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
Tags: Balaton, Bezerics-Németh, Chardonnay, white
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
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