Jean Hugel was the champion of Alsatian wines for more than half a century. One of the great wine men of his generation, his relatively diminutive size did not prevent him from being a larger-than-life ambassador for his unsung, unfashionable, yet classic wine region tucked away in the northeast corner of France. Not only was he fiercely proud of his region’s Gallic gastronomic traditions, as fond of espousing its famous foie gras, choucroute, quiche and white asparagus as he was in furthering its wine cause whenever possible, but he was instrumental in guiding fellow producers and legislators to new heights.

Nothing could restrain the obsession that Hugel had with his wine and work that, coupled with his irrepressible energy and volubility, found the “Hugel bugle” spreading the word about fine Alsatian wines across the world. Unlike other wine producers of his era, Hugel’s ready smile, affable, gentlemanly manners and excellent and easy command of English made him a popular speaker in Britain and North America. A good brain, coupled with an unusually kind, thoughtful, loyal and generous nature to his family, friends and colleagues ensured that Hugel was always a popular wine companion. The majority even forgave, or at least tolerated, his determined chain-smoking habit that usually found him with only one hand at the wheel of his much-used Citroën DS, while the other cupped a cigarette.

Often known as Johnny, Hugel was born into a family wine firm of producers and shippers founded in Riquewihr, one of the most picturesque, medieval wine villages in northern Alsace. Like the ten Hugel generations before him, and despite the devastation of two world wars, there was never any question that Hugel would not follow his father, also Jean, but known as “Papa Hugel”, into the family business. Less industrious and charismatic souls might have found the Hugel ancestry a burden — or indeed find Alsace’s troubled history switching nationalities from French to German and back again four times, daunting. But Johnny Hugel was as pragmatic as he was charming and he was clearly honoured that he was the 11th consecutive generation to serve the firm of Hugel et Fils. Never one to talk much of the difficult times during the war, Hugel did let slip that in 1939 the family was about to celebrate its 300th anniversary in wine when war was declared. The party was cancelled.

The firm was forced to become Hügel und Söhne, but he was amused to discover that the Germans did not specify the wine required on their orders. As a result Hugel supplied the poorest quality, notably the disastrous 1939 vintage. To delay joining the German Army, he enrolled as a medical orderly in 1943 and was assigned to a unit near Lake Constance: “I just gave an aspirin to everyone,” he said later.

After the war Hugel read agronomy at Montpellier University and returned to Alsace to work in the family vineyards and upgrade their wines. Taught by his father, Hugel was a talented winemaker and also oversaw the vineyards, and was responsible initially for bringing them back to their prewar beauty and production. Helped by his two brothers, Hugel discovered that his real talent was in overseas expansion and that brought with it endless travelling. A decade or so into the job and Hugel had ensured that more than 80 per cent of the house’s production was exported to more than 100 countries. In many markets Hugel became the name synonymous with Alsatian wines. He freely admitted that such work was his consuming hobby but he found some markets and their occupants easier to deal with than others. Hugel was not a big fan of America and could be quite abrupt with clients there on occasion, grumbling about US drinkers’ lack of civilised ways. An ardent Anglophile, Hugel remained enamoured throughout his life of British wine merchants and wine writers and held his annual tasting in the Savoy Hotel. His admiration of all things English extended to tailoring: his habitually-worn tweed jackets, corduroy trousers, and suits were all made for him in Savile Row. More than once in latter years, when Hugel did not travel as much, his British agent would be dispatched to London to pick up the latest green tweed with leather elbows, often worn by Hugel in cold Alsace winters with a mustard-yellow wool waistcoat and a silk kerchief in the top pocket. He would have a cotton version in a trouser pocket for proper use.

Hugel’s most important legacy to the region came at the request of the French Government when he was appointed founder-president of the Alsace Grand Cru Commission in 1973. The commission was asked to define the precise boundaries of the Alsatian vineyards that had traditionally produced the finest wines. With Hugel at its head, the commission’s pioneering work led to the creation of the present Alsace Grand Cru system, although in a less elaborate form than Hugel first envisaged.

Not afraid of controversy, Hugel refused to agree to commercial considerations outweighing strict geographical findings, maximising the acreage and minimising the quality requirements.After declining to rubber-stamp a proposal to create an enormous first Grand Cru application, deemed “unjustifiable” by Hugel, his commission was boycotted for the remainder of its term in office. Instead the Institut National des Appellations de l’Origine (INAO) used a new, more compliant commission to approve 50 Grand Cru applications within a matter of months. Few discerning Alsace wine commentators today, like Hugel, would have given the green light to all 50, but wine borders, like those of countries, are often as much to do with politics as they are with quality.

Hugel was also the guiding force behind the preparation and introduction of the French law governing production of the rare Alsatian late-harvest wines known as Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles. Hugel was a keen drinker and admirer of these rich, usually sweet, wine styles and he wanted others to share his delight. Along with his father, Hugel was asked by the INAO in 1977 to draft a framework for regulation of such wines.

Their proposal was based on exactly what the Hugel family had been doing for the previous 100 years when the firm was practically the only grower to make such wines. Sensibly, Hugel aimed for a wine law that was easy to understand, easy to enforce and “impossible to cheat”. He later claimed that it was the strictest and most rigorously enforced wine law in place anywhere in Europe. As a tribute to his work and, unlike almost everywhere else in France, less than 70 per cent of applications pass the final test: a blind tasting of wines at least 18 months after the harvest when the wine is in bottle. Hugel was also adamant that the law would be the only one in France to ban chaptalisation (adding sugar to the fermenting juice) and impose a requirement to pick the grapes by hand. The law came into force in 1984. Hugel was sorry that his father, who died in 1980, did not see their joint work come to fruition.

In 1990 Hugel was awarded the Ordre National du Mérite. He served as president of the International Wine & Spirit Competition, a British-based body in which wines from more than 40 countries compete. Other awards included the Grand-Maître of the Confrérie Saint-Etienne d’Alsace, showing the esteem in which he was held by fellow Alsatian wine producers. He was a member of the Académie du Vin de France and was awarded the Catherine de Medici Prize for services to oenology.

In 1953 he was married to Simone Greiner and they had two daughters. Upon retirement in 1997 — although he continued to act as an ambassador for the firm and the region — Hugel passed responsibility for the family business to his nephews Jean-Philippe, Marc and Etienne Hugel.

Jean Hugel, Alsatian wine producer, was born on September 28, 1924. He died on June 9, 2009, aged 84