raffaele Mastrovincenzo

February 11, 2012

From the website of the winery:
http://www.huet-echansonne.com/Accueil/index.html

Le Mont 2010, Domaine Huet Vouvray Aoc

In modern agriculture, with the race on for so-called viability and for ever-more intensive productivity, the use of chemicals is constantly increasing. However, the use of chemical weedkillers, insecticides, acaricidal pesticides and systemic compounds (which penetrate into the plant's circulatory system) completely destroys the balance of the soil and the environment.

When you kill insects, you also wipe out their natural predators. When you use weedkillers, you destroy all the flora, good and bad alike. The roots remain near the surface of the soil, making the plant more susceptible to drought. The water table becomes polluted. Wine growers and fruit growers are reduced to treating their crops dressed up as astronauts in order to protect themselves.

Rural farmers are constantly approached by salesmen from the huge multinational companies who hype their new, ever more powerful and more effective products. This makes me think of those ads for washing powders that wash your clothes even whiter than white… You might say I'm exaggerating, but not really.

Fortunately, there are alternative methods for working the land. An alternative approach to growing the plant and an alternative way of treating crops.

In 1924, the Austrian philosopher and scientist, Rudolph Steiner, during a week of lectures, set out the fundamental guidelines which would enable suffering agriculture to restore its health. These lectures can be found in his book "The Spiritual Foundations of Biodynamic Methods".

My consideration:

This was for me the first time i had Domain Huet from Vouvray in the Loira region, Vouvray is recognize as the perfect terroir for Chenin Blanc all over the world however is tend to be in this area with residual sugar, styles produced by noble rot in a manner similar to the sweet dessert wine of Sauternes. With the natural high acidity of Chenin Blanc, Vouvray have an immense aging potential drinking very well in some perfect vintage even into 100 years age. Locally they know the grape as Pineau de la Loire, stoically is believed to come from the Anjou wine and eventually migrate to Vouvray. The climate is predominately continentally with some maritime influence from the Atlantic Ocean. The harvest is often the last in France to be completed, potentially lasting until November. The tradition style of winemaking in Vouvray is a minimalistic approach, often using neutral fermentation commonly in stainless shell and avoid the malolattic fermentation.

Le Mont sec 2010 i had was completely stunning in all the dinner it was in a continuos changing, evolving in different way showing more sugar to the beginning, with the time the acidity will come more predominant and balanced the sugar very well. I had that wine with a free range poached egg with toasted pan fried bacon, steamed cabbage and bitter radicchio. A beautiful artisan spaghetto Cocco with butter, parmesan cheese and Sarawak black pepper, both was an suitable meal from the wine.