Domaine Huet

Gaston Huet was born in 1910. From a modest family, his father Victor ran the village cafe. After the First World War, Victor moved his family to the Loire, and became a vigneron. They bought Le Haut Lieu in 1928 and Gaston attended college before returning home where in 1934 he married Germaine Foreau. Their daughter was born in 1938 but a year later, Gaston was drafted into the French army, but before leaving for the front, he hid the first few vintages of Huet's wines in the cellars.

Gaston was captured in 1940 at Calais, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. After the war, he returned to the domaine and started rebuilding the vineyards. Gaston and Germaine had two more children, their son Jean and another daughter, Marie-Francoise.

In 1968 Marie-Francoise married Noel Pinguet, a self confessed beer drinker. Three years later they moved from Paris to the Loire and for the next five years Noel worked with his father-in-law, learning the trade and then took over the cellar in 1976.

Gaston remained part of the domaine right up until his death in 2002, having lived the whole of his adult life at Le Haut Lieu. The Pinguet's had two daughters who didn't want to take over the family company, so it was offered for sale in 2003 when Anthony Hwang took controlling share.

Since Noel's retirement in 2012 and his successor's replacement Jean-Bernard Berthome's retirement in 2021, Benjamin Joliveau has taken over the cellar and vineyard and Sarah, Anthony's daughter, that is in charge of the domaine.