Winemaker Notes
This beautiful light robe has the brilliance of a Loire sunrise. The nose shows a lot of freshness thanks to its notes of blood orange mixed with hawthorn flowers. The attack is greedy with a nice lemon yellow peach flavor. The aroma of pink grapefruit lingers on its endless finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This is very expressive, with chutney, warmed apple, piecrust, orange blossom and honeysuckle notes all woven together and carrying through the quinine-fueled finish. Shows superb density and length for the vintage. Best from 2015 through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The straw-yellow colored 2013 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Sec shows a deep and quite intense and concentrated bouquet of roasted apples, ripe pears and peaches along with initially slightly yeasty, then chalky and lemon-fresh flavors. Medium-bodied but concentrated and full-flavored on the palate, with an intense and slightly sweet fruit counterpointed by the pronounced, not yet fully integrated 2013-acidity cutting through the chalky texture, this is an impressively good representative from a difficult vintage. Very compact and aromatic in the still slightly austere finish, this wine is still on its long way and should be stored for another 6-7 years, but can go for about 25+ years. In its steely and concentrated character, Le Haut-Lieu reminds me a little bit of first class Chablis.
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
Stretching east along the steep banks of the Loire River, Touraine is a major part of the Middle Loire. Soil variations of clay, sand, tuffeau and gravel throughout its subregions support both white and red varieties. Chinon and Bourgueil remain the source of Loire’s finest Cabernet Franc; various styles of the most outstanding Chenin blanc come from Vouvray and Montlouis.