Harvest Report : Hugel (Alsace) 2000

All year the weather has had ups and downs; after early bud-break, a very hot May and June, a very cool month of July, warm and sunny weather returned in August and early September. Mixed weather followed until the harvest but luckily the early part of the harvest took place in dry conditions.

In Alsace, the harvest for still wines started after some mixed cool but dry weather on September 21 and remained dry for most of the picking of our purchased grapes.

For our suppliers of grapes, all grapes handpicked, average degrees recorded were the following :

Purchased grapes

Average potential                       Alc.       ° Oechslé     Brix

o             Sylvaner                         11,1°        83               19,6

o             Pinot Blanc                    11,9°       88               20,8

o             Muscat                            9,6°        73              17,4

o             Riesling                           11,8°       87               20,6

o             Tokay Pinot Gris            13,3°       98               23,0

o             Gewurztraminer           13,4°       99               23,2

o             Pinot Noir                      12,0°       89               21,0

The harvest of the "HUGEL" estate began earlier than normal, on September 25 as we were concerned with excess levels of ripeness in Pinot Gris in particular for the production of our Jubilee range. We started harvesting our very sound Pinot Noir with 13,5° potential and yields of 29,5 hl/ha. Once again, we did not regret the green harvest carried out in the majority of our vineyards in July. Throughout our entire harvest, the weather remained uncertain with some periods of light rains but the overall results are above all our expectations.

HUGEL Estate:           Avr. Potential Alc Avr. Potential Alc INAO* Max Potential Alc INAO*

Riesling                         13,1°                                        25,7° (SGN)                       27,2°

Tokay Pinot Gris          14,6°                                      19,7° (VT)                            26°

Gewurztraminer         14,2°                                        17,1° (VT)                           29,2°

*controlled at the press by the INAO for future potential Vendange Tardive or Sélection de Grains Nobles wines

Generally speaking, in Alsace 2000 will be a year of high overall quality. Light rain in the middle of October prevented us from making a truly outstanding vintage but with reasonable yields and very good levels of ripeness, our "HUGEL" and Tradition levels should be exceptional. In our own estate, the results are up to expectations with small quantities of SGN that will long be remembered. Acidity levels are excellent predicting well-balanced wines. All things considered, a good reason to enter the new millennium with serenity!

With kindest regards,

Etienne Hugel

www.hugel.com

Member of Primum Familiae Vini www.pfv.org