Pleased to Meet You

Hugel & Fils' Alsace Man was in Athens this week to dine at The National and and share wine with local wine aficionados, including 5Points Bottle Shop Wine Consultant, Svetlanta Rostova.

Five Points Bottle Shop has long been a fan of Hugel & Fil and we carry both the Gentil and Pinot Gris. According to Svet, they are both beautiful wines. "The Gentil is very easy to drink and refreshing," she says, "while the Pinot Gris is powerful and good with spicy food."

From Salon.com explains:

"Pinot Gris (the "Gray" Pinot) is the grape, found most prominently in Alsace, France. A variant of the Pinot Noir grape (as is Pinot Blanc), it's hard to tell in the vineyard if a grape is Pinot Gris or Pinot Noir until the veraison, the moment when ripening begins and the grapes change into their true color. Although Alsatians think of it as a white grape, most Italians think of Pinot Gris as red, but in the end this may be a difference without a distinction, as the grape is most often treated as a white grape in the winemaking process."

Frederick Wildman writes about the producer:

The golden rule at Hugel is "The wine is already in the grape". As soon as they arrive at the Hugel premises in the heart of Riquewihr, the grapes are classified according to precise and strict criteria of quality. The presses are filled by gravity, not by pumping. After slow crushing, only the first part of the juice is conserved to merit the famous yellow label. The individuality of each grape variety and of each level of quality is respected."

Thanks, Alsace Man for stopping by our store.  It was a real pleasure.