The ultimate mass wine or …?
I stopped buying Teleki wines before they existed. I was guided through Kopár dülő by Attila Gere in 2001 and on our way uphill to where his best Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were grown before eventually fulfilling their destiny in the prestige cuvée Kopár, we passed by delapidated plots where grasses grown almost as high as vines themselves. They made a sharp contrast to Gere’s new plantations put in rigorous order and apparently subject to regular manual maintenance. Those were the plots of Villány Borgazdaság, in their decline, the ancestor of Csányi Pincészet.
For sure, Mr. Csányi may have made it the most modern and best run winery of the country (he’s got the funds for it) but why would he do that? He can sell as much of his crap as he wants through the MOL gas station shops all over the country, a sale channel many winemakers wouldn’t dare to dream of.
On the other hand, Csányi Pincészet has 340 hectars in total which is enormous with Hungarian standards, so he could afford to venture some money with not-so-mass market wines and I did, as a matter of fact, run into some robust Chateau Teleki wines which weren’t bad after all. But this is the first time I got into tasting the lower segment of the sortiment. I must admit that I got this bottle as a present of an OTP employee, although I’m not suspecting that she got (unlike the UPC employees) this particular wine as a gift from OTP.
The review
Csányi Pincészet, Teleki, Villányi Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006
Deep ruby color and a medium lively move, indicating medium body.
The nose is, I regret to say, very common new mass wine of the new world type. There’s no simplest way to put it and I’m not a sophisticated writer. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just extremely undistinguished. It carries some cherry- and plum-jam notes with a little bit of pepper, wood and alcohol.
On the palate the evidences of ripe vine harvest are clear. High concentration of extracts, syrup-like consistency and tannins so plished that they’re actually almost totally eliminated from the formula. Very new world-y. The medium body doesn’t get support of acidity.
I think that 2006 was a suitable year for these kinds of wines and I must admint that for as much as 1 300 forints you seldom can buy better red wines in Hungary.
Score: 4-
Price: HUF 1 300
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