Jean Hugel has just passed away and Alsace, which he loved and promoted so tirelessly all over the world during more than 60 years, feels a great void.

See his brief biography and recent photos of Jean, taken in 2003, 2005 and November 2008 and a photo album of his life. In February 2005 he gave a rare interview on a most secret part of his life: his wartime years. 

Born on September 28, 1924 in Riquewihr, the home town of his family since 1639, Jean Hugel ran the family wine business alongside his two brothers, Georges and Andre, from 1948 until 1997.

A very active retiree, Jean truly never left the business until illness overtook him. Jeanny, for all those who knew him well, worked all his life with great passion and determination for Alsace and its wines, particularly Late Harvest and Selection de Grains Nobles which will be his greatest legacy. He wrote the legislative text regulating the conditions of production of these wines which were OFFICIALLY recognized after 7 years of bitter struggle. It is the strictest law of all French wine appellations.

Jean transmitted to his nephews, Jean Philippe, Marc and Etienne, his know-how, his enthusiasm and his will to carry the banner of Alsace always higher. They will continue to work with this same determination that their uncle taught them: to always strive for perfection. He also leaves behind his dear Simone and their two daughters, Dominique and Judith and four grandchildren. 

Jean's memory will continue to shine in the skies of Alsace, and whenever we have the great joy of opening one of his wines, like his favourite Riesling Selection de Grains Nobles 1976, the last wine he tasted, it will remain a lasting symbol of a very full and meaningful life..

Those who knew him should feel free to leave their own testimony on this Blog. Thank you Jancis, the New York Times, the Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian and so many of you. Mission accomplished Johnny, you may now retire.

Hard to believe that the UK economy is in crisis (other than political) on a recent market visit which coincided with the EU elections and quite some turmoil amongst MP's and members of the cabinet. Sir Winston Churchill still firmly on his pedestall watching all this...

On the agenda, a couple of tastings for the Wine Society a long standing supporter of our wines and about to send their members an Alsace offer for a selection of wines from the outstanding 2007 vintage. A great occasion also to see our dearest Alsace colleagues at a now almost traditionnal closing Indian dinner, this time in Nottinham's finest Indian restaurant. Always worth the journey even 5500 miles from Delhi ;-) 

For the rest of this trip, brilliantly orchestrated by the enthusiastic Fells team that now overlook our UK interests, visits and wining and dinings included ever loyal friends such as London's Bleeding Heart for a dinner at thir crypt for 60 of Robyn and Robert's avid customers.

On a busy journey north, an eye opening visit to Oxford leading (and friendliest) wine merchant with a tasting combined with video interview at The Oxford Wine Company. The short video clips are now accessible from their homepage and on Youtube. Rushing then off to the historic market town of Ludlow which has become the aera's gastro capital. Absolutely outstanding wine dinner at La Becasse for some even happier guests after dinner came to a close... 

Back to London on a visit to Harrods with a staff tasting in anticipation to their promotion on Famous Wine Families. The tasting to take place on 18 June between 7 and 9 pm at their wine department will see Jean Frédéric, first member of our 13th generation presenting our wines abroad. When his dad was about 22 years old and before actually starting full time at Hugel I did my very first instore tasting at... Harrods. Jean Frédéric, now 20 is thrilled to follow daddy's footsteps, hoping that Harrods customers will be equally thrilled to hear this Wine Family story...

A final quick stop at the Ritz and off home with a lovely piece of stilton enjoyed by my loved ones over the weekend with a bottle of Graham's vintage Port from our Symington friends. Soooo British !  
  

One of those rare moments where business blends into sheer pleasure and a rare feeling of having reached perfection... The occasion came at the end of an extensive 3 weeks Asian market visits before a few days vacations with my wife Anne Christine. A few days in Bali, almost exactly 20 years after our first visit together to this paradise on earth.

As if life was not good enough, on the only day of customer visits on the island, our local importer Putu Murtika had the good idea to pay a quick visit together to probably the most amazing Bali resort, the famous BVLGARI Bali.

Greeted in style in an amazing surrounding by Director of F&B Radu Cernia and executive chef Andrew Skinner. As some specially sent wines were still available for the course of my visit, an exclusive dinner was put in place with the blessing of the GM and long time Hugel friend Robert Lagerwey.

In just a week, a most amazing menu was created, a flyer produced with a selection of Asian dishes created to match our wines like never before. Also an uncompromising attention to details on the presentation of the dishes up to the marking of the different glasses. The select guests (by invitation only) had a chance to enjoy some of our wines that were available for the first time in Indonesia.

If perfection does not exist, it may well have found its closest expression, where all comes so harmoniously together. Planning a visit to Bali ? You may want to make your own opinion of the BVLGARI Bali   

After almost ten years of intensive internal research for alternative methods of closure, we have decided to use "DIAM" corks of the brand Oeneo-Bouchage for an important part of our Classic range of wines of the 2006 vintage and for the whole of the 2007's. This decision comes after the successful test we carried out with this closure on 375ml size bottles in the year 2004 and on a fraction of wines of the 2005 vintage. From vintage 2008 on, we will start using DIAM in its latest presentation.  

We have always observed - and this phenomenon is widely known in our profession as one of our main quality issue - that a fraction of the wines sealed with natural cork suffer from what is generally called "cork taint". In fact, this phenomenon seems to have become more marked in recent years, and so in 1998 we began to seriously investigate ways of overcoming the problem.

