Brassy beige hue. Meadow floral bouquet, fresh but rather restrained with notes of acacia and boiled parsley. Weighty palate with a creamy texture and very subtle acidity. Restrained aromas at the entry, short and a bit dull character at the finish. Yet it’s a pleasant drink, with gently composed marzipan and pistachio. It’s an overall decent effort from (my preferred?) Mátraalja winemaker.

Szecskő - Szürkebarát, 2008

Clean, pale golden yellow hue. The nose is very aromatic juicy ripe apple. Ooops, this is a semi sweet wine, and excessively so! The same aroma plus some tropical notes of babana and papaya make a decent mouthfil but there’s too much residual sugar for too little, although polished acidity. There’s a hint of walnut tartness from the midpalate but not much else. A good pairing though is with a spicy scampi pappardelle.

Score: 5-

Price: HUF 1950

Here’s a thing. I can’t think of a winery which never disappointed me once at least, but two. One of them is a so called artisan winemaker who is not supposed to over-engineer his wines, is he? Still, he seems to be able to come out with very good wines of a recognisable style I would associate more with smart use of technology. Another thing I can’t think of is a winemaker from Mátraalja who has ever pleased me with a red wine, but one. Anything in common in these two? Are you good at guessing? Can Szecskő save Mátraalja’s red wine making? Turán 2007 was an amazing effort. But he also made the first Királyleányka and a Chardonnay and Zöldveltelini cuvée I really enjoyed.

Let’s have a look at Rubintos 2007.

Medium ruby hue. Quite a restrained and light nose, little woody but then first spicy with clove and caraway seeds, later with wild strawberry. I thought I recognised Merlot and Zweigelt here.

Lovely structure, firm and grippy yet very elegant. The tannins do their job brilliantly. They make this wine crunchy, and I feel like eating a raised cake soaked with rum or indeed, punch. Complex but elegant mouthfil sometimes sweet with a minerally accent flowing into a lenghty strawberry finish. Relatively light wine.

This wine is so interesting it deserves some research and a dedicated post just for itself. I’m not capable of it of course, I’m just someone after all who has a keyboard (and a bottle) in the hands most of the time anyway allowing me to do simple things like writing few lines but man, this wine deserves some attention! Do you know at all what Rubintos grape is? Do you think I knew until now? Do you think I didn’t think it was the name of a cuvée?

Would you try to guess who are the parents of this grape? OK, try this: taste this wine (and don’t spit it for god’s sake!) and guess! Don’t google it or ask one of your geek friends. Try hard mate, harder than me, cause I’d never have guessed it. Not after drinking the whole bottle all by myself.

To answer the question in the introduction part: I have no doubt that he already has. Szecskő is Mátraalja’s best kept secret, full stop. Now it’s official.

Score: 6, 6+ (I found that the wine reaches its best within minutes after opening, starting to decline after bit more than an hour)

Price: HUF 3 300

For introduction please read this post. For a Concubina white retrospective please refer to this post written almost exactly a year ago.

I never read my previous posts before I taste a wine and neither check it’s bottle. I didn’t even remember how much I liked Concubina 2006. Still, these are two different wines so keep reading.

The review

This cuvée is medium dark golden yellow. Lovely. The nose is very charming, intense, full of warmth and liveliness, a bit perfumy, with notes of pineapple and litchi with a rosemary(!) accent mingled with a hint of very light honey. The very same character’s found on the palate, gentle, warm and soft and certainly could have more acidity. At this point I realise it’s a semi-dry wine with some well integrated residual sugar. The wine will become better and better with more and more minerality which I simply adore. First a mouthful of chalky minerality then rocky minerality, it’s the whole Cenozoic and Precambrian era happening at once. Add a velvety melted butter finish to it. Later on the nose some pistachio. Nice linear finish.

This wine’s at it’s peak or a bit over it no doubt about it. It’s a huge best buy.

