Domaine Gróf Zichy Merlot 2006
Domaine Gróf Zichy is one of two premium brands of Twickel Wine Estate of Szekszárd.
The base material of the wines consists of grapes grown on the best located vineyards and the low harvested quantity per hectare is coupled with intensive grape selection and delicate grape processing.
Still according to the winery’s website, wines are matured for a long time, using the highest quality wood and barrique barrels.
The wood barrel maturing of the wines lasts at least 12 months and maturing takes place in the best quality wood and barrique barrels. Maturing in the wood barrels is followed by an equally long period of bottled maturing period.
The review
Medium-deep purplish Merlot with a rich blackberry nose mingled with plum and high-toasted barrel notes. Appealing palate of young and fresh acidity with just a hint of bitterness which leads to a short finish. There’s substance here with blackberry and plum mainly, relatively well integrated into a medium body. Nicely textured with soft but not too ripe tannins. Good balance with just a tiny alcohol at the end. Not a complex wine but a pleasant drink. And this wine will age well for another 2-3 years, so this is a potentially 6 points wine.
Score: 5, 5+
Price: HUF 2 300 – 2 700
Categories: 5 points, Szekszárd, Twickel - Gróf Zichy, Wine reviews
Tags: 2006, Fair price, Gróf Zichy, Merlot, red, Szekszárd
Comments: 2 Comments.
I admire your devotion to Hungarian wine on this site, which very helpfully is in English. I keep checking in to find wines I may not have heard of. The Twickel wines, in my view, are very under-rated and rarely mentioned in the industry so I am glad you had a pretty good experience with one. (I happened upon a Chateau Kajmad Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 a couple of years ago and became an instant convert). The QPR of Twickel wines is excellent in my view.
(I’d love to work out your scoring system, but can never access the explanation on the site!)
I’m glad that you find the blog useful and I’m always happy to read the opinion of people from around the world about the wines I tasted or have a good recommendation from them. I take your hint and I’ll try more wines from Twickel as soon as I can put my hands on one. (The last time I tasted the Chateau Kajmád CS was in Babel Delicate Bistro roughly a year ago along with an Áldás Cuvée from Szt. Andrea and I liked more the latter. But prior to that I also found QPR of Chateau Kajmád quite good.)
I hope this page helps you with the scoring system: http://budapestdailyreview.com/wineguide/rating-system/
The system had been criticised (misunderstood, actually) before so I’ll have to work on the description a little bit to make it more straightforward. Just one comment in advance: my scores do not reflect the aging potential of wines. I don’t feel confident about my abilities to judge this so I exclude this factor from the formula: I judge wines as they are, unless there’s very clear potential in their evolution and I feel that the wine deserves higher score than what it shows right then. So this Merlot seems a little bit overpriced to drink now but I believe that restocking it right now will pay off within a year or two.
