Domaine Huet Vouvray Petillant Brut 2017
(Loire Valley, France) 750ml - [VM 90]

The 35-hectare (86-acre) estate consists of three principal south-facing vineyards on the plateau above the river, with smaller plots dotted around them. Le Haut-Lieu, around the original house and set back from the river, is on heavier brown clay and limestone and produces the most approachable wines.

Clos du Bourg has shallow clay-limestone soils and tends to produce the longest-lived most structured wines while Le Mont stretches from the house towards the river on pebbly clay and silica and is usually last picked.

Grapes are picked manually in two or three passages through the vineyard. Because of the differing levels of sweetness across the range, the harvest may not be completed until November.

Grapes are pressed in whole bunches and juice is slowly fermented using natural yeasts in cool cellars in a mix of large and small oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. Fermentation is ended by racking the wine and adding sulphur.

Malolactic fermentation is avoided, and wines are bottled early after a light filtration to spend most of what can be a lengthy maturation period in glass.

The estate was purchased in 2003 by Chinese-American financier Anthony Hwang, who also owns the Királyudvar estate in  Tokaji, Hungary.