Clos du Bourg sec 2024

A densely built, cool Chenin Blanc that holds back in its youth. The fruit stays in the background at first, quince and yellow apple need air, with white blossom and a hint of honey behind. The acidity carries this wine: clear, without harshness, keeping the fruit in shape for years.

Clos du Bourg lies on the Première Côte in Vouvray; Gaston Huet secured the site for the estate in 1963. It has the estate's poorest and stoniest soils, limestone and clay, which bring together minerality and generous texture. Gaston Huet considered Clos du Bourg the greatest vineyard in Vouvray.

Chenin Blanc, called the grape of the moonlight in Vouvray, ranges at Huet from the bone-dry Sec to the nobly sweet Cuvée Constance. Which bottling a given site yields in a particular year is decided by the vintage, not the cellar; whether botrytis develops is determined by the weather. Ageing takes place in neutral vessels in the deep rock cellars, at constant temperature and with time. Since 2020, Benjamin Joliveau, a native of Vouvray who started as a seasonal worker in 2003, has been responsible for it.

Dry, 13.0% vol., taut structure. Chalky minerality runs throughout, the fruit stays juicy, the finish long and precise.

Gaston Huet converted the estate to biodynamics as early as the late 1980s; the entire domaine has been Demeter-certified since 1993. Founded in 1928, the estate's wines are made to age for decades.