-in-law Gaston Huet always held back quantities of the greatest vintages for ageing. This took place in wonderful, hollowed-out galleries, deep in the limestone tufa rock, overlooking the Loire. There is constant temperature, and high humidity. Levels in all cases are superb, and all corks have either been replaced for this auction, or were changed during the last 10 years.
What are the differences in character between the three vineyards ? Le Haut Lieu is the original, family holding, and its wine encapsulates the minerality, and also the balance, intensity and freshness of the district. Clos du Bourg is one of Vouvray's premier vineyards for long aging. "Le Clos du Bourg is a rugby-man, a powerful presence. Le Mont is more feminine - a dancer, a Princess." These distinctions surfaced as we tasted the 1959s, side by side, in 2004.
"These wines are not ultra-rich dessert wines, with massive sweetness. You feel like taking a second glass, they are elegant. They are full of the clear light of Touraine." The exception vintage is 1990, with its great levels of residual sugars.
At what age do they mature? Tasting 5 wines from the 1930s in 2004 - all are in the sale - Nol remarked : "These wines have secondary, not tertiary, aromas - they are still young! The vintages of the 1930s are now mature, yet also still youthful, like a sprightly septuagenarian."
10 Celsius is the recommended serving temperature.
Anthony Hanson MW
Mr. Hanson wrote the above introduction for the sale of wines direct from Huet in a Christie's London sale in 2004. The wines in this consignment were purchased in that sale and stored in the United States until being removed from temperature controlled storage for this auction. All of the wines, per the 2004 Christie's catalog, were recorked for that sale, or in about 10 years prior.
Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu, Moelleux--Vintage 1924
Loire, Gaston Huet
Levels: 1.5cm or better; two slightly protruding corks, one lightly nicked capsule
"Deep amber-golden, with piercingly fresh aromas which include crystallised mandarin, clove, acacia flower, mushroom. This is the quintessence of Vouvray, and valued by many connoisseurs even more highly than wines from ultra-ripe years. It is full and sweet - without any trace of sickliness - having lovely acidity, and great length." AH
5 bottles per lot