Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups, Les Hauts de Husseau Montlouis-sur-Loire 2022

94 points Vinous
"The 2022 Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Hauts de Husseau hails from a site with vines between 80 and 110 years old. It,s a finely scented, silken style that provides a mellow sense of effortlessness on the mid-palate before it structures itself toward the close. The chalky nature of the soil provides a fine coating of texture and structure, which adds persistence and line. It finishes long, calm and focused, with notes redolent of pastry, ripe apple and chalky citrus."

Vinous Reverie Notes
“Jacky's wines, including his not-anymore Vouvray, are the perfect example: They're bone-dry, less fruity than complex and austere. He believes sugar blurs chenin's ability to transparently reveal its best qualities, which is why his winemaking is almost fanatically Burgundian, although he prefers to describe it as “the school of Montlouis.” He ferments all his whites in barrels. And rather than a cold, quick fermentation meant to highlight aromas, he borrows from Burgundy's elite cadre, winemakers like Jean-François Coche (of Coche-Dury) and Jean-Marc Roulot (of Domaine Roulot): he exposes the grape must to oxygen before a long, slow fermentation and leaves the finished wine in steel tanks for months before bottling, which firms up the texture.” ~ Jon Bonne
The future of Loire Valley Chenin Blanc is in single vineyard, dry, terroir-driven whites that can compete with the best in the world for precision, length, complexity and ageability. The late, legendary Jacky Blot and his son Jean-Philippe understood this clearly and focused their domain on making these crystalline Chenin from their organic sites in the best parts of the appellation. Ever since Jacky first purchased eight hectares of old vines in Montlouis in the late 1980s, he transformed and built up the domaine into one of the Loire's finest addresses. The beautifully cared for sites are allowed to sing to their full potential, without sugar, without battonage, without malo, and minimal filtration. This domain is without question one of the inspirational leaders of this growing movement towards world-class single site wines.