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The vine of moonlight: that is what they call Chenin Blanc here. Domaine Huet in Vouvray has been the benchmark for this grape since 1928: as age-worthy as great Riesling, versatile from bone-dry Sec to the honeyed Cuvée Constance. Three sites on the Première Côte (Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont, Clos du Bourg) provide the foundation. Gaston Huet introduced biodynamics as early as the end of the 1980s, and the estate has been Demeter-certified since 1993. Cellar master Benjamin Joliveau, a child of Vouvray, has been responsible for the wines since 2020. What remains: acidity and fruit in perfect balance, minerality from limestone and clay, wines that outlast decades.
More about Huet
From a Paris bistro to the Loire
Victor Huet, a bistro owner from Paris, came back from the First World War with ruined lungs. In 1928 he moved to Vouvray and bought the site Le Haut-Lieu, the cornerstone of a legend. His son Gaston took over in 1937, spent five years in German captivity and afterwards built on the legacy for 55 years. He secured two further top sites: Le Mont (1957) and Clos du Bourg (1953). Gaston considered the Clos du Bourg the greatest vineyard in all of Vouvray: its barest, stoniest soils combine the minerality of Le Mont with the texture of Le Haut-Lieu.
Pioneers of biodynamics
Long before the great names of Burgundy, Gaston Huet introduced biodynamics at the end of the 1980s, the last adjusting screw for deciphering the DNA of his vineyards. Since 1993 the whole estate has been Demeter-certified. Nature sets the tempo: depending on the vintage, each site yields up to four different bottlings: Sec, Demi-Sec, Moelleux and, in exceptional years, the Moelleux 1ère Trie. Whether botrytis appears is decided by the weather, not the winemaker. Charles Joguet works with similar consistency in Chinon with Cabernet Franc; both estates stand for single-site élevage on the Loire.
The three sites
Le Haut-Lieu (9 ha) was the founding vineyard. Deep, calcareous clay makes the wines approachable; the Le Haut-Lieu Sec shows this exemplarily. Le Mont lies preferably on the Première Côte: less clay, more stones, intensely mineral wines such as the Le Mont Sec, which develop length and finesse with age. Clos du Bourg unites both, intense minerality and generous texture, perfect in the Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec. To these come the Pétillant, a sparkling wine from all three sites, and, since 1989 in special years, the Cuvée Constance, regularly one of the greatest sweet wines in the world.
Benjamin Joliveau carries the legacy forward
In 2003 the New Yorker Anthony Hwang acquired the domaine; today his children Sarah and Hugo run the business. Benjamin Joliveau, a native of Vouvray, began in 2003 as a helper, worked his way up and took full responsibility for the wines in 2020. He learned from Jean-Bernard Berthomé and still overlapped with Noël Pinguet, Gaston's legendary son-in-law. “Chenin Blanc stands for fruit expression paired with natural acidity,” he says. The deep rock tunnels serve as cellars: constant temperature, neutral vessels, time. The result: wines that are better in ten years than today and better still in thirty.