Budapest Daily Review

Nyakas, Budai Sauvignon Blanc, 2006

This wine is like a Caipirinha without cachaca and with some extra lime.

Grass dominates its smell and its taste, besides wet hay. Plus lot of unripe peach. Loads of acid.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 7.5

Why am I writing about this in a Hungarian wine blog?

Benchmarking, that’s for.

I did not want to open this bottle yet, but I’ve noticed a drop of what seemed to me as red wine at the cork, so I ran home from my dad’s cellar and I was desperate to find out whether one of my best kept treasures really went wrong. It didn’t.

Everyone’s dream is (well, mine is) to just wander around in a beautiful area enjoying a good time and suddenly find a small, hidden winery whose’ owners are extremely friendly and their wine is just amazing and at the end it turns out to be an excellent value for money.

I really recommend that you check out their website and read their stories yourself here. In a nutshell:

The winery is one of the properties of a large estate which used to belong to Prince Ginori Conti, a descendant of one of Florence’s oldest families. Floriana Ginori Conti inherited the winery from her father in the 1970s, and began in 1980 to produce a Chianti Classico with the “Poggerino” label.
In 1999 she handed over the property to her two children, Piero and Benedetta Lanza, who had been managing it since 1988.

When we arrived at the farm building, one smiling guy and a sympathetic girl attended us. The guy was dressed farm worker. They knew too much about the wines for workers, so I had to realize that they are the owners. It turned out that they do as much of the physical works as they can themselves. Their wines were very friendly too, expensive though but we dot used to this by then in Tuscany.

The review

Il Poggerino – Bugialla 2001, Chianti Classico

Medium-deep ripe cherry color, sharp tannins are the first impressions as I open the bottle. No worries, no need to rush.

3 hours later its tannins are already smooth, velvet and I could swear that its color became much deeper and the bitterness had gone. Not too intense smell, it’s rather tobacco than fruits, although I can smell some nice, ripe cherry (but no sweetness!), plum and a bit of blueberry. There’s more: coffee beans and pepper, but not too much. Not an easy to love wine, but steady, not evolving too much in the glass. Does not need to. Full-bodied, round. Almost perfectly balanced. The 13,5% alcohol does not disturb me.

I could have kept this wine for another 5 years easy.

Score:7 (But the equation does not include my enthusiasm described in the intro. It would be a 9 then)

Price: EUR 30

Ps: Good to know that they have guest rooms too and the house is perfectly located near Radda.

It’s a misterious fact that even popular restaurants tend to have an awful wine list, either in-house selection or made for them by their wine supplier. Someone could explain me the 2006 Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvignon on the list in early 2008? People, taste it, or ask someone, outsource your choice!

Anyway, I believe that my dinner yesterday in Kiskakukk restaurant may require some explanation as well. Being a typical tourist trap (fake-hungarian cuisine, terrible service, fake-nostalgic interior, wines…) it should not attract me normally, but my foreign guest insisted in wanting to eat Hungarian “disznótoros” (mostly sausage, black-pudding and even more exotic parts of pork) I had no other choice than (since I don’t know these restaurants) I had to make an extremely quick internet research.

We finished 2 bottles of wine during the evening, both sold to us at HUF 4 000 (EUR 16). The first choice was a light Kékfrankos (better known as Blaufrankisch in the rest of the world).

The review – Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos 2005

Intense, deep fresh raspberry/cherry colour. So far so good.

The smell translates into similar taste with a slightly different tone. Excellent transition, smell and taste walk hand in hand. The fruityness disappears relatively quickly and the finish is smooth, no sign of tannin, alcohol burning or too much acid. Nice finish. It’s an overall charming, nice wine. EUR 9 is a fair value for it.