Score: 6/7-

Price: HUF 2000

Up and coming talent Németh N.A.G. Attila Gábor is one of the titans who are trying to re-establish the reputation of Mátraalja as a region capable of producing excellent white wines and fine red wines. The efforts to prove the latter have not been very convincing so far but white-wise some prominents of this generation have already proved their point. Still, the region’s post-WW2 history is a heavy burden. For how long terroir wine merchants will be able to sell red wines like Karner’s at such a ridiculously high price is another question.

This Concubina has a pale hue with pale purplish reflections. On the nose forest berry fruits with hip dominance. On the palate it has layers of spices with underlying woodyness. Very raw structure. The wine lacks determination and it has badly integrated components.

Unfortunately I call this Mátraalja character. This style lacked the instantaneous appeal and it still does.

Whether Concubina white 2007 is as good as in previous years we’ll find out soon.

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 2000

Still about Vinagora 2009, I have to state it again that the red line-up this year was great with lots of varietals of many producers from mainly Hungary and most of them really good ones. I didn’t necessarily agree with the judges and their description of the wines and the selected wines below do not reflect any preference over the other, non-reviewed wines which were present in too big number to be taken into account. So this is just a list of some of the wines which were displayed in the first  section of the whole exhibited lot. Only one complaint here: almost all of these wines could have been 3-5 degrees Celsius cooler than they were to show their best. Still…

Heumann Terra Tartaro 2007 is made of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30%-30% Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Deep cherry-purplish color, the way I like it. Dense nose although very fresh with woody unripeness and tons of sour cherry syrup with blueberry notes and a hint of fine black tea and a tobacco accent. This cuvée has a fruit-packed palate with high concentration of ripe plum and sloe. Quite dense with oily, slightly harsh tannins with a hint of black-pepper and a bit too young acidity, so the texture could be better but I think it will be. Still too young, this wines scores around 6 points right now but I’m looking forward to how it’ll develop in the next 2-3 years.

The younger brother of it is Cuvée Segreto 2007 with 50% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and 10% Portugieser. This one has a warm nose of blackberry-jam. Very fruity palate of various berry fruits, more than Terra Tartaro. This may not be such a “serious” wine as it’s older brother but it certainly is in better shape right now, with appealing cherry and sour cherry aromas, better texture and a fairly weighty body. Quite a polished style, the high alcohol couldn’t ruin it. Therefore it scores 6+ points right now.

Made of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Pinot Noir, 12% Cabernet Franc and 8% Merlot Bock Cuvée 2005 sounds like an interesting blend. The wine has a brownish color. Intense earthy nose with tobacco and fortified wine notes. Very ripe plum and berry fruit jam elements mingled with earth notes and tobacco, supported by firm, but not too heavy tannic backbone.

Bock Capella Cuvée 2006 has a deep brownish tone and a beautiful move in the glass. The nose is of sweet-alcoholic chocolate character. Well balanced though, full-bodied, supported by slightly powdery tannin and rounded acidity. Scores around 7 points.

Bárdos Imperiál Cuvée 2007 has an intense fresh sloe bouquet with hints of woody-black pepper and sour cherry. Fruity palate with cherry, sour cherry and sour cherry core bitterness which suits the wine. Dense material, a bit too acidic but it’s fine. This wine stands out with its reasonable price, less than half of the others here and it’s almost as good as some of those.

Sauska 5 2006 is almost black, beautiful and elegant with an exciting move. Very intense palate, dense, perfectly balanced and packed with dark fruits, mainly plum. Fresh but ripe with very fine silky texture. A bit too alcoholic with a hint of sour-cherry core bitterness and car seat leather.

Sauska 7 2006 looks very similar in character to Sauska 5 to me with a bit more black pepper and alcohol, lot of chocolate and a slightly unripe feeling.

This serie served well to confirm how Sauska wines represent a very different approach to winemaking from the “old school” like Bock (and other more traditional Villány wineries) while Heumann is in the middle, but maybe closer to Sauska.

