Halfway up the picturesque cobbled main street of Riquewihr are the shop, offices, and cellar of the family Hugel who have made and sold wine there for twelve generations, since 1636. In their main cellar they have the oldest wine cask still in use in world; made of oak in 1719 and elaborately carved, it contains 8800 litres - a thousand dozen bottles - and was acquired by one of the family after the French Revolution. They are realists - 'if you are an Alsatian winemaker you change your nationality and lose your market every 25 years' - as well as idealists about their wine.
J. Arlott, 'Wines of Alsace [April 1973]', ed. D.R. Allen, Arlott on wine (1986), 137
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