Huet Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Demi Sec 2020 (750ML)

95-97 VM / 96 WS / 95-96 WA

Pear and pineapple aromas meet fine, floral characters in the 2020 Demi-Sec Le Haut-Lieu. While this wine's edges are rounded, it is refined and elegant. It has a sense of density on the mid-palate, but it's not about weight or richness despite its demi-sec status. The wine has an intensity and a structured core reflecting the naturally low yields here. While there is 20g/L of residual sugar, a sense of freshness and underlying urgency pulls this wine through, leaving an off-dry impression. Unfinished sample.-- Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media

This broad, striking white is elegant and rich with complexity, featuring green melon, yellow fig, ginger and verbena notes, underscored with heather, stone, flint and spice details. Offers great energy and tension, showcasing expert craftsmanship. Drink now through 2036. 4,100 cases made. - Wine Spectator

The 2020 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec is clear, pure, subtle, deep and fresh, with highly refined chalky/sandy lemon aromas. Rich and intense yet silky textured and refined on the concentrated palate, this is a juicy, highly elegant, perfectly balanced, persistently salty and mouth-salivating Haut-Lieu with very fine tannins and a long, firm and pretty powerful but elegant and complex finish. Still more stringent than the Le Mont Demi-Sec in the beginning, but after aeration, this is not just a greatly finessed Chenin but one of the finest Haut-Lieu's I have tasted from Huet. Tasted as a tank sample in April 2021.-- Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate