Hugel et Fils Gewürztraminer Vendange Tardive(2001)

exclusively from grapes purchased from winegrowers under long-term contract, in a dozen of the most favoured localities in and around Riquewihr.
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 in our cellars until released for sale.


TASTING NOTES:
(by Serge Dubs, World's Best Sommelier 1989)

Every quality that one would expect to find in a Gewurztraminer is present - a youthful freshness, a brilliant light green sheen, and a frank and exemplary purity of varietal expression. Its impressively perfumed and aromatic bouquet is full of fruit (apple, white peach, passion fruit, lychee, mango) and flowers (rose, jasmine, reseda) with a touch of spice, all enveloped with enchanting delicacy.
It is light and airy on the palate, refreshing and easy to drink, lively, ripe and superbly elegant, with a long, clean finish that is as pure and perfumed as one could wish for. This is a wine to enjoy already, or within the next year, in order not to miss its unique, textbook varietal character.
Serve at 8°C as an apéritif, or with starters, meat terrine, marinated or poached fish, shellfish…
26 August 2002    (hide)