I was gonna hold this for a few more years but I have a few more bottles and curiosity get the better of me. Open about five minutes now and is sporting a pretty nose of pear, anise, flowers, petrol and pineapple. Rather unsubstantial on the palate but showing a lot of rocky minerality and pineapple. There is a slight honeyed tenderness on the almost nonexistant finish. Lacks the structure and cut I would expect even from a mid-tier Vouvray. Indeed, the palate impression overall is similar to an uninspired Chateau Moncontour. Certainly drinkable but nothing exciting. I won’t pass judgement yet as this is clearly tight and should unwind with some air.
After a 3 hour decant this wine is singing! The nose stopped being terribly expressive and the finish is still a little clipped but a proper finish is begining to emerge. The rest of the wine fleshed out tremendously. It’s concentrated and mouthwatering with flavors of lime, apple, pineapple, honey and a hint of spice over a pile of wet rocks. The minerality in the first taste was intense enought to bring back memories of fishing in the river behind our summer cabin in my youth! I wish I could say that was a good memory, (I desperately wanted to be inside watching TV instead), but I guess I can’t blame the wine for me not enjoying the great outdoors as a kid.
At any rate, This was a stunning pairing with a pot of clams boiled in a mildy spicy thai curry sauce. This should be a complete wine in 2-3 years but I doubt I have the discipline to wait that long. An absolute steal for $22.00 a bottle. I saved half the bottle for tommorrow. I can’t wait to see how much more it develops overnight. Too bad the importer is such an asshole and no merchant in the state will deal with him!
2006 in the loire (specially whites) lacks a bit of soul. Of recent vintages try 2007 for more minerality or 2005 for more structure
I have found the '06 vintage to be a little overripe and flabby and the '07 vintage to be too lean. I would like to split the difference. That said, I have tasted plenty of good wine in both vintages. This was a good bottle and not at all lacking in soul.
Hi Scott,
I have been wondering when curiosity would get the best of you and we would see a note on this wine. I am glad that you enjoyed it and caught it before it shuts down entirely, which in my experience is exactly the direction that the 2006 Huets are headed in right now. I had this exact bottling after a fine Port tasting at one of Daniel Boulud’s restaurants here in NY in the spring of this year and the wine was really starting to get sleepy and in need of hibernation. IME, it will not emerge again for 8-10 years (Vouvray needs its beauty sleep), and I would strongly recommend your holding your remaining bottles for a much longer period than you envision. The metamorphasis that will take place will be astonishing. Given sufficient time, this will be a great wine, not just a very good wine.
In terms of overall quality of the 2006 vintage, it seems to me that it does not really make sense to discuss a “vintage character” in a region that stretches over 200 miles in diameter from Muscadet to Pouilly-Fume, and it is much more useful to look at 2006 in each distinct region of the Loire Valley. In many of the sub-regions of the Loire, 2006 is simply a fantastic vintage- for the red wines of Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny, for Vouvray and Montlouis, and for Muscadet. It is also very strong in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume (though perhaps not quite at the same level as in the aforementioned regions.) While there are certainly plenty of examples from 2006 that might “lack a bit of soul” (to paraphrase Ignacio), this is not the case at the best addresses in the regions listed above and is not a reflection of the vintage character, but that of the vigneron. From the best producers, 2006s are fantastic and will be talked about reverentially a decade down the road. But they are serious wines in need of some serious bottle age at the present time.
In Vouvray, 2006 is a truly outstanding vintage that might have even eclipsed 2005 if perfect weather had lasted into the late autumn. Prior to the very end of the season, the grapes were superior at their stage of development to where they had been at the same time in the season in 2005. However, rains did arrive at the end of the growing season, and growers had to pick their grapes a bit sooner than they had hoped- so the really rich Moelleux bottlings were not anywhere near as commonplace as was the case the year before. But that does not mean that the quality of the fruit that came in was any less fine- simply that more of the top fruit was devoted to Sec and Demi-Sec bottlings than in 2005, and the Moelleux bottlings that were made in '06 were produced from earlier passes through the vineyard that selected specific bunches that were ready, rather than letting large percentages of the crop hang out on the vines far into October. But it is unequivocally a superb vintage in Vouvray, and time will turn these wines into cellar treasures.
