Budapest Daily Review

Dereszla wines captured my imaginations throught their Dorombor recently, then I was drown to this particular Dry by American starblogger, showman and first of all wine merchant Gary Vaynerchuk’s coverage of this white wine.

Gary’s been mostly positive about Hungarian white wines for some time now but he’s enthousiasm for this cuvée (which by the way he describes as pure Furmint) was extraordinary even by Gary’s standards.

I wrote a few days ago about the little information available on the web about Dereszla and it hasn’t change too much since then.

The review

Very bright color, almost transparent. Smells grassy and walnut, even marzipan and a touch of vanilla. But it’s also mineral in both taste and smell. Walnut is actually quite long on the upper-mouth area whilst the mineral touch stays even longer at the tongue, giving the wine a nice, long finish. It’s 14% alcohol burns a little bit but it makes its creamy texture more attractive. It’s a bit sweet for a dry wine supported by medium acidity. It’s similar to Dorombor but not as fresh and a little bit more full-bodied. And round. The second glass is actually better. As the glass gets warmer the Hárslevelű (used in minor extent together with Muskotály) undertone becomes more palpable.

Score: 5, 5+

Price: EUR 6

Light golden color just a little bit darker than the Hétszőlő and Dereszla Furmints. It’s typical Furmint smell is more intense than the above two’s. The sweetness in the front of the tongue and the bitterness in the back and on the two sides seem to come from two different wines. The sour and bitter tastes stay much much longer. This style is more comparable to the Dessewffy brand of Hétszőlő. I decided to cool it down a bit more and it got slightly better indeed, I could even smell some vanilla although this is a reductive wine. It’s 14% alcohol is not burning, but gives a pleasant warming sensation.

Pumped, the wine hardly loses from its quiality in 24 hours.

This wine was voted „Top Wine” of Pannon Bormustra 2007.

Score: 4-

Price: EUR 5,5

I’m convinced that most Hungarians, laymen and professionals alike, tend to overrate Hungarian wines (especially the reds) sometimes to the point where even faults are considered local character. Although vast majority of my readers come from abroad who probably do not have such preconcepts, I decided to launch a series of blind tests comparing Hungarian wines of all price ranges with their counterparts in Central Europe, Europe and the new world. I’ll call this column International Perspective.

The intention is twofolds: first is very ambitious and certainly will generate some discussion and anger, and it is to try to define the value of well known and relatively unknown Hungarian wines. Secondly, through these comparisons we might be able to discover the terroir, the Hungarian character (if there is such a thing like Hungarian character).

Dereszla

Dereszla is a relatively small French winery in Tokaj, home of sweet dessert wines and emerging white wines mostly made of Furmint and Hárslevelű. Sauvingon Blanc is not an authorised Tokaj variety hence you’ll find „Zempléni” region on the label and no Tokaj.

Halewood

Halewood is a major producer and distributor of wine and alcoholic beverages in Britain.

The Group manages over 400 hectares of vines in three major wine areas of Romania: Dealu Mare, Podisul Transilvaniei and Murfatlar.

Whilst Halewood has an informative, though not very ergonomic website, Dereszla has nothing of their own on the web.

Some official information about the wine from the Halewood website:

2006 started with a late spring after a long and freezing winter with temperatures reaching -26°C. The average temperature of the year was 25°C, this having a positive effect on the shoots growth (up to 12 cm/day). Due to the high temperatures during the summer the ripening of the berries took place earlier and the picking of the grapes began according to the fully maturation of each variety.

In the second half of September, at harvest time, there took place a careful selection of the grapes coming from Dobrogea Plateau. A controlled fermentation was undergone at the temperature of 12-14°C, for about 8-10 days with selected yeasts. Alcohol volume 12.5%.

The test – Sauvignon Blanc, Halewood, Prahova valley 2006 vs Chateau Dereszla Zempléni Sauvignon Blanc 2007.

Since it was a hot summer day both wines were cooled to appr. 7-8 Celsius degrees but this turned out to be good temperature for both wines.

The first wine had bright straw color and fresh fruity nose later with a little bit of cinnamon and lemon skin. Well-structured wine with a little bit of sweetness (it’s still a dry wine) with a little bit of wet hay undertone, but not disturbingly. Overall a lovable, soft, light wine without major faults and without a special character, but very refreshing.

Score: 5+

The second wine had very bright color, very intense perfumy nose and although I’ve never tasted it before, I immediately recogninsed the Dereszla character (it’s ont that I’m such a master, it’s really that obvious). Diffrerent trees in bloom but mostly elderberry which also dominates in its taste. Very fresh, almost crispy but with a little bit of extra sweetness which is supported by round acidity so it’s rather soft. At higher temperature both wines were a little bit overly sweet to my taste but at around 10 degrees celsius, it’s a delicious, very lovable, festive wine.

