Hugel SGN Pinot Gris 1999

Aromas of qver-ripe and concentrated currants, sultanas, honey, and liquorice sticks, softened by hints of sweet peony and late summer roses.

This soft, mellow, liqueur-like wine is fleshy and juicy. The palate is not heavy, thanks to an elegant vivacity that projects apparent lightness, and makes the palate salivate in impatient anticipation of the next sip of this rare nectar that makes us daydream.

Hugel & Fils, founded in 1639 in picturesque Riquewihr, Alsace, France, is still 100% family owned and managed by the 12th consecutive generation of the family.

The family owns a 30 hectares estate of prime sites in Riquewihr, mostly classed Grand Cru, and buys grapes from a further 110 hectares farmed under contract. The Hugel estates are planted with only the noble Alsace grape varieties, with vines averaging 35 years of age.

Produced from over-ripened grapes, picked one by one in a selection of the oldest plots of the Hugel estate in the heart of the grand cru Sporen made up of Lias clay-marl, decalcified on the surface, exceptionally rich in phosphoric acid and in their best plots in the chalky Pflostig vineyard. The grapes are taken in small tubs to the presses, which are filled by gravity, without any pumping or other mechanical intervention. After pressing, the must is decanted for a few hours, then fermented in temperature-controlled barrels or vats (at 18 to 24°C). The wine is racked just once, before natural clarification during the course of the winter. The following spring, the wine is lightly filtered just before bottling, and the bottles are then aged extensively in our cellars until released for sale.