Domaine Huet - Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Le Haut-Lieu 1945 (750ml)

Aged 70 years, the amber-colored (still with greenish reflections!) 1945 Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Moelleux comes from the FU plot within the lieu-dit Haut-Lieu. Dominated by chalk and silex, it has by far less clay compared to the rest of the site. The FU is vinified separately in certain years though not designated on the label. The 1945 was an exceptional vintage and was made by Gaston Huet himself, who returned from war in early spring. The wine shows a fantastically intense and refined peach and apricot fruit on the nose along with subtle stony, spicy and mineral flavors that give an extra purity and complexity. Five days later, the bouquet was even finer, showing honey and caramel flavors. Sweet, round and generous on the highly elegant palate, gorgeously intense and with great finesse and a finely drawn acidity, this is a beautifully concentrated and seductively sappy Chenin of great balance. The finish is absolutely delicious. A simply marvelous wine from a vintage that, according to Richard Kelly, "ranks alongside 1947 as one of the greatest ever vintages ... A frost on 1st May, one of the latest ever recorded, greatly reduced but helped concentrate the crop. The summer months were excellent with excessive heat. There were two specified harvest dates; 1st and 22nd October."