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

Miracles Do Happen
Huët’s Mythic 2002 Pétillant
Disgorged Just For This Offer
Huët’s great sparkling wine, called simply Pétillant, is revered for its
Champagne-like texture, laser-guided acidity and profound minerality.
But few have had the chance to drink one of the great vintages—from bottles that
have slept a few extra years on the lees in Huët’s cellar. Thanks to the domaine’s
generosity, you have that chance, and we strongly urge you to take advantage of it.
The Great 2002
We refer, to the Domaine’s decision to disgorge for us a small amount of its famed
2002 Pétillant Résérve. This is the wine about which, in 2007, John Gilman wrote:
“The 2002 vintage is a great year for Domaine Huët, and this newly released
Pétillant will turn out to be a brilliant wine. However, at age five this wine is still
almost painfully young, and another five or six years of cellaring will be richly
rewarded. The domaine has only released about fifty percent of the production
of the 2002 Pétillant at this time, as it is holding back the
remainder for some extended aging on its lees in the cellars.”
While the domaine will continue to age most of its remaining
stock, we have the first chance to experience this legend-in-themaking
with additional time on the lees.
2002 Huët Pétillant Résérve*
94 Gilman
$39.95 bot. $450.00 12-bt cs.
John Gilman (on the original release, before extended aging): “... still
very young, as it offers up a beautiful mélange of fresh-baked bread,
bee pollen, great minerality, and fruit tones of quince and grapefruit
zest ... the wine is full-bodied, deep and racy, with bracing acidity,
stunning focus, a fine mousse, and tremendous length and grip on
the nascently complex and refined finish. This will be a great bottle.”
Pétillant: A Noble Wine’s Pedigree
“”
Magical ... ridiculously inexpensive for the quality. Peter Liem
One of the great sparkling wines of the world. John Gilman
I’d love to stack it up against scores of Champagnes at anywhere
near this price. Josh Raynolds
Further testimony—as if any were needed—to the brilliance of Huët.
Mike Steinberger, Slate
ONE OF Huët’s most revered wines, Pétillant can count many of France’s and
America’s top sommeliers among its admirers. But one of its biggest fans is Noël
Pinguet himself, who is moved by the wine’s distinctive sense of terroir.
The fruit comes from Huët’s three grand cru vineyards—Le Haut-Lieu, Le
Mont, and Clos de Bourg—with the addition of
fruit from other biodynamically farmed parcels the
domaine owns on the Première Côte.
In the cellar, Pinguet stops primary fermentation
once it reaches a desired amount of residual sugar,
which is then used to start the secondary fermentation
in bottle. And after extended aging on the
lees, the wines are dosed with a Moelleux (as
opposed to cane or beet sugar) from one of the
estate’s three “grand crus” from the same vintage as
the base wine.
The result is one of the world’s most expressive
sparkling wines, one which faithfully expresses
an extraordinary terroir and the grandeur of
Chenin Blanc.
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Pétillant, undisgorged,
in Huët’s cellars.