I started the International Perspective blog entry category for orientation purposes and the most difficult thing about it is finding peer group members in the international space on reasonable ground. I have no strick rules so I thought I just would pick 2 wines (possibly of similar size on territory size parity, for Hungary being quite small) within a certain price range.

This time however I’ve chosen 2 well-known Wachau Riesling wines and tasted them against a relatively unknown Hungarian producer. To be fair, all vintages are widely considered good or outstanding.

I reviewed Szabo Zoltán’s Riesling 2006 recently. It was fresh, with intense floral and grassy nose with a hint of vanilla. On the palate citrus and peppermint, supported by robust, rustic acidity and intense aromas mostlyderiving from long lee contact. And stony minerality. The nose and the palate were in harmony in this full-bodied wine. It has wild but pleasant complexity. It also kept its quality for a day.

Few weeks later I noticed a smoky undertone, some woody accents and unripe apricot.

Score: 6+/7-

Jamek is one of the best-known Wachau winemakers. The Jamek Riesling Jochinger  2007 was brighter than Szabo’s riesling, with crab apple nose. On the palate greenish acidity supporting crab apple, grapefruit and minerality with herbal accents. Very refreshing, still round wine. The traubi-like bitterness provides pleasant freshness along with the young but already elegant acidity. The bouquet is later completed with paraffin.

It’s overall a young, fresh, dynamic wine which is pleasant to drink and has a local character.

Score: 5, 5+

I thought opening a Smaragd would be unfair. So I opened a Domane Wachau Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 2005 inadvertently. But it turned out to be good because I only noticed my mistake after a few sips and to my biggest surprise I found the followings.

Medium gressy color with greenish reflections. Rich bouquet, intense, lovely floral and fruity nose (mango, citruses, walnut), very elegant, very pleasant to sniff.

Nicely styled on the palate but shows different character, less aromas. A bit woody and bitter with long acidity. Wet grass on the palate much later with minerality. The day after the grass element is even longer and more intense. Almost full body. Good wine but slightly disappointing for HUF 4 500 (EUR 18) against Szabó Zoltán’s HUF 1 500 (EUR 6). 

Score: 6, 6+

Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is a less than 40 km-long coastline located in Liguria, south of Genova, stretching from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. It consists of five ancient fishing villages, interconnected by walking trails. It’s already too crowded so I won’t start to describe how beautiful the nature and the villages are and how friendly and symphatic its inhabitants are. 

Cinque Terre wines are practically unknown outside of the region for all the production is consumed locally. And instantly – hence there are virtually no vintage wines on the shelfs. Amongst visitors, the wines are extremely looked after – something to be thought about by Magyar Turizmus ZRt and mostly, the wine marketing gurus in Hungary. 

The vinyards are localed by the seaside but typically few dozen meters above sea level on steep rocky hills. When hiking the breathtaking trails I couldn’t stop thinking about the effort the peasants put into building the terraces that cover the best slops of the hills. Olive trees and grape are everywhere, mostly in places where the nearest road or port is 10 kms away far beyond the steep hillsides and deep valleys. No wonder they invented a kind of railway which runs 1,5 meters above ground and can carry 1 person or few dozen kilograms of freshly harvested grapes at a time – uphill. 

Grape varieties tinclude Albarola, Bosco and Vermentino. The first two are of unknown origin, while the third, Vermentino, was introduced into the area fairly recently. 

DOC wineries include Cooperative Agricoltura di Riomaggiore – Manarola – Corniglia – Vernazza – Monterosso and minor wineries. The flagship wines are sweet white wines, but dry white wines sell more: mostly in small local stores and restaurants, always, always served at about 5 degrees celsius – at least during the hot summers. 

Entry level dry wines start around EUR 6 (retails store price) and dessert wines are priced more often than not above EUR 30 a small bottle. Interestingly, restaurants apply significantly smaller uplift than Hungarian restaurants. 

Furmint vs Vendemmia

I’ve covered the Dereszla Furmint Szegi 2006 yesterday. The day after and on the second day the wine showed minor degradation only, with marzipan perfum becoming dominant (both the nose and on the palate). Quite interesting. 

