WTN: Lots of Chenins,

Lots of Chenins, mainly Huets. From a tasting with friends on March the 9th.

Coteaux du Loir L'Effraie 2004, Domaine Belliviere
Very lacy and chalky, pears and wax. Slight hint of sour and salty pickles, waxy mouthfeel, fine balance and tasty balancing bitterness in the finish. Elegant.

Jasnieres Les Rosieres 2004, Domaine Belliviere
Stronger impressions of beeswax and mothballs here, more sweetness as well. Hints of apples and apricots, acidic and slightly foursquare, probably needs time but I preferred the L'Effraie.

Vouvray Les Argiles 2005, Francois Chidaine
Beeswax and peaches on the nose, honey. Lots of extraction and babyfat that hides the acids, needs time, is it sligthly short?

Montlouis Clos Habert 2005, Francois Chidaine
Very floral nose, honey here as well. Very good length and well balanced sweetness, a slightly tropical expression to the fruits.

Montlouis Les Tuffeaux 2002, Francois Chidaine
Chalky with mature apples, fine balance again, slightly sweet. Hints of mushrooms on the nose, will be very fine with some more time.

Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec 2005, Huet
Shut down with a very pure expression and marvellous grip in the mouth. Very chalky and waxy, still gives a fruitier expression than the Clos du Bourg Sec 2005. Will be great I think.

Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec 2002, Huet
Classic Chenin, wet wool, starting to build volume with superb acidic structure. Green pears, slight fatness but very elegant.

Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec 1996, Huet
Have had several of these and have noted significant bottle variation. 96-disease? Rockhard acids with beeswax, honey and slightly oxydative notes. Not a good bottle and not a good drink at present. I think these are over the hill (sounds strange though). Perhaps these Secs are built for the 6-8 years perspective though?

Vouvray Clos du Bourg Sec 2005, Huet
Very different style from the Le Haut Lieu Sec. Very stony, tight and more minerally than the Le Haut Lieu Sec. I think I prefer this, needs lots of time.

Vouvray Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec 2005, Huet
Not unexpectedly more approachable than the Sec, lipsmackingly wellbalanced wine with hints of botrytis, but still very pure and focused. Apples and minerals, because of an initial corked bottle this was straight from the bottle while the rest of the younger wines had been decanted for some hours.

Vouvray Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec 2000, Huet
Lots of sulphur made this impossible to evaluate. Rot problems this year? A brief encounter the next day showed a delicious wine with no sulphury impressions.

Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Moelleux 2005, Huet
Honey, beeswax and hints of marzipan. Tight, long and with good grip. Drinks well because of the sweetness…but probably 20 years to young to show real complexity. I have limited experience with the Moelleux wines (but have still drunk a few, also older stuff, over the years).

Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1ere Trie 2005, Huet
Obviously sweeter and a bigger wine than the previous one, but generally gives the same impression. Very impressive nose.

Vouvray Cuvée Constance 2005, Huet
Fat, fruity and concentrated. Viscous and bulky with impressive structure, very sweet, requires many years, or food if it is to be drunk now. Dominated by sweetness now, would like to live to see this as mature…..

Savennieres Clos St. Yves 1989, Baumard
Very oxydative. Have had 3 bottles of this the last year, ranging from the brilliant to this….the super one was bought at the shop 6 years ago and brought into Norway and stores privatley, this one was recently brought into Norway by an importer. Not rated.

Coteaux du Layon Cuvée Paon 1990, Baumard
Excellent, complex with peaches, some marzipan and Moscato-ish notes. Very long and impressively focused. Very minerally and a nice, bitter zing to the finish. Brilliant wine.

Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux 1ere Trie 1990, Huet
Incredibly dark. Plump. Sweet and not very elegant (and again a very different wine when I smelled a small glass the next day). Fine acids, very extreme wine, figs, raisins and very intense. I think this is greatness in the making, it just needs a couple of days of aeration if you plan to drink it now.

Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1971, Huet
Poured from a freshly opened bottle. Initially very acidic, need lots of time in the glass to achieve balance. Great wine, complex with nose of mushrooms, chalk and hops (?). Apricots and marzipan as well, the fruit expands to cover the acids, feels quite dry to drink now. Very long. Aerate before dinking if you have some.

Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Moelleux 1959, Huet
Drunk from two half bottles, freshly opened. Very similar, though bottle nr 2 seemed slightly less developed than the first. Very light and clear color on both.

Bottle 1: Initially distinctly cheesy, this blows off, and revealed a mature (as in on top), floral wine, delicious with marzipan and a slight impression of mature cheese and mushrooms/truffles. Slightly more opulent than bottle 2. Very complex and long, should have been aerated though.

Bottle 2: Distinctly lower on the cheese/mushrooms, otherwise the same great balance and fabulous length. Incredible grip and dry mouthfeel, very flowery/floral on the nose. Superb.

thanks for great notes! Totally agree with take on Belliviere L'Effraie. I appreciate the notes on the Chidaines and younger Huets, I'm holding a while longer.

