By the reckoning of the village’s old-timers, Vouvray’s four greatest sweet wine vintages of the 20th century were 1921, 1947, 1989 and 1997.

While Domaine Huet didn’t exist in 1921, it set the standard of greatness in ’47, ’89 and ’97, with dessert cuvées that have become the stuff of legend.

But 1989 just may be the high water mark, a vintage with no rival for the number of brilliant micro-cuvées created by the legendary Noël Pinguet. Not only did it mark the debut of Cuvée Constance, which received 6 stars (out of a possible 5!) from Michael Broadbent; it was also the year that Pinguet made his experimental Moelleux 1ère Trie cuvées.

Clos du Bourg “Essai”, Le Mont “Début de Pressée” & Le Mont “Fin de Pressée” are among these unicorn 1989 bottlings. And few wine lovers even know of their existence.

It isn’t only their extreme scarcity that makes the wines so special. Even more important is what’s in the bottle. Now at 30 years from the vintage, they are fantastic expressions of the kaleidoscopic aromatic complexity, hypnotic texture and opulent sweetness, focused by a laser beam of acidity and mineral expression of terroir, that makes a top Huet Moelleux 1ère Trie one of the wine world’s greatest treasures.

Combined with the unique characters bestowed by the experimental techniques by which they were made, they are among the most revered of their category, earning an average 99+ rating from The Wine Advocate’s Stephan Reinhardt, including a perfect 100 for the Le Mont Fin de Pressée. Between their extraordinary quality and character, and how impossible they are to find they are, for Huet lovers, the Holy Grail. 

An Ideal Vintage

The key to 1989’s standing as one Vouvray’s all-time greats was a growing season so ideal that, as Pinguet told Loire authority Richard Kelley MW, “if a vigneron were to prepare a document which stated the ideal conditions for the season, then this would be the model.” 

Early flowering and a long, warm summer with just the right amount of rain led to a harvest season extending into November. Above all, this is a vintage of perfectly healthy, non botrytis-affected, grapes that could be left on the vine for as long as Pinguet wished, concentrating the fruit’s extraordinary richness and complexity.

And it gave him the opportunity to experiment. This was the year that Huet began biodynamic farming, beginning with the Essai lieu-dit within Clos du Bourg. From this tiny plot he produced just 500 bottles of the first-ever Huet biodynamic wine, the 1989 Essai.

The “regular” 1989 Clos du Bourg 1ère Trie’s fantastic richness and complexity has long placed it among the domaine’s most legendary wines. Yet, astonishingly, the Essai cuvée is another step up in purity and expressiveness, a concentrated essence of this iconic terroir in a great vintage. It’s no coincidence that Pinguet converted the entire domaine to biodynamic farming the next year. 

Pushing the Envelope

And the comparison between the two experimental 1989 Le Mont wines is even more fascinating due to the very different handling of their fruit prior to fermentation. The Début de Pressée was vinified from the free-run juice from the most gentle first pressing. Intensely citric and mineral, precise and refined, it is the very definition of Le Mont’s crystalline grace.

Fin de Pressée, in contrast, is from Le Mont fruit that was macerated with the skins overnight before pressing and fermentation. This extraordinary Vouvray’s seamless integration of powerful minerality and opulent richness with hightoned elegance and endless complexity makes it truly one of the very greatest wines of Huet’s ninety-year history.

These unique cuvées, perhaps more than any others, reveal why Noël Pinguet considered this vintage “the best I have ever made and stays side by side with the legendary 1947." They are truly extraordinary.

These are Stephan Reinhardt's 2015 reviews for the Wine Advocate:

1989 Huet Le Mont Moelleux 1ère Trie “Fin de Pressée”

Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (2015): "100 rating … this special designation is used to identify this cuvee as one where the juice has been left overnight to macerate on the skins – has a deep but clear and luminous amber color, similar to the corresponding Clos du Bourg 1ère Trie Essai. Its bouquet is deep, intense, absolutely precise and fresh in its spicy expression of white pepper, nutmeg, laurel, blood oranges, tangerines and noble ripe Chenin raisins that were, according to Noël Pinguet, not attacked by botrytis cinerea, although he picked very late in 1989. On the palate this Le Mont is just perfect: very intense and concentrated, honey-sweet and smooth in its gorgeously ripe fruitiness, but also piquant, mineral, and full of finesse and tension. It is very compactly structured but with a lot of perfect fruit flesh. It is velvety textured, with even more power and fruit concentration than the Début de pressée version, which is more silky and tender but shares the same pronounced acidity. The finish of the Fin de pressée is endlessly long and aromatic, and the wine will surely survive most of us. This is the kind of wine that's – like the 1947 Le Haut-Lieu – kindly asking for a 100+ scala. Pinguet himself designates the 1989 as the best vintage he's ever made and puts it straight next to the legendary 1947."

1989 Huet Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1ère Trie “Essai” 

Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (2015): "99+ rating … This wine has an exceptionally intense, deep orange to amber color and an explosive fruit on the nose. Highly ripe, concentrated and aromatic -- more like an apricot or blood orange chutney or confiture -- and underpinned with spicy and lemon-fresh aromas, this incredibly clear and precise nose indicates a great depth and concentration. Indeed this wine is like a syrup or nectar on the palate, so concentrated, so brilliant and intense in its fruit expression whereas the sharp, laser-beamy acidity is that of an Eiswein, as if the wine was still fermenting...! What I have here on my table is just the perfect bottle although one could argue the acidity is too dominant, the tannins are a little bit too grippy, and the style a little but too oxidative (think of white Port and sweet Sherries), but I love it when a wine is raising questions and doesn't let you go ahead with the next one. Here is so much finesse and elegance but most of all drama in this wine, as if it were Shakespeare's Macbeth interpreted by a winemaker. Exceptional. Eternal." 

1989 Huet Le Mont Moelleux 1ère Trie “Début de Pressée”

Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (2015): "99 rating … This brilliant and luminously orange-golden colored Chenin opens with a perfectly clear, intense and concentrated bouquet of ripe stone and refreshing lemon fruits; it is absolutely brilliant and precise in its aromatics. Highly elegant and piquant on the delicate and silky textured palate, this exceptionally sweet (190 gram residual sugar) but tension-filled and firmly structured wine is full of energy and discreet power, but remains straight and vertical in its crystalline nature. There is great finesse and intensity here. Beguiled and carried by a perfect acidity to a long and thrilling finish, this 10.1% alcohol beauty drinks perfectly today but can beautifully age for decades. If you can find and afford it, you should buy it."