The Cinque Terre Vendemmia 2007 has a deeper, more corn-like, friendly color. The nose is fresh grass and acidity and more and more apple and Traubi (for those who didn’t live in Hungary in the 80s, Traubi is a popular soda from the socialist era made of grape – or at least they told us so). There’s no better word to describe this slightly sparking, apple-like sensation. I can sense the notes of large old barrel, but it’s not disturbing, rather it grants the wine a rustic accent. Low acidity and low sugar level. Full-bodied wine with minerality. The nose later becomes gooseberry and continental fruits and mediterranean fresh spices. 

I would say that the Furmint is trying to be more serious whilst the Vendemmia is full of fun.  Both are good wines, and Vendemmia wins by price. 

Score: 5+, 6-

Price: EUR 8,5

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I’m convinced that most Hungarians, laymen and professionals alike, tend to overrate Hungarian wines (especially the reds) sometimes to the point where even faults are considered local character. Although vast majority of my readers come from abroad who probably do not have such preconcepts, I decided to launch a series of blind tests comparing Hungarian wines of all price ranges with their counterparts in Central Europe, Europe and the new world. I’ll call this column International Perspective.

The intention is twofolds: first is very ambitious and certainly will generate some discussion and anger, and it is to try to define the value of well known and relatively unknown Hungarian wines. Secondly, through these comparisons we might be able to discover the terroir, the Hungarian character (if there is such a thing like Hungarian character).

Dereszla

Dereszla is a relatively small French winery in Tokaj, home of sweet dessert wines and emerging white wines mostly made of Furmint and Hárslevelű. Sauvingon Blanc is not an authorised Tokaj variety hence you’ll find „Zempléni” region on the label and no Tokaj.

Halewood

Halewood is a major producer and distributor of wine and alcoholic beverages in Britain.

The Group manages over 400 hectares of vines in three major wine areas of Romania: Dealu Mare, Podisul Transilvaniei and Murfatlar.

Whilst Halewood has an informative, though not very ergonomic website, Dereszla has nothing of their own on the web.

Some official information about the wine from the Halewood website:

2006 started with a late spring after a long and freezing winter with temperatures reaching -26°C. The average temperature of the year was 25°C, this having a positive effect on the shoots growth (up to 12 cm/day). Due to the high temperatures during the summer the ripening of the berries took place earlier and the picking of the grapes began according to the fully maturation of each variety.

In the second half of September, at harvest time, there took place a careful selection of the grapes coming from Dobrogea Plateau. A controlled fermentation was undergone at the temperature of 12-14°C, for about 8-10 days with selected yeasts. Alcohol volume 12.5%.

The test – Sauvignon Blanc, Halewood, Prahova valley 2006 vs Chateau Dereszla Zempléni Sauvignon Blanc 2007.

Since it was a hot summer day both wines were cooled to appr. 7-8 Celsius degrees but this turned out to be good temperature for both wines.

The first wine had bright straw color and fresh fruity nose later with a little bit of cinnamon and lemon skin. Well-structured wine with a little bit of sweetness (it’s still a dry wine) with a little bit of wet hay undertone, but not disturbingly. Overall a lovable, soft, light wine without major faults and without a special character, but very refreshing.

Score: 5+

The second wine had very bright color, very intense perfumy nose and although I’ve never tasted it before, I immediately recogninsed the Dereszla character (it’s ont that I’m such a master, it’s really that obvious). Diffrerent trees in bloom but mostly elderberry which also dominates in its taste. Very fresh, almost crispy but with a little bit of extra sweetness which is supported by round acidity so it’s rather soft. At higher temperature both wines were a little bit overly sweet to my taste but at around 10 degrees celsius, it’s a delicious, very lovable, festive wine.

Score: 6

To me the Dereszla Sauvignon Blanc had more character and was lacking the hay undertone, but the Halewood Sauvignon Blanc from Prahova Valley is also a very good value for money. To be honest, if the Halewood was one year younger, maybe the difference would not have been that significant.

Price: EUR 7

The winner of the label contest is the Halewood to me.