Score: 6

To me the Dereszla Sauvignon Blanc had more character and was lacking the hay undertone, but the Halewood Sauvignon Blanc from Prahova Valley is also a very good value for money. To be honest, if the Halewood was one year younger, maybe the difference would not have been that significant.

Price: EUR 7

The winner of the label contest is the Halewood to me.

Following my festival notes, I opened two bottles of Dorombor of Dereszla winery to make sure the hype is reasonable.

Dereszla and its French owners are hiding extremely well internet-wise and I’ve never visited them yet so all I can say is that they are currently producing wine from 27 hectares located on Henye, Dereszla, Zsadány, Pécsi, Hatalos, Várhegy, Lapis, Teleki, Napos, Becsek , Mestervölgy, Vinnai, Sajgó, Zafír and Király areas, which is already amazing.

About the wine.

The nose is incredibly refreshing and full of tropical fruits.

Round, only the sweetness is a little bit over the top just as I remembered. I would tolerate a bit more of its fresh, not too tart acidity. One of the recongisable tastes is Vilmoskörte (pear).

It’s an overall excellent wine, very lovable as the name suggests. For six euros, it’s also a best buy for (not only) everyday drinking.

Score: 6+/7-

Price: EUR 6

Kövérszőlő means „fat grape” due to its large berries and it had been one of the most widely planted grapes in Tokaj until the destruction of the vineyards by phylloxera in the 19th century. Today it’s the main variety in the Romanian Cotnari region. It regained a state classification in Hungary in 1998 and a small but increasing number of respectable (and more innovative) winemakers have achieved very nice results with them as sweet wines complementing the far most popular Furmint and Hárslevelű. It’s susceptibility to botrytisation and its high sugar content made it suitable to making Aszú as well as late harvest sweet wines, which in better years produced equal quality to 3-puttonyos Aszú .

I think however that Kövérszőlő is capable to demonstrate its own character therefore it should not be necesserily compared to Aszú. Moreover, it can be harvested one or two weeks before Furmint which extends the harvest period, giving another rational argument in its favor.

Interesting fact is that Királyleányka, a popular variety in the northern regions is a hybrid of Kövérszőlő and Leányka, another variety of Transylvanian origin.

The review (Hétszőlő – Kövérszőlő, 2006)

Hétszőlő’s perfectly oriented, loess slopes will never provide its wines with the minerality of its counterparts in Mád, for instance. This wine represents another style which is lighter and extremely lovely in both smell, taste and acidity.

It’s almost totally transparent in color and it’s very lively in the glass. I prefer serving it chilled between 5-10 degrees then it’s an extraordinarily light, lovely fresh sweet wine. It hides its almost unnoticible bitterness so you might want to let it heat a bit to fully enjoy it. The high level of extract sweetness is supported by very nice acids but with tannins almost totally absent.

It’s taste is not really comparable to anything so instead of trying to force associations let’s just say it tastes not too intensly, a little bit spicy but not as much as Hárslevelű and if you really want, you can associate it with „Multivitamin” juices (yep, even with that carrot/papaya taste in the background).

It’s 11,0% alcohol and the 0,5 liter bottle allows you and makes you wanna open another bottle very quicky, provided that you are willing to pay another 15 euros for another 10 minutes of weet curiosity. Not cheap, but still slightly more affordable than even the best 3 Puttony Aszús and its an excellent choice for a change. Especially if You’ve already had a purely Hárslevelű Aszú, but this will be another post.

Score: 6+/7- (because of its curiosity)

Price: EUR 15 (500 ml)

In one of the Guardian’s recent week-end editions I read about 10 things to appreciate in England’s absence from the Euro 2008 football cup and the fact that you can go to your cornershop anytime and you’ll find cold bier in Britan has reached a quite respective ranking on this list.

I am thankful that Hungary did not make it to the final either because Hungarians’ve been having a rubbish team since the mid-eighties. But it does not keep people from watching Euro 2008 games and drink beer. So why not change that beer for a wine for a change, I thought.

I wanted to have something widely available, cheap but drinkable – these must be the most important criteria for European Cup times, I thought. My intention was to give You a good hint for a not-so-frenetic Poland vs Croatia.

I ran into a sale of Chardonnay Barrique of Bezerics-Németh winery from the Balaton region on a hypermarket shelf (cheap and available). I cannot share too much information about the winery since their flash website does not run on firefox. But I remember having bought their Chardonnay and Cserszegi Fűszeres from Cserszegtomaj before and I always thought of them as good value for money in the low-end segment of Hungarian white wines. This Pogányvári Chardonnay Barrique for appr. EUR 4 must be a best-buy I thought (since barrique in Hungary frequently refers to a higher quality in the wineries’ will, hence more expensive too).

