Hugel Grosse Laue Grand Cru Riesling 2015

For over 370 years and with 13-family generations the Hugel family has produced beautiful classic wines of Alsace. Known today for their passion and modern outlook, the dynamic Hugel family, located in the fortified village of Riquewihr, has earned a worldwide reputation for their Alsace wines. This classic Pinot Gris is a new wine from Hugel, first released with the 2006 vintage. Made from a strict selection of the best grapes purchased from winegrowers under long-term contract in a dozen of the most favored localities in and around the village of Riquewihr, this wine also includes a sizable amount of grapes declassified from some Grand Cru vineyards of the Hugel estate.  The hand picked grapes are taken intact to the presses, filled by gravity, the must decanted for a few hours, then fermented in temperature-controlled vats with natural yeasts. The wine is the purest expression of the grapes, with a very natural and non-intervention vinification.     

Riesling Grossi Laüe is the flagship dry wine of Famille Hugel, sourced exclusively from the Schoenenbourg Grand Cru, the historic vineyard of Riquewihr renowned for its great Rieslings for centuries. Grossi Laüe brings together the three great terroirs of the Hugel estate — the Clos du Pflostig, and the Grand Crus Sporen and Schoenenbourg — in their most gastronomic expression. They represent the culmination of Famille Hugel’s savoir-faire and the purest expression of these historic vineyards. The resulting wines displays a dry, racy and gastronomic style, combining ample texture, precise structure and remarkable aging potential. 

2015 will go down as an exceptional vintage for the whole of France with one of the hottest and driest summers since 2003 and a quality reminding Hugel of vintages like 1945 or 1976. Spring was pleasant and sunny and the vines budded slightly later than usual, around the 13th April, but blossomed during the first weeks of June, an early sign of an early vintage. This was to expect considering heat wave and the record low rain falls, 30mm between 4 May and 24 July.
Riquewihr and its clay soils seem to have escaped the worst and the heavy rain that came in mid-August saved the crop just in time.

The Hugel family started grape-picking on the 10 September, three days later than the rest of the Alsace, and the first grapes to arrive in the winery gave every indication of an exceptional vintage. Only one day of rain disrupted the harvest, which was already well underway at the time. A nice outbreak of botrytis meant the most part of the Riesling de Schoenenbourg were harvested in late harvest, and once again the Engelkritt (Angels' Vine) won us not one but two "Sélection de Grains Nobles" for this grape variety, the most concentrated being at a potential of 23°.

This wine is sourced exclusively from the Schoenenbourg Grand Cru vineyard, the hillside overlooking Riquewihr and the historic cradle of the family’s greatest Rieslings. The vines, aged between 40 and 60 years, sink their roots deep into Keuper marl mixed with gypsum and dolomite, soils that lend the wine its spherical structure and distinctive saline minerality.

For over twenty years, these slopes have been cultivated without herbicides or insecticides, with every other row grassed over to encourage biodiversity, microbial life and to prevent erosion. The soils are worked mechanically through ploughing and hoeing, and no mineral nitrogen fertilizers are used. Organic composts of animal origin are applied occasionally to maintain the biological balance of the soil. Biocontrol treatments and natural preparations have replaced synthetic products, following an approach based on careful observation and precision.

The entire estate has been certified organic since 2025, marking the culmination of a long-standing commitment to respectful and patient viticulture.