Riesling ESTATE 2012

A new selection "parcellaire" of carefully chosen plots of the Famille Hugel estate situated in Riquewihr in its most prestigious crus. Most of the plots chosen for this new wine are being converted into Organic viticulture.
The unique marl soils of Riquewihr, in and around the Schoenenbourg give a characteristic minerality to wines from this remarkable terroir.
A wine of depth and of patience.

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
12 days of bitter cold in February (-18°C), budburst early April, flowering spread over 3 weeks.
Damp early summer but superb August. Harvest began on 24 September. Superb grapes.
Patchy weather during part of the harvest then fine sunny intervals.
Fine well-balanced classic wines, similar to 2011 but richer and with more depth, yet already accessible. Hugel did not make any SGN in 2012.
In the vineyard
Selection "parcellaire" of some of the best plots within the Hugel family estate in Riquewihr in its most prestigious crus.
A very clear dominance of the
Schoenenbourg character with its unique marly character.
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° % vol.
Residual Sugar : : 6.3 g/l
Tartaric acidity : : 7.61 g/l
pH : : 3.03
Age of vines : : 33 years old
Yield : : 52 hl/ha hL/ha

Advice

Video
Tasting notes by Serge Dubs, World's Best Sommelier 1989
Youthful, bright, graceful colour with springlike silvery pale green hints

Lively, fresh, open, nicely aromatic bouquet of fruit : white peach, lemongrass, grapefruit, ginger and flowers : almond blossom, primrose and fresh moss, with a touch of muscatel.

On the palate this is a lively and refreshing Riesling, finely tuned, with a well balanced, slightly supple, soft aftertaste.

Agreeably expressive fruit character, crisp and clean. The wine is still young, but pleasantly so, and would benefit from another 1 or 2 years in bottle to gain in complexity as the minerality of the Riesling grape emerges.

Drink it with fish, grilled or in sauce, or a fish terrine. Also with lobster, crab, scollops, lightly spiced dishes with curcuma or curry, and with white meat in a cream sauce.