For a long time I didn’t realise that Gróf Buttler had wine under HUF 5 000. With a price tag well under 3 000 this Cabernet Sauvignon looked suspicious. Hungarian red wines under 3 500 are a scary business.
Dark core and purplish reflection. GB wines usually have charming, warm nose, slightly restrained first – well this one wasn’t different so my suspicion started to disappear. With notes os savory and other spices the nose is quite appealing. And with minth, herbal and camomile notes later on it’s even surprising. Remains slightly restrained though.
Very hard structure on the palate with a ripe tannic underpinning. The texture is the usual dense syrup.
After being uncorked for 24 hours the tannins smoothen and the wine’s even more tasty with an even friendlier character. It didn’t lose any of it’s charm in the same time.
I recommend this wine for everyday drinking, it’s good value for the money and it’s almost unique in this price range.
I wasn’t exactly a Hárslevelű fan until I met this one here, although it was a late harvest version. I’ve been looking forward to Somlói Apátsági Hárslevelű since I first met this small winery from south-eastern Somló in March at the Somló Tavasz wine event at Festetics Kastély. I was impressed by the mineral, fruity and mouthfilling character of their Olaszrizling, Furmint and Hilla cuvée. That seemed like a very promising start from this experimental and apparently patient winery, established already in 2002 but coming out with their first commercially available sortiment only recently. In March, it looked like they found if not their own style but a path that would potentially lead them to being establishing amongt the most sought after wineries of Somló.
The review
Rather dark golden yellow hue with brownish-brassy reflections. The nose is very intense tea (sweet lemon flavored ice tea actually of a very particular producer) with a heavy mineral undertone and a hint of tobacco, later nutmeg. This set of aromas is translated well on to the palate supported by lot of acidity. The wine has some residual sugar (it’s semi sweet) but with this lot of lemon-grapefruit acidity it feels well balanced, with it’s high concentration of substance including notes of stewed apricot and unripe plum(!). The wine shows some signs of oxidation, intentionally or not (the wine was aged in oak barrels for almost a year). Good length with a slightly appalling tart accent.
This wine clearly has the potential but in 2008 it misses the target, although it shows some very important features of a great wine.
Score: 5 points
Price: HUF 2 500
This Hárslevelű has a very heavy character and I couldn’t drink more than two galsses. It reminded me in character of a Furmint(!) I had earlier this year. I was planning to buy some Árvay wines at the end of the summer then they were aggressively discounted, with 50% off at one of my usual sources. Then I got a call from a friend that a major retailer had the Furmint on sale well under HUF 1 000 and I think he bought the whole lot. Anyway, the notes of the wine have never been published (I do that sometimes, out of lazyness I guess). But that wine had a very similar, heavy, mouthfilling, acidic, mineral character with a tart finish, very much like this Hárslevelű.
Although beside the best-known Tokaj Aszú wines there are also decent late harvest wines, ice wines and even so called winter harvest wines (which were harvested late, during the winter actually but not entirely fulfilling the late harvest nor the ice wine criteria) their number and acceptance is still relatively low and mostly limited to smaller quantities in the Tokaj region. It’s a pitty because they’re often more affordable alternatives to the Aszú wines and I believe that a dessert wine is just as good (or often much better) as a nice cake or ice-cream to end a meal. Moreover, most late harvest wines are much better than a 3-Puttonyos Aszú from the same price range, especially compared to those marketed aggressively in most supermarkets this season of the year.
I hate it when people stand up aggressively for their belief concerning wine, I actually don’t like to talk about wine with people at all but when I occasionally do I tend to fight the preconception of sweet wines must be necessarily rubbish or made for girls (as it’s seen by many in a wine-culturally underdeveloped country like ours).
Some (of the best) wineries don’t make Aszú wines at all in years when the circumstances aren’t ideal and it’s a great buy opportunity since they’re clearing their stock from last year’s late harvest wines to make room for the even larger quantity of the given year. This is how I paid around EUR3 for this Dessewffy Furmint-Hárslevelű late harvest 2005.
Pale yellow with greenish reflections. The nose is frst full of apple compote and notes of ripe tropical fruits but later becomes almost entirely dominated by pineapple. The same aromas carry on through to the palate where they’re supported by abundant, lively acidity which is accentuated at the finish granting very good length to the wine. It’s fresh, relatively light with pineapple-citrus dominance and hints of apple compote and melon and a medicine undertone. You completely forget it’s made of Furmint and Hárslevelű. It’s just a bowl of fruit salade.
Instead of writing about wines I’ve been drinking over the past days (Hungarian food doesn’t go too well with wines and the holiday season is an endless feast in this country apparently) I decided to post a picture I shot yesteday of the lake Balaton’s northern coastline, the Balatonfüred area to be more precise (from where these wines come from).
