This stunning wine is fresh pure and driven at first with seamless ginger creamed fig and glazed pear fruit before showing its density and power via the honeycomb- quince- and heather-filled core. Then the minerality cuts in turning the finish back to racy despite the range of exotic fruit. A jaw-dropping display of richness balanced by precision. Drink now through 2040. -JM

At 11% alcohol and 150 grams of residual sugar the Huet 2009 Vouvray Cuvee Constance - fourth in the past decade incidentally - offers a striking nose of honey white raisin and concentrated herbal and floral essences. Salted caramel hazelnut cream marzipan white raisin liquid floral perfume and honey are all leavened with fresh lime white peach and grapefruit. Like a refined cocktail of essence-of-Chenin mingled with fresh fruit juices with dashes of salt and chalk this finishes with ravishing and invigorating persistence and should be worth following for 3 or more decades. --- David Schildknecht