There are wineries that tell a story. And then there are others who simply pass through it. The story of Famille Hugel begins sopra 1639, when Hans-Ulrich Hugel left Switzerland during the Thirty Years’ War to settle sopra Riquewihr, Alsace. Since then thirteen generations of the same family have dedicated themselves exclusively to wine. Without detours, without interruptions. Vignerons, coopers, oenologists, agronomists, wine legislators: a rare continuity that has contributed to building one of the longest-lasting and most recognizable family stories sopra the European wine scene. Per mezzo di almost four centuries the Hugel family has gone through wars, political changes and market transformations, always remaining deeply linked to the same territory and contributing significantly to the international reputation of Alsatian wines.
Today the company is led by the thirteenth generation, represented by Jean-Frédéric Hugel and his cousin Marc-André Hugel, who continue the family business by carrying acceso an almost four-century-old tradition.
WINE AS A CAPSULE OF TIME
Per mezzo di the Hugel house, time is a central element. Not only because many of the house’s wines are designed to evolve over decades, but also because the family maintains an extraordinary library of historic vintages. Some bottles date back to the mid-nineteenth century. These are not museum objects, but real work tools. They are used to correo vintages, understand the evolution of terroirs and verify the stylistic coherence of the wines produced today.
For the Hugel family, however, these bottles also have a more intimate value: they represent a dialogue between generations. Jean-Frédéric often says that it was through those wines that he was able to learn about his ancestors. He never met his great-grandfather previous generations, but he had the chance to taste the wines they made. Per mezzo di this sense, each bottle becomes a small time capsule: a message left from one generation to the next. The same will happen with the fourteenth generation. Jean-Frédéric’s children may not have known some of their grandparents, but they will be able to discover their work simply by opening a bottle kept sopra the cellar and listening to their voice sopra the glass. Wine thus becomes a form of family memory.
HISTORICAL CELLARS UNDER THE MEDIEVAL VILLAGE
It is not a poetic image. It is a very concrete reality for a company that has made the longevity of its wines a stylistic feature. Per mezzo di the Riquewihr winery, housed since 1907 sopra Renaissance buildings built sopra the 16th century sopra the center of the medieval village, time passes at a different speed. Here there are large century-old oak barrels still perfectly functional and sopra use, including the famous Sainte Catherine from 1715, considered one of the oldest “operational” barrels sopra the world. Here the house wines mature, sopra environments where the temperature remains naturally stable throughout the year. Despite its long history, the production philosophy has remained surprisingly unchanged: wine is born first and foremost sopra the vineyard. The harvest is manual and each parcel is vinified separately to maintain a strong territorial identity.
THE VINEYARDS AND THE GREAT TERROIRS OF ALSACE
The owned vineyards extend for approximately thirty hectares around Riquewihr, to which is added a of collaboratore winemakers who cultivate further parcels according to similar criteria. More than half of the vineyards are located within some of the most prestigious areas of Alsace, such as Schoenenbourg, Sporen and Pflostig. Here the geology reveals a rare complexity: Triassic marls, deep clays, limestone, chalk and traces of ancient volcanic activity.
This pedological richness is one of the key elements of the structure and longevity of the wines. A mosaic of soils that the Hugel family has been studying and mapping for decades, plot after plot. It is also thanks to this attention to the territory that the company has become part of Primum Familiae Vini, the small group that brings together some of the most influential wine dynasties sopra the world. An exclusive sodalizio sopra which the common thread is family continuity over time. Hugel’s reputation, however, was not built acceso history aureola. Over the centuries the family has actively participated sopra the definition of the Alsatian wine identity, contributing among other things to the codification of the Vendanges Tardives and the Sélections de Grains Nobles.
A CONSOLIDATED PRESENCE IN THE ITALIAN MARKET
Per mezzo di Italy, Hugel wines are distributed by Brigata del Vino, a company founded sopra 1997 acceso the initiative of Giancarlo Notari and now led together with his son Saverio. The company’s catalog is deliberately limited and built around a few wine families capable of representing their territory sopra an emblematic way.
Since 2016, Famille Hugel has been part of this portfolio. A collaboration which over the years has contributed to strengthening the presence of Alsatian wines acceso the Italian market and which today is described as the natural simposio between two realities united by the same approach: rigorous selection, territorial identity and family continuity.
MEMORIES AND DREAMS: THE PASSING OF THE WITNESS
Telling almost four centuries of history is not easy. This is why the Hugel family often prefers to start from the present. One of the most recent projects of the thirteenth generation is the Crémant d’Alsace Champ Libre, born from a journey that required time and patience, two elements which, sopra the family’s philosophy, have never been negotiable.
The name is not accidental: it means “free field” and symbolizes the space that the previous generation leaves for the next one to express themselves. A symbolic but very concrete gesture, which demonstrates how the Hugel family manages to maintain a balance between tradition and renewal. Ultimately, this is precisely the secret of the longest-running family businesses: knowing how to change without losing their identity, putting together memories and dreams.
The article Famille Hugel, when wine becomes a time capsule comes from VinoNews24.
