Szecskő – Szürkebarát, 2008
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
Wine of the month
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
Pick of the month
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
