RWC Nesletter Special Edition | The Soul of Huët - The Rare Wine Co.

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THE RARE WINE CO. 21481 EIGHTH STREET EAST SONOMA, CA 95476 phone: (800) 999-4342 fax: (800) 893-1501 email us at sales@rarewineco.com A u g u s t 1 7 , 2 0 1 0 - O N LI N E S P E C I A L ED I T I O N The Soul of Huët An Epic Offering from a Legendary Domaine Since its founding in 1928, Vouvray’s Domaine Huët has staked its claim among the world’s supreme white wine estates. Of course, the domaine regularly produces some of the world’s greatest dessert wines, but their dry whites can rival Grand Cru Chablis for minerality and complexity. And their aged Demi-Secs must rank among the planet’s most versatile food wines. What’s more, Huët’s Pétillants outclass all but the finest names in Champagne. To top it all, these are surely the longest-lived of the world’s great white wines. Yet, despite its rich past, the domaine is today producing the most consistently great wines in its history, with even greater wines to come. Origins of an Ideal While Huët will forever be associated with Gaston Huët, the domaine was actually founded by Gaston’s father, Victor, who settled in Vouvray to recover both mentally and physically from World War I. In 1928, Victor purchased his first vineyard, Le Haut-Lieu, in the appellation’s prized Première Côte, and was joined in his work by his son. Gaston assumed full charge by 1938, and with an obsessive devotion to quality and a genius for promotion, he built the Huët legacy over the next 55 years—despite spending five years in a German POW camp during World War II. Gaston understood intuitively that great quality could only come from great vineyards, and so with time he added two more jewels to his viticultural crown: Le Mont (purchased in 1957) and Clos du Bourg (farmed since 1953, purchased in 1963). Both of these vineyards would rank at the top of anyone’s classification and, with Haut-Lieu, the three vineyards give Huët a position in Vouvray similar to that of Domaine de Romanée-Conti in Vosne-Romanée. Collectively, they account for Huët’s preeminence among Vouvray producers. Succession In 1971, Gaston was joined by his gifted son-in-law, Noël Pinguet. As he gradually took over the estate’s operations, Noël learned to revere the wines and traditions developed under Gaston. At the same time, Noël saw opportunities to enhance quality and to refine the personalities of their three great vineyards. With Gaston’s blessing, he became one of France’s earliest pioneers in biodynamic viticulture (see page 4), seeking to produce wines with even more identity and character. As Gaston was nearing the end of his life in 2002, Noël found his future partner in Anthony Hwang, a Filipino-born, New York businessman, who shared the estate’s philosophy of terroir-based winemaking. The strength of this team goes a long way in explaining the extraordinary rise in consistency that the domaine has enjoyed in recent vintages. The Rare Wine Co. has long been a passionate advocate for the wines of Domaine Huët, and so we were deeply honored this summer to be appointed its U.S. importer. It is our further privilege to devote this newsletter—the first single-producer newsletter in our 21-year history—to one of the world’s truly noble domaines.
Vouvray’s Son Gaston Huët, 1910-2002 Given the celebrity that Domaine Huët enjoys today, it’s difficult for us to imagine what it was like during much of Gaston Huët’s life. Born in 1910, he was eighteen years old when his family re-settled to the manoir on Le Haut-Lieu. “” The doyen of Vouvray ... the ambassador of the Loire. Neal Martin on the late Gaston Huët In 1938, Gaston assumed the reins from his father but he was soon conscripted into the French army and sent off to war. Captured by the Germans in 1941, he spent the next five years as a prisoner of war, returning to his domaine in 1945 to find his unbottled wines ruined by oxidation in barrel or adulteration by Vichy inspectors. The only pre-war wines that survived were a few hundred bottles secreted away. He was forced to start over, yet he prevailed, producing wines of great character and richness for a further 57 years until his death in 2002. The late Gaston Huët Gaston Huët embodied both Loire Valley wine and his generation of French winemakers. Starting with one great vineyard, Le Haut-Lieu, he later added two others, Le Mont and Clos du Bourg. From his laser-guided secs to his ambrosial moelleux, he made some of the greatest Chenin Blanc wines the world has ever seen. He was more than Vouvray’s greatest winemaker: he served, for forty-six years, as the town’s mayor, having succeeded Charles Vavasseur, from whom Gaston acquired Clos du Bourg. Gaston’s tenure as mayor began in 1947 and ended in 1989, of course, quite fittingly, two of Vouvray’s most legendary vintages. Wine to Lift Wartime Spirits | 2 | DURING THE WAR, Gaston was a lieutenant in the French army. In 1940, he was captured at the port of Calais and simprisoned at the Oflag IV-D camp. But he was determined to keep hope alive. In Wine & War, Don and Petie Kladstrup tell the moving story of Gaston’s efforts to organize a wine fête for nearly 4,000 prisoners in the camp, each of whom received a taste of wine on the night of the affair. Gaston recalled that the party, “gave us something to hold on to ... Talking about wine and sharing it made all of us feel closer to home, and more alive.” What did Gaston drink? A dry white wine from the Loire, which, years later, he called “the best wine I ever drank.” TAKE ADVANTAGE of our low-cost Fedex Ground Shipping this fall: $25/case or $15 within California, including free packaging and free insurance up to $400 per case.
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Page 5 and 6: A Screaming Value The 94-Rated 2008
Page 7 and 8: Ultimate Nectar The Magical 2008 Mo
Page 9: Aged bottles of Domaine Huët’s M

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