The 2016 Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenbourg Grossi Laüe is both intense and subtle on the nose that represents fine, well-concentrated and saline-inflected fruit with crunchy soil or terroir aromas. Full-bodied, rich and ripe on the palate, this is a generous and persistently intense Schoenenbourg with a touch of sweetness (six grams per liter of residual sugar) but all the substance and salinity of the grand cru. The aging capacity should be huge here, but the 2016 is still a baby, although it was bottled after three or four months on the lees in summer 2017. It will not be released before summer 2025. As always, the Hugel tasting with Jean Frédéric Hugel includes a range of vintages, with the 2022 being the youngest and the 2014, 2016 and sweet 2015 the oldest. The 2014 Schoelhammer from Schoenenbourg, which is not marketed as grand cru, is an outstanding Riesling from the vintage and even surpasses the estate's own still-very-superb grand cru Schoenenbourg, of which the 2014 and 2016 vintages are available for purchase. The 2016 Sporen is once again a great Gewürztraminer, and the generic Vendange Tardive also shows once more that Hugel is one of the best producers of this variety in Alsace. The same applies to the 2016 Pinot Gris, particularly from the Clos du Pflostig and the grand cru Sporen. Hugel is also contributing to the rapid upswing of the Alsace Pinot Noir, because the 2016 Clos du Pflostig is remarkably fine and elegant but also intense and has an irresistible

The 2016 Riesling Grossi Laüe Schoenenbourg Grand Cru, from deep Triassic soils, gives an immediate pleasure signal of lemon balm and citric lift. The palate then becomes the perfect synthesis of site and variety, with a supremely fine, bright, svelte and concentrated presence resting in deep, creamy chalkiness and purest lemon lift. For such a cool, cool wine, it holds a core of juiciest peach. This is at a gorgeous stage of its development, cool but smooth, with a tisane-like fluidity and gentleness that is so soothing and cooling. (Dry)(AK)