Riesling Classic 2018

This is the Famille Hugel signature wine. This dry Riesling stands out for its finesse and frankness and is the ideal partner to fish and seafood thanks to its wonderful balance and elegance.

Presentation

Quick View
Riesling is the Pinot Noir of white wines! It is our most demanding variety as it is also the latest ripening. Dry and elegant, it expresses itself best on our steepest slopes with the most complex minerality.
The vintage
If the short crop of 2017 caused a lot of frustration, 2018 wiped it out completely with a mythical year. This cult vintage to be took a while to start, though, with a late budding on April 10th. But the warm conditions, continued long after the end of harvest treated the vine to offer us an unprecedentedly early vintage. Blooming completed on June 5th after 10 days! Ultra-fast canopy development had us run behind our vines all season long. Harvest started on September 5th (record early date) with quite a few gems made; the Pinot Noirs and the sweet wines are the true stars of this remarkable vintage. 2018 is a warm year, but without excess. 2018 vintage will be a great one!
In the vineyard
Made exclusively from hand harvested grapes from predominantly clay and limestone vineyards, in a dozen of the most favored localities in and around Riquewihr. A cool and long growing season give this unique dry wine great finesse and unequalled intensity.
Winemaking
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.
The whole production of this wine is closed with DIAM the cork without the risk of cork taint.
Varietal
Riesling : 100%
Specifications
Alcohol content : : 12.03 % vol.
Residual Sugar : : 4.6 g/l
Tartaric acidity : : 7.32 g/l
pH : : 3.03
Age of vines : : 25 years old
Yield : : 65 hl/ha hL/ha

Advice

Video
Tasting notes by Serge Dubs, World's Best Sommelier 1989
A dashing, youthful pale green robe with dominant hints of green, light green, lime tree foliage, sparkling and crystalline with a nice shimmer and elegant thread-like legs.
A deliciously aromatic expression with the nice fruitiness and youthful freshness of cool moss, white peach, lemongrass, lemon-verbena, pistachio.
On the palate this is a nice reflection of the Classic Riesling grape variety, dashing and dry without being too hard, thirst-quenching, flavoursome, energetic and well-structured with a strong personality combined with a crystalline and full-flavoured finale and that perfect touch of minerality.
This is a wine which is superb now thanks to the purity of its expression but if laid down for five years it will improve through its minerality.
Best served at 10°C at the start of the meal if opened now.
Ideal with a fish Ceviche, mackerel, marinated herring, seafood, shellfish, king prawn Carpaccio, scallops, marinated salmon, smoked trout, goat's cheese, cold cuts.
If laid down for two years it will be fine with dishes with a cream sauce, gratinated seafood, poached poultry, vol au vent.