2001 Tokay Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles

The 2001 Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles positively exudes peach preserves, orange marmalade, caramel and brown spices. Here is another instance where viscosity and sheer richness does not preclude a sappy, juicy matrix of fresh citrus and pit fruits, so that the wine’s long, still youthfully, overtly sweet finish retains a modicum of refreshment. This will need another decade, I predict, just to develop more nuance and shed baby fat, and it will go on developing for many years thereafter. The Hugels – like the Beyers and Trimbachs – are true to tradition in their emphasis on dry-tasting wines across the varietal spectrum and in the release of their best wines only after a year or (usually) more of bottle age. As with Muscat, there is no “regular” bottling of Pinot Gris at Hugel, but rather one begins with a wine of primarily estate origins. In 1999 and 2003, Hugel elected to separately bottle the fruit of their oldest Pinot Noir vines (planted in 1966 in a parcel in the Pflostig known as “Les Neveux”). Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.