1961 Le Haut Lieu Demi-sec

A shoulder of suckling pig from the best of the two mobile rotisseries at the market held every Saturday in Beaune led me to one of relatively few white wines in my cellar in Monthelie – a 1961 Le Haut Lieu Demi-sec from Domaine Huet (in Vouvray). If I had had 100 bottles of other white wines to choose from, there could not have been a more perfect match. Vibrant, almost incandescent, yellow-gold, the wine’s honeyed sweetness on entry into the mouth mirrored the crisp, paper-thin skin and the white flesh of the pork. Just when you think it is all a bit much, the laser-like acidity on the finish of the wine cleanses the mouth, and brooks no argument about the next mouthful, or the next or the next.