2009 Vouvray Sec Clos du Bourg

The Huet 2009 Vouvray Sec Clos du Bourg is rich and oily yet at the same time impressively juicy and bright, with fresh lime and grapefruit that almost seem as though they could have been conferred by the addition of Sauvignon. Possessed of a sweet, saline, crustacean reduction-like savor; and a remarkably palpable sense of density, this displays some of the same energy and sizzling intersection of white pepper, citrus oil, and chalk as found in the Le Mont, but here there is more refreshment, refinement, and mineral diversity. It should be worth following for the better part of a decade, if not beyond. Seen superficially, one might have expected the stressful proximity of mother chalk, paucity of fine earth and consequent difficulty to retain stress-relieving water during a warm, dry late summer and autumn to have rendered the balance in Clos du Bourg more problematic, but the opposite is the case, demonstrating both the virtue and mystery of this site. Noel Pinguet professes great confidence in his 2009s and pleasure in one of those rare vintages where it was possible to bottle everything from sec through Cuvee Constance. That said, he admitted that achieving a balanced dry wine was challenging, and total production of sec was down from the estate norm; that of demi-sec, surprisingly, even more so (represented by a single bottling); virtually half of the vintage production being moelleux. While acknowledging similarities to 1996, Pinguet finds 2008 most closely resembles 1988. His is one of the few 2008 collections from Vouvray or Montlouis that is clearly less consistent than the corresponding 2009s, which he also finds more interesting. Importer: The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA; tel. (800) 999-4342