Score: 6

Price: EUR 9 (store price, fair value)

The Review – Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvigning 2006, Barrique (Villány)

Our second selection (we must drink a Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon, I am told by my guest) is my big mistake. Or partly, because this wine takes me back to the 90s, when the quality and trendyness of the CS in Villány and elswhere were measured by the level of tannin in the bottle. But this much tannin cannot be extracted deom the barrel nor from the vine. It’s harsh, oily texture is in huge contrast with the Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos. I know it’s a young wine, still, after massacring a significant amount of gustatory cells in our tongue, we decide to give it some time in the decanter (we had to ask for it in the restaurant, of course). It did not help. After an hour, it’s smell (fruity also, but not so intense and elegant as in the Kékfrankos) got better, but in taste the tannin is still so dominant I can’t think of anything else, scratching the middle, upper and back part of my mouth, whilst the sweetness in the forefront of our tongue is living its own life. Hugely disappointing from Malatinszky, who’s already shown lot better than this CS before. I’m getting suspicious though, I just read Malatinszky’s rate of the year 2006 (his highest score).

I wish I never got back so distant in time. At least I’m happy to be back today, and I’m leaving soon for the Etyek Pincefesztivál, one of the biggest wine events in Hungary.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 9 (overrated)

I’ve been preparing to write about this wine until many things I wanted to write are now out of date. But please continue reading, having in mind that these are my thoughts today (yesterday, actually).

I must admit that I’m relatively new to Tokaj wines. At the heights of my snobbery, drinking sweet wines was out of question. This only started changing 3 years ago under heavy influence of a local winemaker. Now I can only laugh at myself, how pathetic it was not being able to find the place of Tokaj wines in wine drinking. Anyway, my attention towards Tokaj started few years after Tokaj producers realised the potential in Furmint and Hárslevelű. Even today, only a handful of them are taking the dry Tokaji seriously. Most of them still think of it as a side-effect of variable climate: botritis-based noble rotting does not happen every year, at least not with the required intensity. And the result is either late harvest wines (which do not sell in large quantities – although it should, but this will be the subject of another post yet to come) or dry Furmint. Traditionally, these were mostly sold as bulk-wines but fortunately some quality winemakers started exploring the terroir in these wines. And the grapes appreciated their efforts, resulting in exceptional dry furmints in 2000 repeating it in almost every year. Of course, its quality still varied each year, so the better the conditions were, more Aszú were produced and less dry Furmint. In spite of this, you can still buy from the exceptional Oremus Mandolás Furmint 2003 and I celebrated this so much I bought several bottles from that year’s harvest.

I must admit I like Furmint a bit more than Hárslevelű, which tend to be more spicy.

The review

Now let’s get to the wine.

First of all, the nose is still at its best: very intense, a mixture of honey, cinnamon and lemon raspings. Beautiful, very dense. Unlike the more elegant Hétszőlő (Hétszőlő represents to me a whole other school of Furmint making), Mandolás is (although heavier on the nose and on the palate) more playful, sunny. Its maker’s objective was to impress you immediately when you sniff it. Good job, well done. Well balanced in on the nose, a whirlpool of sweetness and a bitter undertone. When you taste it, the whirlpool takes to the rocky bottom: it’s a mixture of minerals and pear, or rather quiche. Yes, because almond is also present with a mouth-filling sensation. Then suddenly, earlier than just a few months ago, its age takes over the taste and turns it into a tart, but still tasty, long finish. It recalls the memories of multi-colored fall leafs in its taste. And nice touch of mineral sensation remains.

This wine is now on sale with a discount, at around HUF 2 100 which still qualifies it for a best buy but only just, and not for long. So go and get one and drink it immediately.

Score: 6+ (it used to be a 7/7+ not so long ago)

Price: HUF 2 100 (EUR8)

I must admit I am not a regular festival visitor and I was surprised by the size of the Somló Tavasz festival: about a dozen twin kiosks, a hundred visitors and a huge tent describe well the scale of this event on the meadow on the outskirts of Somlóvásárhely. According to my winemaker friend, 40% of the visitors are regular festivalgoers who never miss one (hence the marketing value of the event is a bit questionable). All ages and all types of people were present: old ladies from the neighbouring villages sat in the tent quitely sipping their drinks while staring at the stage to check the appearance of a folklore dance group, there were families wandering around, kids riding horses, and some young folks trying to get a bit drunk. I really couldn’t spot any of the urban yuppies here who usually frequent these types of events. And no foreigners either.

It was charming and looked more like a big family reunion in a family where winemaking tradition’s got its roots from times when Juhfark was not yet recognised as a standalone grape.

