I just can’t get enough.

Chenin Blanc wines rank up there amongst my favourites; they’re so versatile. All styles are possible – from sweet, botrytis affected dessert wines to slightly off dry versions, to dry, linear, deeply mineral bottles and then there are the sparklers.

This one came to me via a Garagiste shipment and I’ve been waiting to enjoy it for a bit – but last evening presented the perfect opportunity with some wine mentors and friends whom I know also treasure this grape.

The 2010 Le Mont is pale lemon with deep legs with a youthful nose of medium intense aromas including ripe red apples and pears, straw, honey and herb. Absolutely heavenly and unmistakable Vouvray.  I think I’d know this wine anywhere.

On the palate, the wine is lightly off dry (despite the sec/dry label) with sharp acidity. The alcohol is medium but subtle and the strong flavours show more ripe fall apple and yellow pear, quince, fig, honey, straw and a little green hay with intense minerality.

The finish is long and lingering on this deeply satisfying WSET Outstanding wine. Over the course of the evening, it opened up and showed more layers of fresh fruit and herb balanced by mouth-watering acidity.  It’s a precise, clean and complex wine that can be enjoyed now or kept for many more years – even as many as 20 with that fruit and acidity.

I had contacted Huet’s tasting room manager, Johan who’d led us through a tour in June 2014 for pairing suggestions.  His ideas included roasted diver scallops with green apple and baby bok choi, grilled oysters with lemon thyme-shallot butter or snapper carpaccio.  I think the technical term here is ‘yum’.

We went totally regional and traditional and enjoyed the 2010 Huet Le Mont alongside fresh ash-wrapped goat’s cheese, pork terrine with cranberry and pistachio, duck terrine with apricot, fennel saucisson and rillettes de canard augmented by fresh ‘jazz’ apple slices and fig jam.