In terms of your finding the 2006s a bit too blowsy for your palate- at least in terms of the Huet '06s, keep in mind that the Le Haut Lieu bottling is by far the least minerally-driven of their three top wines. If you want more overt minerality in your Huet, focus either on Le Mont or Clos du Bourg for your Huet cellaring needs and you will get simply brilliant minerality. Le Haut Lieu is also a magical terroir, but its soil component is presented in a much more understated style than is the case with either Le Mont or Clos du Bourg, so you may find it a bit less defined by its soil than the other two. But keep in mind that the 2006s are really shutting down now, and if the next bottle that you open is within the next four or five years, you are going to find a hermetically sealed wine with little generosity on either the nose or palate. But come around 2017 or so, the fireworks will really begin with the '06 Huets and will not relent for the ensuing fifty years or so!
All the Best,
John
John, thanks for chiming in again on this topic! I guess I need to read your View from the Cellar article again. I thought you wrote that you anticipated this bottle would emerge from it’s slumber in 2011 and drink well until 2025. I must have misread that. Clearly that wouldn’t have allowed for a long hibernation in the bottle. I thought that being of a sec variety maybe they didn’t shut down as hard or as long. Thankfully, (unlike my '07 demi-sec), this bottle had something to show me.
At anyrate, I am sold on the domaine. I will keep my remaining bottles for many more years. (Though I think I need to invest in some space at a wine storage facility to resist the impulse to crack them now!) I will also be taking my Christmas bonus and driving to Seattle to buy 4-5 cases of the '05’s to put away.
May I pick your brain about the aging curves of the less prestigious addresses in Vouvray? I have many bottles of the '05 Champalou Cuvee des Fondraux and the '06 Francois Pinon Cuvee Tradition. I never bought these wines with the intention of aging them. They were laughably inexpensive case purchases and delicious daily drinkers. I just wasn’t able to finish them off before they started dumbing down last year. Will they dumb down for as long as the Huets? When they emerge will there be anything left? The Pinon seems like it has the structure to go a long while. I am not so certain about the Champalou.
Thanks again!
Hi Scott,
I have not had experience with aged Champalou, and the style tends to make me think that they are made to be drunk younger (in the context of the long lives of Vouvray), but I would guess that a ten to fifteen year window of drinkability would be no issue. The fact that the wine is shutting down I would take as a good sign that it has plenty of longevity still in it. With Pinon, I have had a few middle-aged bottles (15-20 years of age) that were just delightful, and I have no doubt that the 2006 will cruise along beauitfully. Demi-Secs live a very long time, and even with Pinon’s slightly more delicate style, I think that you have a 25 year window to drink that wine once it emerges from its hibernation (which will probably be less long than a comparable Huet). One of the things to keep in mind that Huet makes the most powerful styled wines in Vouvray these days (wiht Foreau a close second), but chenin is not dependent solely on its power for its longevity, and more delicately structured wines like Chidaine’s Montlouis bottlings (for example) are also extremely long-lived. So I think you can be very happy to let the remainder of the cases of Champalou and Pinon rest comfortably in the cellar and expect them to be even better drinks when they awake again.
All the Best,
John
Wow! I didn’t imagine they would be that long lived. I might scale back my planned Huet purchases a little and add more Pinon at half the price! I would think he would get a little more respect if his wines have that much longevity. He routinely gets ranked below Champalou and Foquet in wine critics quality hierarchy. Nothing against those two fine estates, they both make some very good wine, but I much prefer the Pinon style.
Anyway, thanks for the Vouvray lesson. It was very helpful.