Besides the local names (Györgykovács, Tornai, etc.) almost the same number of guest winemakers offered their wines, with few exceptions almost only from 2006 and 2005.

I really don’t think that festivals allow you to do some in-depth analysis of wine, it’s rather a quick scan of where are we standing and tasting unknown wines and trying to memorise those that you would like to try at home. So here are my notes, but since I did swallow all of these (at least in quantities of 1/2 dl) the objectivity is questionalbe. So I keep the order, I leave it to you what “filter” you apply to my judgement.

I’ve been hesitating whether to write this post or not . I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the tier-2 winemakers in all regions, since even tier-1 producers are still trying to define themselves, they’re busy establishing their own style and I think this is just normal (let’s not go through the history of the last 50 years of this country this time). It’s also normal that these people (many of them not even certified producers or winemakers) are still learning this profession, because purchasing cutting-edge equipment is just the beginning. Consequently it’s also normal to have better years followed by not so good products even from not so bad harvests. A too balanced series of vintages is even suspicous.

So fishing in the lower-end segment, hunting for treasures is a game where the probability of success is relatively low and the reward is usually only a modest enthousiastic discovery of a promising tentative.

Márton Mayer emerged as a known tier-2 Villány winemaker in the lat nineties. I was hesitating writing this post because my previous tastings of his wines were diasappointing and I don’t like jumping to conclusion after one single sampling if the result is bad. And this is the case with the Mayer Kopár from 2004. It may be unfair to say after one bottle that this wine has nothing, really nothing special to offer. Especially for almost EUR 20. Since I started writing this blog so readers can learn from my lesson, I decided to share my opinion about Mayer Kopár 2004 with You.

The review

Having opened the bottle, nice, concentrated dark frurity smell rules the decanter. 30 minutes later the intense fruit gives room for heavier smells, leathery and tobacco, mixed with less fresh fruits. And that’s more or less it. It lacks complexity, its tannins remain harsh even after hours. Interestingly enough it’s not smoky, the only thing this wine gained from the barrell is its extreme tannins. The finish is bitterness. The word best describing this wine is woody. It’s lean and harsh, plus dominantly sour too. This wine, at least the bottle I opened, today qualifies for the top5 most overrated wines I’ve tasted this year. I feel lucky that this was a Xmes gift form a business partner and I did not spend all that much on it.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 19

in the opposite corner of the country from where you would expect! Apparently the wine makers of Villány have long gave up trying to make excellent Portugieser. I gave up drinking Portuguiser before it was actually born in Hungary. Kékoportó, as it was known before the EU regulation, has been the entry-level red wine of tier-1 and other wineries of the modern Hungarian wine making (I invented this term for wine making which started in the early nineties but really just happening now). Those who became strong brand by the new millennium could sell their poor Kékoportó around EUR 5-6, well above the similar quality new world products. The lack of sophistication of consumers combined with the relatively affordable price for a well-known winemakers’ product made them successful commercially, however.

And for me that was it. The gastronomy equivalent of the small accessories or perfume of the haute-couture designer label in the fashion industry. An affordable item. Only that many perfumes smell good but very few Portuguisers reached the medium quality level. I had a positive surprise tasting a Bock Kékoportó (from 2005?) brought to me by a colleague, which already reflected some quantity control but still was not sufficiently convincing to actually start buying Portuguiser again.

The review

I am told that the Portugieser from 2003 (the first harvest) of Gróf Buttler (the owner, better known in the gambling industry as László Bukolyi) was unbeatable. We opened the 2006 (another good year) and the color was promising. Dark, intense, deep purple color, nothing like the Kékoportó used to be. It’s so dense actually that it moves almost as lazy as a Solus when you move the glass. Wonderful, lively color and the smell is in parity with it. Blackberry, but mostly sour cherry and lots of freshness. Normally you’re not supposed to keep Portugieser for too many years but I expect that this wine (currently at its peak I suspect) will be drinkable for another 1or 2 years. It’s not a big wine but huge compared to its predecessors.