Thank you too for the great TNs

We spend 1-2 weeks every year in the Loire based at Onzain and drink and buy the Huet range - great value and always interesting as well as enjoyable. We tend to drink the secs young and drink the others in the medium to longer term.

An old moelleux Chenin is IMO the perfect wine to accompany a Tarte Tatin.
BTW was the Cuvee Constance in a 50cl of 75cl bottle?

Chidaine's wines were a more recent discovery, mainly through his shop, La Cave Insolite, in Montlouis where his charming wife sells their wines and many others including SBs from e.g. Dagueneau and the Cotats.

It seems that Loire wines of all hues from top to bottom of the river have started to receive a lot more attention - or is it just my imagination? Perhaps a function of a complex of factors: the price of everything else, the benefit of climate change particularly for the reds and maybe even partly the changing of the guard and the willingness to push the boundaries and seek the best by more winemakers since the Loire has always had some style and quality 'leaders'.

There are even some who having e.g. gone for 'big oak' with their reds have decided to rein that back. But it seems that it is a focus on the potential of dry chenins by more winemakers that may be producing some of the extra attention.

Puzzled by the notion that the '96 sec could be anywhere resembling OTH. I've had great bottles in recent years, and it's required discipline to keep hands off the rest of mine.

And the notion that they are built for a 6-8 year frame is belied by recent bottles of LHL sec from '46, '53, and etc. The '46 may be past prime, but it is not OTH.

'59 LHLM has been a variable bottle over the years, yours sound pretty good.

There is not a single Constance that I would open simply for pleasant drinking. All too young IMO.

I would have decanted pretty much every bottle you drank, personally.

But a bunch of great wines you had.

Everything was decanted 4-6 hours, except for the single substitution botlte. What you're saying about the LJL Secs is what I would have thought, but the 96 was not pretty, I have had it regularly over the years and something strange is going on with that bottling.

Puzzled by the notion that the '96 sec could be anywhere resembling OTH. I've had great bottles in recent years, and it's required discipline to keep hands off the rest of mine.

And the notion that they are built for a 6-8 year frame is belied by recent bottles of LHL sec from '46, '53, and etc. The '46 may be past prime, but it is not OTH.

I had the LHL 96 at a tasting last year and I am puzzled by the OTH notion too. It showed nice honey and quince aromas, but was also marked by acidity to that extent that it made me long for food. Will keep my bottles for several more years.

Greetings / Fredrik L

Really enjoyed the notes, thanks. I'd love to sit down and drink through a range of Huets like that.

On the Chidaine wines, I had a chance to try the 2005 Les Argiles last week, and while not necessarily my favorite wine in their line-up, I don't recall thinking it had any shortness to it. I bought some, so will give a test drive soon. Also got to try (and purchase) the '06 Vouvray Clos Baudoin and the '06 Les Tuffeaux and '06 Clos Habert from Montlouis. The Clos Habert had the roundest mouthfeel and provided a lovely sense of richness married to sharp minerality. However, everything in the '06 line-up was real nice.

Also, thanks for the update on the 1990 Baumard Le Paon. I loved it about a year ago--here's my note from then, which echoes your comments about the Moscato notes:

1990 Domaine des Baumard Coteaux du Layon Cuvee Le Paon. By my count, this is the 8th different Baumard wine I’ve tasted in the last 10 months, and I would have to say this was possibly my favorite. It has an inviting nose of orange blossoms and rose water, nectarine and fresh orange zest. It is round and creamy in the mouth with great concentration of citrus and pit fruits and a nice kick of spices. Overall, it has excellent balance, persistence and presence throughout.

-Michael

Great notes Odd, thank you very much.

Also got to try (and purchase) the '06 Vouvray Clos Baudoin and the '06 Les Tuffeaux and '06 Clos Habert from Montlouis. The Clos Habert had the roundest mouthfeel and provided a lovely sense of richness married to sharp minerality. However, everything in the '06 line-up was real nice.


-Michael

Michael, how do the 2006 Chidaine wines compare to the 05's? The 05 Clos Habert is quite rich to me, like demisec +. Also very interested to hear your impression of the 06 Clos Boudoin. Thanks,
Marc

Marc,

The 2006 Clos Habert is demi-sec and while conceptually not as sweet as the Les Tuffeaux actually comes across as the richer, more viscous of the two. The '06 Clos Baudoin is more classically styled than the '05 according to the person who shared the wine with me, though I can't speak to that directly.

Michael

Nigel you say you like to drink your Huet secs young. How young? And what do the Huet winery people have to say about the secs' cellar potential? I think the 2005 Huet secs are wonderful right now, and I stocked up on the Bourg, but have no idea how long they might imrove. And what is the experience with the secs closing down?