Oh man this is so frickin’ lip-smackingly delicious. There is quite a bit going on, it’s far from simple, but it drinks so majestically well that it’s easy to miss the complexity due to the sheer pleasure. Amazing how stable the prices have remained for these.
2019 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Mont - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray (3.1.2025)
Super crystalline and vibrant on the nose, borderline electric. Very zesty and quite stony with notes of apricot, grapefruit, cider-esque apple and yeast. On the palate dry with good concentration, extremely tasty fruit with a sour edge and a chiselled mouthfeel. Terrific tension to it. Extremely youthful but very refined and exciting. Acidity is high but very appropriate. Massively drinkable, especially with seafood. A very captivating wine.
Great to hear it’s starting to come out of its shell. It was painfully awkward and backwards at release, but had an insane amount of stuffing.
And agree on the champion quality-price-ratio here. John Gilman rated this as a 95+ and put the drink window as 2030-2120. None of us will be around long enough to find out, but the point stands that this is a <$40 wine that is glorious to drink in the near term, or could be a future legend for your great, great grand kids.
Not bragging or nothing, but here’s what the 19 Secs cost after release (if you were willing/able to ship from west coast retailers):
-Clos du Bourg $37 (I bought 8 bottles)
-Le Haut Lieu $29.75 (I bought 12 bottles, drank 2 so far)
-Le Mont $37 (I bought 8 bottles)
To non-geeks, these are spendy; for us, these are world class QPRs.
In France it’s the exact same prices for the recent vintage, of course € instead of $. That it to say that there has not been much change since the 2019 vintage came out.
Yeah…not sure how valid those Gilman drinking windows in general are. I have had other vintages of this wine right after release and remember them being brutally intense and tight indeed.
Fair enough. I’m in Nyc and generally don’t like to have wine shipped from other parts of the country, or spread myself out too thin across shops just for deals on specific wines. But either way, still a big Huet fan, even if the broader Loire landscape for chenin blanc remains as exciting as ever.
I know some folks around here have had the chance to taste 100 year old Huet and it’s certainly a bucket list wine for me. Not sure how many of those are Sec wines though. We had the 96 Le Mont sec last year and it still needed time - the acid was a punch in the face at first, and it drank better on day 2. We also opened a 96 Clos du Bourg 1er trie, and that felt like a 100 year wine in the making - it could still be described as brutally intense and still needing a decade to peak.
Acker has it for $40 (if they’re not on your blacklist). Regardless, fully agreed on how exciting the Chenin landscape is today! Not to derail the thread, but who are some of your favorite newer producers?
I’ve actually not gone in too heavy on the newer producers, in part because I do agree that some of the old classics like Huet offer better value! I have a recent thread on here about Boudignon and whether it’s worth the money. For my wallet, jury still out on that one, but very nice wines.
And then you also have the old guard stepping up their game. I have been very impressed with recent Domaine aux Moines, but haven’t had 23.