The temperature suddenly changed from minus 15 Celsius to close to 20 above zero in two days in this area which enabled the formation of foggy cloud spreading up to few meters above sea level. I think it’s a stunning view (but I love fog anyway). The lake that reflects precious morning sunshine right to the vineyards of the hills nearby (and is at least partly responsible for the region’s micro-climate) is still frozen keeping the water still and cristal clear.
Sauska wines are very predictable so you know exactly when you need to drink them, therefore it’s most unlikely that you’ll find a negative review of them on these pages. It’s such a cliché to say they are filling a huge gap in Hungarian winemaking, quite belatedly I must say, but I’m such a cliché myslef especially around Xmas time.
This is a blend of 53% syrah, 26% cabernet franc, 20% cabernet sauvignon. Whatever. Sauska are capable of reengineering any kind of grape to suite their product portfolio. Well this one came out as a dense, overly ripe plum jam on the nose mingled with tamarind paste hence a spicy accent. Later sour cherry compote too. On the palate fresh, lively yet ripe character with plum again flowing into a syrup-based long finish, supported by well polished tannins and acidity. This results in a pleasant texture with well-integrated components.
Ikon is a joint venture of some members of the Hungarian wine community including János winemakeroftheyear2008 Konyári, now with an area of 39 hectares in the southern Balaton region.
The review
Bright golder yellow hue. The nose is primarily Chardonnay, light, lovely, warm, with hints of vanilla (not oaky) and herbs.
A surprsingly mouthfilling wine but in a very oily way with a rather sweet appeal. Soft, silky texture. Light aromas of ripe apple and wild pear and hints of melon without remarkable depth. Very subtle acidity for a relatively fat wine. But that glycerin will feel more integrated after only a few minutes already.
This wine’s very much unlinke the 2007 as described on the winery’s website. But it’s very enjoyable.
I was about to write some notes about Ikon’s Chardonnay 2008 right now (you’ll read about it soon) whilst browsing the internet when I just came across a news saying that Tiffán Zsolt (a runner-up in the Orbán Viktor lookalike contest, representing the politician in an elderly edition, at least on this picture) has become the official candidate of Fidesz (once an at least verbally almost democratic party) during next year’s general elections. Apparently chosen against the wish of the local party members, Tiffán arguably wont he heart of the decision makers by having been a reliable supporter of the party for a long time (a regular supplier of the party’s events too, according to the report). The guy got 52 votes against 117 of his opponent. Fuck me! These guys cannot even pretend to be democratic not even within their own circles!
I’d been drinking tons of Gere Attila wines until his picture appeared on Budapest’s streets during the elections 8 years ago on huge outdoor advertisements, as part of the much criticised Széchenyi program campaign (an obscure state program giving certain “entrepreneurs” funding for their investments, quite in an unfair way if you ask me). I still drink Gere wines but much less than I used to. Szeremley, Rokaj Kereskedőház and a couple of others are on the boycote list as well. What’s next boys? Providing supply for the Magyar Gárda (a pro-nazi, far-right paramilitary organisation, having the silent approval of a signigicant stake of Hungarian citizens)? Producing grappa to be used as Molotov cocktail against the jewish-communist regime? Printing Hungarian vintage nazi pictures on wine bottles as the ones seen in Italy (with Mussolini’s picture on it)? Shall we, more tolerant people, hang ourselves as suggested by Kövér László a few years ago?
I’m confused, help me out!
Or am I? In a country where the word “gypsy” is most used as a verb by most citizens for “cheating”, “stealing”, committing an aggressive act, or better, all these at once!
You think I’m kidding?
I took the pictures below last weekend, on a demonstration organised by the Hungarian far right (Jobbik, Fidesz, call them what you will). Look at these guys and get used to them. They’re going to win next year’s election.
And Tiffán still can be a Minister of Agriculture.
I was contacted recently by someone not entirely unfamiliar with Hungarian wines asking about the Hungarian Syrahs and I had to admit that I found most efforts in this direction pretty forgottable, at least until I stopped sampling Hungarian Syrahs a few years ago. The only exceptions were the Syrahs of Gróf Buttler, which, vintage from vintage, convinced me about some potential.
This Syrah 2007 of Heimann family winery is less expensive. This is our first encounter.
Purplish hue with a pink rim.
Dark character on the nose, with veal steak, well done, mingled with caramel.
What first hit me concerning it’s very well composed palate was the great texture. Powdery, soft and ripe tannins which further smoothen into a long, straight finish accompanied by a berry fruit syrup element and a tobacco accent. Not very expressive wine fruit-wise. But from the mid palate fine dark chocolate flows into the eternity. And underneath it lies a great structure with firm, perfectly integrated acidity. Very solid chracter, structured style with probably the best tannin I’ve had this year.