The review

The deep wheat color was accompanied by some strange smell after opening the bottle and by lots of bobbles (it’s not meant to be a sparkling wine however). You would expect relatively lot of sweetness from a wine from 2006 with 12,1% alcohol in it but this particular one did not deliver it. Instead, it fills your mouth with a not so fresh, heavy oaky taste and overly cooked corn meal supported by lot of acid and medium tannin. Grapefruit, quince and peer are also present with a soar finish, but nothing is in harmony with anything. Lot of wood and wet straw with stuffy smell and the stewed fruits cannot help it out. I cannot enjoy this wine, its errors are obvious but interestingly its potential as well. This wine could have been a very nice wine indeed but something went wrong during the élevage process. I’m sorry for Bezerics-Németh, they can do much better than this. But I wish I sticked to the beer instead. Or grabbed a bottle of Peljesac…

Score: 3- points

Price: EUR 4

Some would say yes. So let’s check.

About Vylyan

The death of the founder of this relatively new winery hasn’t been unnoticed although his philosophy remained fundamentally the same. 7 000 vines per hectare, 1.8m x 0.8m vineyard density, 30 hectolitres per hectare on average – on 125 hectares, this indicates their commitment to high concentration for their best wines. And a lot of attention to all aspects of the élevage. With so much land in Villány, You cannot expect that all of it is very well located though.

In choosing their grape varieties they lay emphasis on both international varieties (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah) and local varieties (Kadarka, Blaufrankisch, Portugieser, Zweigelt).

About Montenuovo Cuvée 2006

Montenuovo cuvée is the Minestrone soup of Vylyan: its ingredients vary each season as well as its quality can be somewhat volatile. Still it will be a minestrone. The continuity is brought into this product line by a relatively good value for money and a seek for full-bodied, easy to enjoy, intensely tasty style. Well-done in 2006.

I don’t need to understand the concept behind Montenuovo’s always changing composition to like these wines. However, You might wonder how have Cabernet Franc and Zweigelt replaced Pinot Noir over the years. If you approach this from the other way around then it’s better to say that Vylyan’s goal could be to provide a relatively constant upper-medium quality popular red wine as well as to consume all they can produce in an optimal way. But this would be jumping to conclusion.

Since Montenuovo is an affordable non-entry level wine hence quite popular in restaurants it’s quite possible that You’re already familiar to this name. Here’s my notes, my opinion as of today.

Review

Deep cherry color, almost blackberry. Farm animal smell rather than fruits. Oily but with high acid content (for a Villányi) and medium of tannin. It’s 14,5%alcohol is palpable. It took awhile to realise that the unusual component in taste derives from Zweigelt grapes, which makes it an interesting cuvée but not a very lovely one. But maybe it’s just my habits that make it a bit intolerable in an otherwise quite commonly composed cuvée. Its smell also lack character.

A day after opening the bottle its tannins become smoother, those few fruits gave place to chocolate, new oak and tobacco, but not to the extent of a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon of course. It’s still a good wine if served at good temperature (my guess is around 15 degrees Celsius) although I can smell some rotten, fermenting fruit taste in it at the end.

It’s an overall good wine and good value for money. Don’t expect to buy the same wine with a Montenuovo 2007 label on it, so this could be another reason to purchase it.

Score:6-

Price: EUR 11,5

I don’t even dare to translate the word “Bországgyűlés” for You, although the significant number of foreigners who visited the event despite the heavy rain which lasted almost the whole day would deserve a try. Anyway, it wasn’t a gathering of the nations’ parliamentary delegates of winemaking as the name would suggest, I was actually surprised by the small number of wineries present, but even more by their distribution within the festival area. Despite the intense grass and other natural smell coming from the surrounding park in the rain I tried to take tasting notes. My idea was that I would taste and review the winners of the VIIth Pannon Bormustra contest. Unfortunately very few of the winners actually exhibited at the Festival so I’ll indicate in the table below those who won the “Top Wine” awarded by a jury consisting of international experts like Dante Brancaleoni and winemakers like René Rostaing as well as Hungarian wine drinkers or so called experts. As always, please read the following report as a rough guide only, since I hardly ever spit during a wine tasting (unless the wine is really rubbish) and the local food selection has also provided a strong smelly background which certainly distorted the senses. So here’s a quick snapshot from the Festival, without any in-depth analysis.

Here’s a photo from the venue of one of Budapest’s most important wine festivals.