Since its founding in 1928, Vouvrays Domaine Huet has been the standard-bearer for great, age-worthy Chenin Blanc. And to this day, year after year, the estate produces some of the worlds most compelling white winesand in a remarkable range that spans sparkling, dry, semi-dry, and breathtaking dessert styles.

The domaines founder, Victor Hut, was a Parisian bistro owner. However, with lungs and nerves shattered by his experiences in WWI, Victor re-settled to the town of Vouvray in Frances beautiful Loire Valley. He soon purchased the first of his great vineyards, Le Haut-Lieu, in 1928, and Domaine Huet was born.

Victors son Gaston (born 1910) worked with his father from the beginning, and assumed full charge by 1937. With an obsessive devotion to quality, and an engaging showmans personality, Gaston built the Huet legacy over the next 55 years, despite spending five years in a German POW camp during World War II.

For all his salesmanship, Gaston understood clearly that quality must come firstand that quality started with great vineyards. His Haut-Lieu parcel, which lies on Vouvrays Premire Cte (or first slope), is home to virtually all of the appellations acknowledged grand cru vineyards.

As the estate prospered in the post-WWII era, Gaston secured two additional prime vineyards on the Premire Cte that would ensure the domaines stature: Le Mont (purchased in 1957) and Clos du Bourg (farmed since 1953, purchased in 1963). Collectively, these three vineyards, and the wines made from them, account for Huet being the greatest of all Vouvray producers.

Gaston was joined in 1971 by his son-in-law, Nol Pinguet, and 1979 bychef de culture, Jean-Bernard Berthom. Together, they crafted legendary wines from their three parcelswith the vineyards and nature dictating which grapes would become Sec, Demi-Sec, or Moelleux. The estate always held back significant stocks of older vintages, and these wines near immortality has helped to further the Huet legend.

In 2002, with Gaston ailing, a financial partner was needed to ensure the continuation of the estates rich legacy. Anthony Hwang, from New York, purchased a majority stake, and today his children reside at and direct the estate, ensuring that this benchmark producer has a strong future.

With Berthom in charge of winemaking since 2012, the domaine may be making its most consistently great wines ever. It was one of the earliest adopters of biodynamics, and recent wines, perhaps more than any in the domaines history, achieve a fascinating level of transparency, purity, and knife-edged balance.

The 2020 1er Trie Moelleux is deep and intensely honeyed, the product of multiple passes through the vineyard – the “trie” – where only the most ripe and lush berries are picked one by one. The lush sweetness is balanced by razor sharp focus which makes it very attractive now, but it can age for decades.