Hugel, Schoelhammer Riesling, Alsace, France
Crystalline with youthful metallic hints of lime tree, primrose and straw, this is a thirst-quenching, aromatic and vivacious dry Riesling with a refined mineral finish.
Pronounced "shell hammer" : the coat of arms combines the fossils found in the Schoelhammer soil together with the hammer, a tool used every day by Emile Hugel (1869-1950), master-cooper and winegrower like his father.
The grapes are taken in small tubs to the presse, which is filled by gravity, without any pumping or other mechanical intervention.
After pressing, the must is decanted for a few hours, then fermented in temperature-controlled vats (at 18°C). The wine is racked just once, before natural clarification during the course of the winter. The following spring, the wine is lightly filtered just before bottling, and the bottles are then aged extensively in our cellars until released for sale.
12 days of bitter cold in February (-18°C), budburst early April, flowering spread over 3 weeks.
Damp early summer but superb August. Harvest began on 24 September. Superb grapes. Patchy weather during part of the harvest then fine sunny intervals. Fine well-balanced classic wines, similar to 2011 but richer and with more depth, yet already accessible. Hugel did not make any SGN in 2012.
Produced in the finest plot of the Hugel estate in the heart of the grand cru Schoenenbourg. Schoelhammer covers a mere 6 300 square metres (67 800 square feet), 30 rows of vines dedicated to Riesling and organically farmed. Schoelhammer's specific vines grow on Triassic Keuper marl soil from the secondary era (marine sediments, c.200 million years) with a 45% clay content, planted at an altitude of 300 metres, facing due south, on a slope that averages 25 degrees.
This dry Riesling was grown in Famille Hugel's famous Schoelhammer plot. With great ageing potential, it comes from the finest vineyard slope of Riquewihr, historically known as Schoenenberg.
Its triassic clay-marl terroir is farmed organically so as to best reveal the complexity of its rich subsoil.
After extended bottle ageing in the family's historic cellars in Riquewihr, today this fine dry Riesling has achieved its first stage of development.
As far back as family memories go, the Schoelhammer, at the heart of the historic Schoenenbourg vineyard which overlooks Riquewihr, has always been amongst our most favoured single vineyards. From 2007 we decided that the Riesling from this exceptional site, traditionally vinified apart, also merited to be bottled separately. Schoelhammer seeks to reveal
the unique character of a dry, mineral Riesling from a marl-rich terroir, deep and suave in style, and which takes time to express itself fully.
Specifications
Alcohol content : 12.37 % vol.
Residual Sugar : 9.3 g/l
Tartaric acidity : 7.01 g/l
pH : 3.09
Age of vines : 31 years old
Yield : 35 hL/ha