My overall conclusion is that stop looking around, go now and buy one of the Gróf Buttler (so funny name, I can’t stop laughing at it) and wonder along with me why we had to wait until 2008 to drink a really amazing Portugieser like this.

Score: 7+ points

Price: EUR 14

Notes: this day, I’ve also tasted his Kadarka, Bikavér and Pinot Noir (in this order) and the Portugieser proved to be the best value for money. The Kadarka was poor (and very expensive for such), the Bikavér was very good (6+) and well, I don’t want to judge the Pinot because I was far too drunk by then. And just for the record: I know that probably we should have drunk the Pinot before the Bikavér.

Maybe apart from Mátyás Szőke, there has not been any reason why I should have gone to Mátraalja up til now. I ran into a chilly bottle in my oncle’s kitchen and I liked the simplistic, but not “oh so trendy” minimalist bottle label of a so far to me unknown (but not unheared) winemaker called Tamás Szecskő.

This was the beginning of a long evening so I did not plan to pay too much attention to this wine (there were better known aces to follow). Maybe because of the cool temperature (below 10 celsius) its smell seemed very modest, lucking the suspicious sweetness and I don’t like the overly spicy white wines anyway. It has a very light, transparent color and probably without any scientific explanation that usually indicates crispyness to me. And it was. Very well balanced, easy to drink cuvée made from Zöldveltelini and Chardonnay (from 2005). A combination I’ve never seen before by the way. I so regret that I did not buy more Zöldveltelini (Grüner Veltliner) on my last purchasing trip to Wein und Co few weeks ago where there’s still an ongoing major sell-off of these. It’s an extremely easy to drink wine and that’s a bit dangerous because it’s 14,5% alcool. We so quickly finished 2 bottles of them and without having my notebook with me that I can hardly write anything more. I only now that I will have to buy it somewhere which probably won’t be easy because of Zwack’s exclusivity and it’s wide unavailability. I don’t even know how much could it cost, I found the Királyleányka (rumoured to be also very good) below EUR 6 which would qualify this wine for a best buy too.

Score: 6

Price: (guess) EUR 6

Note: the photos is an illustration taken of the

Furmint’s been emerging as a standalone dry wine recently from the shadows of the Aszú, following some really exceptional late harvest furmints (whose quality sometimes exceeds some mid-range Aszús). Hétszőlő’s been quite modest about their furmint and their shyness is a bit of a mystery. The 2004 was average, the 2005 was really not so bad.

I got some Hétszőlő Furmint 2006 few weeks after getting into bottles, long before being put on general sale and it was very promising even for a very young wine. Few months after it’s more developed, almost perfectly balanced. It’s traditionally bright coloured at Hétszőlő due to the soil (loess and clay on a base of vulcanic rocks) and the process of fermentation and maturing. It’s the exact opposite of the Mandolás Furmint from Oremus. Mandolás will be covered very soon, I still have a few bottles from the legendary 2003.

Hétszőlő is one of the most honest wineries in Tokaj and in the whole country. In poor years they produce average quality furmints and late harvests, but above the average of the competition. In better years, and when conditions are ideal for botritis rotting, they produce excellent Aszú. Their Kövérszőlő is one of the most enjoyable items in its category. Tibor Kovács is probably the most experimental wine maker in Tokaj. For him, terroir is more important than regulation, but we’ll talk about this later when we will be reviewing Aszú. And he’s an honest man too. He once told me that he believes that 80-90% depends on the grape, 10-20% (maximum) should depend on the winemaker. For sure, Hétszőlő owns some of the best slopes in Tokaj.

So let’s get to the note now.

(more…)

Sorry, but that’s what it is drinking red wines from Eger region from the harvest of 2001. It’s like people buying Rolling Stones records today, trying to recapture the magic of 1965 although they should know… I had this Cabernet Franc from the late Tibor Gál and

the truth is that based on a typically franc smell it could have been a surprise, in a good way. The franc-ish taste quickly turns into harsh tannins and some bitterness. I appreciate the latter in ales but not so much in wines. Then I left it to breath for 2 hours and ate something with it and that helped a little bit. I must taste the newer ones because there’s some hope in it, I sense it.

Score: 4

Price: HUF 3200 (EUR 12)