Organic wines vol. 1.

I love good food, I have a passion for fruit and vegetable markets everywhere from France to Italy, now I even have my own tiny little spice production which will hopefully turn organic next year. Still I find buying organic products in Hungary an unpleasant experience. Why? The organic food and beverage movement has a very different lifecycle and in fact meaning in Hungary than elsewhere. The organic scene is more like a sect and products always (and I mean always) come in a bundle with some esoterism. Hungarian regular markets are already very different from their Western-European peers. But organic producers make it one step further: they make me feel uncomfortable. Wines are a bit of an exception, the methods used are not over-emphasized and they’re not (exclusively) sold in specialized markets.

Moreover, “fortunately” in winemaking the current buzzword in Hungary is artisan winemaking (and has been for some years now), making organic wine making sound just a foolish exotic hobby of marginal importance. Even worse, bio-dynamic sounds like a tropical disease or a disinfectant to the average consumer.

The Pfneiszl Kékfrankos 2009 is clean mid-pale purplish with a strange bouquet of petroleum. On the palate it’s very fresh like a Beaujolais with pleasant soft acidity and restrained tannins. Fresh, yet ripe fruity character with notes of sour cherry and wild berry fruits with a chocolate accent later. Well balanced wine and this is very important to me in this segment.

Score: 4 points

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