I never though I would run into Etienne Hugel in Colombo.

It all started with an e-mail from David Ling in the Hugel office in Riquewihr, Alsace. “I did not want to waste any time in telling you that Etienne Hugel and his wife Kaoru are in Sri Lanka at this moment, visiting Rockland, so you never know, you might run into them!” David wrote. Surprisingly, an invitation to a ‘Wine Evening’ at the Galle Face Hotel that day, arrived almost at the same time, from Rockland – the local Hugel agents.

The Hugel family has been making quality wine in Alsace since 1639. Etienne is one of three members of the Hugel family—12th consecutive generation—currently running Hugel et Fils. I source Hugel wines for the members of the Harrogate Medical Wine Society and visit the producer whenever I am in Alsace.

The venerable Galle Face hotel has been undergoing…