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-