2010 Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles

Deep gold with lots of botrytis on the nose and wonderful satin texture. Massively sweet but with quite enough acidity. Really fine and beautifully balanced. Already offering masses of pleasure. Some tartrates and an undertow of savoury nerve to stop it being sickly at all. (JR)

For a long time, explains Marc Hugel, the thought was to blend two lots of 2010 Gewurztraminer S.G.N., but in the end each was bottled separately, of which the Hugel 2010 Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles R – which they refer to but have not labeled as lot “R” – leads with scents of truffle, candied grapefruit rind and smoked meat, backed-up by a concentration of these flavors on a surprisingly firm, bright palate for this grape and genre, shot-through with invigoratingly biting black pepper, peppermint oil and caraway. There is a brash, raw intensity to this elixir and its rivetingly sustained finish, befitting both its unusually high-acid, high-extract, high-energy vintage and its youth. I would anticipate some real excitement from it through at least 2040. Amazingly, Marc Hugel reports that his potential alcohol levels in 2010 were not far off from those registered in 2009. In the acid department, though, their profiles were very different, and the 2010s here ended up universally bright and juicy – even the Gewurztraminer – despite virtually all of the non-V.T. wines (including those Gewurztraminer) having undergone at least partial and in most cases complete malolactic transformation, albeit inoculated with Hugel’s demonstrably successful strain of bacteria that insure malo occurs during the course of alcoholic fermentation. “And don’t imagine,” says Hugel, “that the 2010s were short on malic acid!” The total bottled acidities in Gewurztraminer were in fact, Hugel reports, the highest on record and you may be sure that the record in question goes back a long time and incorporates many lean years in which fruit failed to completely ripen! Yes, we live in record-setting viticultural times ... and fortunately, many of the records set are cause for celebration. Consider as well that Hugel bottled the largest collective volume of S.G.N. in 2010 since dramatically different (searing and dry, until in September rain- and botrytis-capped) 1976! (This was a feature peculiar to Hugel and by no means characteristic of the 2010 vintage in Alsace as a whole.) While too-low acidity was a potential problem in 2011, Hugel manages to have captured a satisfying sense of liveliness and refreshment in most of their offerings. “We picked in 29 days,” notes Marc Hugel, “which is the fastest we have ever harvested.” Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700