2003 Hugel Pinot Noir Les Neveux Jubilee

Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 88.6 points

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  12/9/2016 - honest bob wrote: 89 Points

  From 75cl, opened but not decanted 1 hour, then a quick decant for the expected deposit (see my TN 26.02.2016). Surprise: The wine decanted squeaky clean, despite coming from the same batch, and having been identically stored to my previous bottles. Perhaps this was bottle filled from a better barrel of wine: It tastes different, and quite a bit better. Aromatically closed (sure, it smells like nondescript oaked red wine), but the entry is lively, with good Pinot acidity. Dark velvety mid-palate fruit (more reminiscent of a thin Grenache than a ripe PN, but not bad at all) and a ripe velvety finish like some 2003 CdN Burgundies I have tried. The texture remains muddy and awkward. We did, however, manage to enjoy this bottle, the first pleasant experience with Les Neveux 2003 since being seduced in Hugel's tasting room in 2008. It was a mistake to have bought half a case at over 40 EUR/75cl; I'm now relieved to have ended this little experiment, and to have finished the last bottle of Alsace PN in the cellar. 89P

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  2/26/2016 - honest bob wrote: 82 Points

  From 75cl, perfect cork. Decanted, leaving a massive quantity of slimy deposit in the bottle. Over-ripe, even rotting fruit scent; hard, jarring, tannins from entry to finish; boiled-sweet sweetness on the mid-palate; quite heavy weight and 13,5% alc (it feels like more).
  
  I first encountered this wine in Hugel's tasting room in Riquewihr in 2008, when it was an appealing, fruity mouthful (and above all, something red after tasting a lot of high-acid white wine). Alas, on the strength of this first impression (and some ecstatic reviews, eg. Tom Stevenson) I bought several bottles at about 40 EUR a shot, and have been regretting it ever since, despite writing hopeful TNs in the hope it might "come round". Forget it. This bottle, stored perfectly in my cellar since purchase, is a real road accident, a horrible encounter with Madame Pinot's whip, a genuine piece of Pinot Pain for Spätburgunder masochists to relish. My subjective pleasure rating would be in the low 70s, but the technical aspects I attempt to reflect in scoring a wine (fruit, concentration, tannin, longevity...) push it up to the low 80s.
  
  One final anecdote: Dining on my birthday in a good restaurant with a famously good cellar in Southwest Germany in the mid 00s, I remember asking the sommelier whether he could recommend an Alsace PN, because I had heard that they were individual and worth trying. His answer was "warum?" ("why?") which at the time I took to be arrogance, and ordered a lousy bottle (it might have been Hugel, or Trimbach, I can't remember the label, just the mouth-puckering vinegar-like taste) off the list just to spite him. Now, a decade and many bottles of dud sour, tannic, sometimes cooked Alsace PN later, I understand. The sommelier was on my side, he was trying to help me. So: Avoid. This. Wine. And do please tread carefully if considering investing in its peers...

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  2/23/2014 - honest bob wrote: 86 Points

  From 75cl, perfect cork. Still very dark red for a French PN, some orange-bricking to rim. A whiff of vinegar on the nose, but otherwise Vovalcano's TN from 12.07.2012 nails this: black cherry and strawberry entry; ripe, sweet, plenty of vanilla on the mid-palate. As it opened up over 2 hours, it deteriorated, or rather: it lost its typicity and turned into a hot-vintage fat-soft-quite-tannic-red-wine from XX grapes. (There just has to be some Grenache and/or Cabernet in there somewhere...) The tannic structure reminded me from the outset of an inferior 10-y.o. classed growth Bordeaux, but after 2 hours it had all the dark blackberry fruit of an inferior 5th Growth Médoc in a stewed-fruit vintage (as 2003 indeed was). Why did I buy so much of this at 40 EUR a bottle? A big leap for Alsace PN, perhaps, but a tiny neo-Parkinsonian shudder in comparison to the glories available at this price elsewhere... Ready now, will probably keep well. Next bottle in 2019? 86-87P(?)

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  7/12/2012 - Vovalcano wrote: 92 Points

  expressive bouquet of violet,
  fruit aromas of juicy black cherry, strawberry,
  hints of vanilla and tobacco....

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  7/12/2012 - Vovalcano wrote: 93 Points

  expressive bouquet of violet,
  fruit aromas of juicy black cherry, strawberry,
  hints of vanilla and tobacco....

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