Le Mont Moelleux 1ère Trie 2017

A lusciously sweet Chenin Blanc held together by acidity, not sweetness. The glass offers ginger, bitter orange, honey, salted almonds, nougat and pickled garden herbs over ripe pome fruit, with stone fruit emerging as it opens up. The aromatic profile stays in flux, revealing ever new facets.

Le Mont lies on the Première Côte in Vouvray, directly above the historic tuffeau cellars. Little clay, plenty of stone: this sparse soil produces intensely mineral, finely structured wines that gain length and finesse with age. Gaston Huet secured the vineyard for Domaine Huet in 1957.

Pure Chenin Blanc. In 2017 the fruit was picked about a month earlier than usual, so only light botrytis had developed. A Moelleux 1ère Trie, the first selection of the harvest, is only bottled by the estate in exceptional years; whether botrytis develops depends on the weather. Ageing takes place in neutral vessels in the deep rock-cut cellars at a constant temperature. Since 2020, cellar master Benjamin Joliveau, a Vouvray native, has been responsible for the wines.

The 65 grams of sugar feel buoyant, the yellow fruit is ripe yet fine. The texture is viscous, the phenolics lend substance, the acidity stays vibrant and precise, holding everything in balance. Apricots and quince, dried plums and kumquats combine with spice and saline notes into a long finish. The precision that defines the vintage reaches its peak here, and yet this wine is only at the beginning of a development spanning decades.

Lobster with lemon-ginger butter, liver pâté with caramelised apples or hazelnut bake with pears, cinnamon and cardamom.

Gaston Huet introduced biodynamic farming in the late 1980s; the estate has been Demeter-certified since 1993. 12.0% ABV carries this sweetness.