We studied and experimented with every different type of "cork" that existed on the market (agglomerated, treated, synthetic, 1 + 1 (composite), and screw-caps. For technical questions, the screw-caps is not suited to our way of working because all our wines are palletized or stored on bins, bottles unlabelled, before their labelling at times of shipping. The binning of bottles with these screw-caps closures poses potential problems of leaking on such bottles.

After countless tests conducted with great rigour by Marc Hugel as well as a recent 4 days visit of their premisses in Spain we have finally selected DIAM, manufactured by Oeneo-Bouchage.

If there was one good news about the benefit for Alsace of the recent NATO summit in Strasbourg, it is that Americans will at last know that Strasbourg is in... France. We were of course delighted when we heard that one of our wines, our Pinot Gris Tradition 2005 had been chosen for the Friday night gala dinner prepared by Strasbourg's most celebrated chef Emile Jung of Crocodile restaurant

As husbands and wives did not dine at the same table that night nor did they have the same beverage selection (oh... la la !) until the following day we were not sure if our wine had been served to Barack and Nicolas or at Michelle and Carla's party. Knowing the popularity and personality of the first ladies, we are pleased to report that our wine was enjoyed at Michelle and Carla's dinner and from what we heard through the grapevine, they had lots of fun ;-) Thank you Emile for your nice words in the menu you sent us. Perhaps our French President should take lessons on that from his Italian born wife !

Having heard the news on the occasion of a visit to Japan, walking in front of a local hotel doing a promotion for US beef with the poster of President Obama, I could not resist taking this picture... Yes, we can ! 

We are pleased to inform our trade contacts that our "HUGEL" stand at Vinexpo in Bordeaux from 21-25 June 2009 will be located in Hall 1 D 245, near door 24.

Etienne Hugel and David Ling will be in attendance together with their colleagues Mathieu Chalas, Lionel Rousseaux and Didier Thaler for the entire duration of the fair. For the first time, two young Hugels from the 13th generation, Jean Frédéric and his cousin Marc André (both born in 1989, year of the 350th anniversary) will be present on our stand.

The Orient will again have a special place on our stand this year with visuals that are an invitation to bring our visitors on a journey to Asia. At a daily lunchtime buffet (by invitation) we will again present our chopstick holder, various new original ideas, and the latest design of DIAM corks.

Again this year, our location will be near close to many friendly colleagues, including Pol Roger, Perrin and Symington of Primum Familiae Vini.

You can download here the full map of Vinexpo's Hall 1. For more details on Vinexpo, visit their website.

Vinexpo is certainly the most important of its kind and is for members of the trade only.

The story is just too nice not to be told...

It all starts in late 2006 when former Auberge de l'Ill employee, Franco-Vietnamese Eric Simard contacts us from Vietnam asking if we were interested to start establishing distribution in his distant Indochina market. Eric now head of Victoria hotels obviously knows the various importers and recommends Franco-Vietnamese Dong Khoi of leading importer Tan Khoa.

No later than two months later, our wines were launched in Vietnam with both of our friend involved. The above center picture was taken in January 2007 with Eric on his yellow Lambretta whose colour is exactly that of our labels... In Vietnam most transports happen on two wheels, including sometimes deliveries as on above right photo with Tan Khoa's boss taken in January 2008 on second market visit. My reaction: Eric, it would be so nice if you, our Hugel ambassador had our logo added to your yellow Lambretta.

And here we go, above left is Eric Simard's Lambretta in his new livery whose photo was just sent by our "Vienamese ambassador". Needless to say that Hugel wines are to be found at Victoria hotels.

This World of wines is really a very special one, where friendship blends so nicely into our lives and memories. CHEERS and THANKS !

This must look like the daily life of an Alsacian vintner (not to be mistaken with a German sheppard please), touring central Florida over the weekend. "Dry bottle tasting" as it is called here, in other words signing bottles with no possibility to sample the wines at a few Costco stores of the Orlando area which were at this occasion case stacking two our our wines.

Not only was the welcome very enthusiastic by the consumers, but, magic of the wine trade, it was also the occasion to see some old acquaintances, including Oliver Slinker the retired Pennsylvania Liquor Board commissioner pictured calling one of his long time wine friend and former distributor Mr Mongolis, now both retired in Florida. Also a great occasion to make new friends of whom some Canadians escaping from their hard winters at home...

A special warm thank you to all the Costco staff, especially Brendon Mc Gyver for his assistance in helping set up my much desired audio visual equipment. Also so nice to see old time Wildman friend Dave Bertoli who shares both the same virus and passion for wine ;-)

At the Costco store at Altalonte springs on Saturday, we were given a state of the art TV display, right next to a seafood demo allowig us to present the many interesting pictures of the vineyards, cellar, family and a frightening historical one, in colour, taken by my grand father from his house in 1942. Just two years later we welcomed the liberators of the 36th Texan rangers on their arrival December 5, 1944 with joy, relief and the best wine we had been saving...

With new Frederick Wildman state manager Kirk Baker, in just one Saturday, over 120 bottles were sold and signed and again meeting new Hugel afficionados that included old time friend John Leahey. We are definitely in "peoples' business" and wine is indeed a social lubricant !

... and it kept on getting better. Mind you getting a Frenchman to work in a store on a Sunday is a real "tour de force" too ! The Costco staff went out of their way and high in the air to make our wines best introduced to their clients with a high tech, sleek, and most impressive display. By the end of the day Kirk Baker was starting to feel he was the new boss ;-)

To all our Asian friends, happy new year (1961, 1985, 1997... so 2009 should be a great vintage !) from all of us here at Hugel.