Bring on another week of tastings, with two wine lineups across Friday and Saturday this time around!
Friday (9th Feb) afternoon from 4 to 6pm, we welcome the new releases from NSW-based favourites Ravensworth! Three whites and three reds will line the table respectively, with crisp and savoury Fiano, Pinot Gris and Riesling built for the summer weather, in addition to their Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and Shiraz Viognier blend - all on special for what should make for a delectable end of week treat ?
Saturday (10th Feb), we are so thrilled to present the legendary Vouvray house, Domaine Huet at our 12 to 2pm tasting! Our staff were utterly starstruck at these special expressions of Chenin Blanc when shown last week; precision, length, and mineral drive are phrases that immediately come to mind with these Loire Valley icons, who are slowly but surely building towards the same high reputation here in Australia as they hold in France (where they're often seen as the pure pinnacle of compelling age-worthy Chenin). The 2022 vintage has presented some impressive whites for the estate, with layers of complexity found in both the Le Mont and Le Haut-Lieu which is included on pour this weekend, as well as their Pétillant Brut Sparkling and Franc de Pied from 2017, and one very special cellar release from 2003 that will see off the lineup in truly sumptuous style. This is not one to miss, not only for fans of Chenin, but French wine lovers in general! We hope to catch you there ⭐️
///
Ravensworth Tasting Lineup - Friday 9th February
Running from 4 to 6pm
Fiano 2023 - $27 on special ; $30 RRP
Pinot Gris 2023 - $27 on special ; $30 RRP
Riesling 2023 - $27 on special ; $30 RRP
Sangiovese 2022 - $27 on special ; $30 RRP
Hilltops Nebbiolo 2021 - $35 on special ; $40 RRP
Shiraz Viognier 2021 - $45 on special ; $50 RRP
Domaine Huet Tasting Lineup - Saturday 10th of February
Running from 12 to 2pm
Vouvray Pétillant Brut 2017 - $63 on special ; $72 RRP
"Only the best grower Champagnes have the kind of interest, sense of place and attention to detail offered by this sparkling wine. Bottled at a low-pressure of 2.5/3 atmospheres (most Champagnes are between five and six), this wine has a more delicate fizz than most. The fruit is all estate-grown (certified biodynamic) and comes from the youngest vines. Crafted in a hybrid méthode ancestrale style (only natural sugar in the must was used for the second fermentation) it’s a wine that is made in years that favour dry wine production. A pinch lighter on the palate than the powerful 2015, it was disgorged in October 2020 following 36 months on lees in the Huet cellars and has just over 1g/L residual sugar (the wine is dosed with the 2017 Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec). To quote sparkling wine authority Peter Liem on the style, “...it’s a magical, intensely expressive wine, and ridiculously inexpensive for the quality”. - Bibendum, Importer Note
---
Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Sec 2022 - $86 on special ; $99 RRP
"Le Haut-Lieu was the estate’s first vineyard, purchased in 1928. Situated on the Première Côte, it’s a 9-hectare plot on deep brown chalky clay (known as aubuis). Here the yellow limestone (tuffeau) bedrock lies up to four metres down, making for a richer soil that produces round, supple wines that can drink very well young. It generally produces the earliest maturing of the three cuvées and is usually ready to drink first, but, like Clos du Bourg and Le Mont, the wines can be extremely long-lived. We have enjoyed bottles from the ’40s that are still drinking very well!" - Bibendum, Importer Notes
“The 2022 Le Haut-Lieu Sec is a lithe, reductive style with floral character and talcum powder. Full of phenolic, lip-smacking texture woven through its core, lending a sense of satisfying grunt to this dry yet balanced style. Clarity, precision and harmony are keywords in this wine's execution. A little more fleeting on the finish than ideal. (5.5g/L).” - 92 Points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
---
Vouvray Le Mont Sec 2022 - $100 on special ; $118 RRP
"Purchased in 1957, the steep, rocky, eight-hectare vineyard of Le Mont lies on Vouvray’s esteemed Première Côte, part of a bank of limestone-rich hillside vineyards overlooking Tours. This block's argilo-siliceux soils (stony with green mineral clays and flint over limestone) provide the tight structure and pungent minerality that Le Mont is renowned for. With less clay (and a different type of clay) and more stone than Le Haut-Lieu, this site typically produces the nerviest wines of the Huet stable, so mostly dry and off-dry whites are produced from this vineyard." - Bibendum, Importer Notes
“The 2022 Le Mont Sec is a parcel of Chenin planted on clay with scattered flint, giving a certain tension to the style you certainly don't find in the come-hither Clos du Bourg. Its supple, concentrated core of fruit sits within a framework of structure. Both acidity and phenolics add tension and sinew. While some natural residual sugar remains (5.5g/L residual sugar), this rounds out the palate and brings balance—it's near-as-dammit dry in its impression and technically dry under Vouvray's rules. I'd like to see this with a little more bottle age as, compared with, say, Clos du Bourg, this isn't yet ready to approach but should blossom.” - 95 Points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
---
Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Franc de Pied Sec 2017 - $190 on special ; $217 RRP
"In 1985 Domaine Huet planted an experimental .20-hectare parcel of own-rooted Chenin Blanc in the Haut-Lieu vineyard. This micro-parcel is not always bottled separately and seldom leaves France’s shores, so we’re delighted to accept our small allocation of the 2017 release. Huet’s ex-Chef de Cave, Jean-Bernard Berthomé, has told us that in comparison to this vineyard’s ‘regular’ dry bottling, the ungrafted vines gift a slightly deeper and more tightly wound expression that takes longer to unfurl. Hence the extended aging in bottle for this release." - Bibendum, Importer Notes
---
Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Museum Release 2003 - $220 on special ; $250 RRP
"Perched on the Première Côte, just above the town of Vouvray, Clos du Bourg is a monopole and generally regarded as the greatest of the three Huet single vineyards. It has been farmed by the domaine since 1953 and was purchased in 1963. Arguably the region’s greatest vineyard, Clos du Bourg makes some of Europe's most powerful, thrilling and long-lived white wines. With only one metre of topsoil over solid limestone, the vines immediately tap into the mineral resources underfoot. The warmth of the site, combined with the mineral complexion of the soils, results in rich, long-lived wines that seem to effortlessly combine intense, charged minerality with generous texture and concentration. Despite the warm and dry growing season, 2003 was a stellar year for Huet’s sweeter styles, and the Clos du Bourg Moelleux is beautiful today. Twenty years of age and going strong, the palate is mind-blowing and decadent, with a kaleidoscopic array of honey, brioche, orange zest, and spicy/mineral notes washing across the palate. With such purity, spicy intensity and perfumed length, it is a pure joy to drink and—take it from us—the bottle disappears almost as quickly as it is opened. The balance and complexity here are geared towards simple, delicious desserts—it would be hard to beat a great apple pie or the best cannelés bordelais you can lay your hands on." - Bibendum, Importer Notes
If you wish to buy any of these bottles, please use the links above ? Alternatively, email us at sales@thewineemporium.com.au, or contact us on (07)32521117 if you have any questions // Prices valid until the Wednesday 14th of February