So as promised I’m publishing the rest of my notes from Vinagora Borgála now, I couldn’t do it earlier. These are just impressions rather than proper tasting notes anyway, but here they are: as I said, the white wines in general were a bit disappointing this year, but not all of them.

Nyakas Pinot Griggio 2008, for example, was surprisingly good with a fresh, sweet apple, ripe lemon and grapefruit aromas on the nose and on the palate. Scored at around 5-/5 points. Well balanced, medium acidic wine. I was looking forward to Szeremley Kéknyelű 2005 after our recent vertical tasting of previous vintages but it couldn’t improve the average rating. Although it has an interesting, even exciting Kéknyelű character on the nose (not very intense though) with greenish notes, it has a too acidic and too empty palate, firm, with a citrus element but it’s still one of the most overrated white wines of Hungary, it’s unique selling point is the rarity (perhaps for a reason?). Szőke Mátyás Mátrai Szürkebarát 2007 is more attractive with papaya and green walnut bouquet and more subtle acidity on the palate, scoring 5- points now. I expected more from Laposa’s Bazaltbor’s Badacsonyi Riesling 2002 but it was only good. With a citrus, passion-fruit and breadcrumb nose – I expected more minerality. On the palate oaky-vanilla mingle with hints of minerality. 5-, 5 points here. I was positively surprised by Szatmári Szigligeti Zeusz Válogatás 2006, starting with a medium-dark corn hue with nice greenish reflections. Comes with a heavy character of tea and wet hay aromas on the nose, later matte, lavage and a hint of minerality too. The palate is tea mingled with lot of salty-minerality, full and fairly weighty. Burnt almond, praline and caramel, burnt walnut notes with a salty touch. Scores 5+ points. Karádi-Berger Tokaji Furmint 2007 has the most suspicious industrial apple-juice nose ever (from a very specific company in the south of Balaton), with some litchi and a sour-sweet accent. The palate is the same apple-juice. Interesting.

Meeting winemakers is as important as it is usually misleading. Always. No exception, the only difference is that there are pleasant and not so pleasant meetings. I like to make friendship with a wine, or at least get to know it without being influenced by the vineyard, the winemaker, the weather, football results or anything else. This is important to me and for the impartial view you can encounter on this blog. It can be annoying when I’m introduced to the winemaker even before I could dive my nose into a glass and sniff the wine, for minutes, not caring about the looks I’m getting from the surrounding people. I was hiding in Terroir Club’s small tasting room the other day as much as I could but there was a guy, a young one with a very honest, straightforward look in the eye who looked so seriously interested in tasters’ opinion that he shook my hand before I could fix my eyes on the label. First impression counts so I avoided handshake with the already known winemakers in the room. I may be rude but I think these guys were doing their job and I was doing mine (even if mine’s was more pleasant than theirs). Moreover, I had to finish my job before more yuppies (I guess from Ericsson nearby) fill the room with their Calvin Klein, Armani, and D&G perfumes (fortunately I learned to close out nonsense speeches and background noises years ago when working in a cubicle stuck between our secretary, my deeply neurotic (and paranoid) boss and the passers-by). My first impression this time was deepened by an article I googled out, I won’t link the page in but it’s one one of the google hits you may find about Gábor Karner. But impressions will come after I would meet him in his vineyard, hopefully not in the very far future, there’s no need to rush, we’ll hear about the guy.

That I used to be skeptical about Mátraalja wines is an understatement. So far, Szecskő Tamás was the only beacon of hope from the region to me so I was glad to discover few minutes ago on tokestarsak.hu that Karner and Szecskő apparently were in fact soul mates. But at least sharing a passion for capital. Or vines. Or both. Heck, you should speak Hungarian to understand the irony of the word “tőkéstársak”.

The review

Kékfrankos 2007: with it’s deep, black-purplish color, this wine looks everything but a Kékfrankos from Mátraalja. Dense on the nose with stewed cherry. Very firm tannic underpinning on the palate supporting a medium bodied wine which wouldn’t need so much support at all. Less fruity than its nose with tannins sharp as a blade, leaving a long mark starting from the mid-palate.

