Hugel, as any fan of Alsacian wine knows, produce consistently fine wine across their huge range of wines. They produce wines from all the main Alsacian grapes, Rieseling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer etc. The Hugel family are also big players in the two main debates taking place in Alsace at the moment: the amount of grand cru vineyards in Alsace (some of which do not deserve such merit) and the lack of sweetness rating on the labels (i.e. sec, demi-sec, doux), not to mention that Hugel believe that generic Alsace should always be dry.
On that note however, this wine by Hugel is incredibly sweet. A 'SGN' (séléction des grains nobles) is the sweetest classification of wine in Alsace. 1989 was a fantastic vintage for SGN wines and favoured the Gewurztraminer grape particularly well. This is the reason for which, this wine has aged so unbelievably well.
On the nose this wine has lychee notes with very slight turkish delight and ginger aromas. Even on the nose, one can perceive that the acidity is still present in the wine, cutting through that big residual sugar level. On the palate, one is overwhelmed by the grapefruit. It really is like cutting open a (pink) grapefruit and spooning out the juice. It is great to have the freshness and acidity of the wine still present after 20 years and this makes for a well balanced, well structured wine. At 14%, one would immediately think that this wine may be too alcoholic but to be quite honest the alcohol is very hard to spot. One could be forgiven for thinking that the ABV was far lower than it actually is (around the 11% mark wouldn't surprise me!)
Once again, a very nice wine, if only I'd had some foie gras with it....
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