Score: 4+/5-

Vitézföld 2007 is the heavy-weight edition of the “simple” Kékfrankos but it’s 100% the same grape. As long as the nose is concerned they could be brothers but with 75 kilos of difference. This deep purplish Kékfrankos with even darker reflections is warmer, with a sweeter nose, heavier, more alcoholic and dense, but almost velvety (still talking about the nose). Later an earth element with a woody accent and a mineral character (and something else too, quite clearly, but I don’t really dare to say it: a plastic-rubber toy kind of element). On the palate this Kékrankos is full-bodied, more syrup-like with firm, heavy but not too harsh, although a little bit unripe tannins. Long, quite seriously tannic finish. Let’s give it some time to smoother, I’m really looking froward to see how it turns out. This extremely low-yield combined with the passion of handicraft youth in this northern corner reminds me of Orsolya Pince’s early days. Way to go.

Score: 5+/6-

Well, for an hour at least, as we’ll see, part of the formula will look like this: 60%-27%-13% (the last two combined) and the “substance” is called Concubina in 2006, from the Mátraalja wine of Németh Attila Gábor.

Relatively pale golden color. The nose is pleasantly sweet and fruity, with a chalky mineral undertone and fresh citrus aromas.

On the palate this wine is crispy with fresh, robust but nice acids in huge quantity. Only when I realise the sugar content I come to conclude how acidic this wine is: it’s semi-dry but the sweetness keeps it in balance, even in spite of the medium body. It’s fruity (ripe Mediterranean fruits mainly) with a salty mineral underpinning. Later more ripe exotic fruits like date fruit. The wine matures a lot after opening starting to develop a palate of dry leaf character. The finish remains very short though. Freshness and good acid-sugar balance are the well recognizable strengths of this wine. As many Hungarian white cuvées however, the wine suffers from blowing into bits of its components only a day after opening it. Still, it’s a good wine, fairly priced from a region that started to draw my attention lately.

Score: 6-

Price: HUF 1760

This wine found me when I least expected it. There’s been a niche in the Hungarian wine offering I’d been very much looking forward to be filled and I was sure that when it was to happen Villány would have  something to do about it. But it actually came from Gyöngyöspata, from the Szecskő winery and it’s called Turán, and was made in 2007.

The review

Very deep cherry-ruby color like one I’ve never seen in a Hungarian wine before. It’s move is slow and robust but it was nothing compared to what was about to come.

The first sniff was absolutely amazing and I didn’t quite believe it. I never tasted a Turán before and I didn’t see this coming. The intensity of the nose is unbelievable and the fruitiness of it has no peer in my memory. A light salty undertone, cocktail cherry and a marzipan-cherry chocolate brownie aromas make the bouquet even more interesting. And the finest Belgian chocolate.

I was looking forward to a major disappointment after the first sip but it didn’t come.

The palate was just as intense and concentrated as the nose. Very fruity and mouthfilling, with mostly very ripe cherry building up a huge body with the most polish, elegant tannins I’ve seen for a long time. It’s very unfortunate that the wine doesn’t have enough acidity to support this huge body and concentration of extract materials and this combined with a high alcohol (15.5%) makes the wine a little bit sweet over the top. The wine was obviously made of very mature grapes resulting in this fat juice and was probably aged in large barrels. Excellent texture and the wine is well integrated which is further evidenced the next day when the fruitiness mostly disappeared but the structure’s the same. Already few hours after opening some berry fruits (mostly very ripe blackberry) and charcoal will appear on the nose and the next day the grape’s aromas and some spices will become dominant.

The wine is so heavy with a level of concentration that you cannot drink more than a glass of it at a time, it’s just too much.

This is the first time that I will not give out score for a wine not because it’s so wrong.

Many people will like it and I believe that just as many will dislike it too but no one’s going to be disappointed.You’ll find it very interesting and I’m sure that most of you will appreciate its strengths.

Score: you write it to me, if you can judge!

Price: HUF 3 200