This is a pale brassy-burgundy colored rosé with a light nose of lavender and plum. On the palate crisp unripe plum acidity and notes of peach. Very refreshing, simple rosé.

Really pale, clean, watery lemon yellow in appearance. This wine has a complex and fairly intense nose of citrus, grapefruit and celery with a perfumed acacia accent. Fresh and crisp. The palate has a clean and fresh character with crisp and sharp lemon flavored acidity from the mid-palate, flowing into a long finish over a layer of various fruits.

Fairly priced.

This is the flagship wine of Pannonhalmi Apátsági Pincészet and although I wasn’t very impressed with the 2007, I’ve been having good experiences with their wines from 2008 lately so selling me this wine was very easy.

Pinot Noir is on that extreme of the wine spectrum I learned to like over many years. I finally got there with Gál Tibor’s Pinot Noir 2002 and if that’s the benchmark the wine who’d take the Hungarian Pinot Noir to the next level is still to come my way.

Pannonhalmi Apátsági Pincészet – Pinot Noir, 2008

Clean, brigh pale cherry hue. Very restrained and light but fairly complex nose with a mix of spices, a drop of creamy fruit and a floral accent.

Fresh and ultra-light style on the palate too but without the acidity of all other Pannonhalmi wines I’ve tasted from this vintage. Very thin layer of spicy fruit over the underlying thin layer of bitter tannins flowing into a decent clove-flavoured finish.13.5% alcohol feels too much here.

Good wine but I’d like more definition to it and I really think they should rethink the pricing and the use of new oak barrels.

So how was it then?

Around this time of 2008 expectations about this vintage ranged from good to outstanding in every region although some remarked that a rainy October could leave this vintage short of excellence of, say, 2006. I’m not saying that the same irrational exuberance took over the Hungarian winemaking as it did in Bordeaux but Hungarian winemakers undoubtadly tend to be more optimistic in their expectations lately. Let’s find out how it all turned out on the east bank of the Danube.

Levendula Pincészet – Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008

The winemaking philosophy of Levendula is very different from the well-known Cabernet producers from the south and that’s clearly reflected in this wine. Also Levendula Cabernet Sauvignon is not a typical Cabernet as it lacks many of the “standard” features one would expect from varietal. After the “classic” Cabenet 2007 the 2008 has less chocolate but has more fruits starting from a vibrant, sharp and clean black-currant bouquet with a chocolate-woody-black peppered undertone to a stream of ripe cherry on the palate. Further on boiled apple and pear supported by powdery tannin and harsh acidity. A little bit rustic compared to the other wines to come but it’s the most fruity of the three.

Pannonhalmi Apátsági – Tricollis, 2008

This is a blend of Merlot (40%), Pinot Noir (40%) and Cabernet Franc (20%) but it could easily be sold as a Pinot Noir. It’s rather pale cherry-pinkish and has a very restrained nose of clove flavoured boiled apple with a vanilla accent. On the palate silky texture with very subtle acidity. A light entry turns into a gently fading length with beige caramel from the mid-palate. 13.5% alcohol feels a bit over the top for such a thin wine.

Bock – Ermitage, 2008

This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Fanc, Merlot, Syrah, Kékfrankos, Portugieser and Pinot Noir could be called Bikavér for it mixes these varietals in a way one wouldn’t suspect all these varietals were actually in it. It’s clearly Cabernet Sauvignon-based though with Merlot and Franc being also apparent. Altough having been aged for 14 months in large barrels and used small ones, with it’s dark brownish hue this looks more like an old-school Villányi Bordeaux cuvée rather than an experimental blend. Dense and highly concentrated material. Delightfully structured wine whose perfectly ripe (and a bit sweet), tasty tannins are a robust yet very fine underpinning that doesn’t require any airing to show its best. Perfectly linear flow from the entry to a rather short finish. Acidity could be fine-tuned here but tannin is the most prominent component of this wine and you can forget the rest. Altough being one dimensional and hence soon predictable, it’s worth to buy it just for the sake of tannin alone. A rare example of very smart use of oak.

All three wines are fairly priced. Tricollis and Levendula’s Cabernet are of the same league although very differrent in style, while Ermitage is different from both and more expensive but very reasonably priced at around EUR10.

After two shorter than expected meetings in Bratislava and Vienna the other day already on the Hungarian highway I noticed the bright white Pannonhalmi Abbey on the hills and before I knew it I turned the wheel to pay a short visit to the Winery of the Year. I returned to Budapest full or surprises and excited to open what I thought would be another good interpretation of my favorite white varietal.

Unlike Somlói Apátsági Pince, Pannonhalmi Apátsági still belongs to the Abbey, one of the firsts and one of the lasts still functioning in the country. Huge sums spent on the Abbey are apparent everywhere, from the facelift on the walls to the caves of the cellar, everything invoques the golden days of free peasant labour and the tithes.

Today the abbey’s business model is different. First of all the abbey folks were surprisinlgy friendly (or frightened) considering I was a gate crasher who broke into their office without an agreed appointment at the end of the working day. Whatever their reason they seemed keen to show me around the cellar, starting with the new oaks (they buy lots of them) of the red wine wing. Everything underground is spacious and clean (except the area of one of the steel tanks which was leaking giving away hectos of Pinot Noir per minute). I was so glad to be able to discuss the soil differences between Mosel and Pannonhalma instead of listening to the usual bullshit of winemakers that I forgot to spit after every sample but I didn’t mind.

Two things you should know about the wine. One is that Pannonhalmi Apátsági Pince embraced screw caps very early and have been using it for almost all of their wines and not just reductive ones. Other is that Rajnai reasling is also used to make a barrel selection for double the price and without some qualities the simple Rajani has. I found it way too oaky after 6 months in the new barrel. So below is the tasting notes of the naked Rajnai Rizling.

Pale lemon yellow with platinum reflections and tiny bubbles. The nose is delightfully crisp and acidic with hints of apple coming through. Indeed on the palate it’s sharp and crisp with a very exciting acidity, brilliantly accentuated around the mid-palate. What impresses most is that this excessive vibrant acidity within this small-bodied wine feels just right. The wine’s made more approachable by notes of apple and a chalky saltiness and I also like the minerally texture of it. It has an instant appeal that won’t change even when it gets warmer or more chilled.

Very good, obviously a bit one-dimensional wine but a must have piece. This wine was left in contact with the lee for three months and that’s fine but I’d be interested in what it would be like if left for a few weeks more.

The news is everywhere. Cool.

First I couldn’t think of anything in what Pannonhalmi Apátsági Pincészet could possibly excel but their inclination to hypocrisy. I still can’t. So I turned to Google who doesn’t seem to know anything either, so either this is really the beginning of the end of Google or, as I’m now inclined to believe, the Hungarian Wine Cellar of the Year award is just another example of mushroom management practice (keep them in the dark and feed them with rubbish) by wine PR geniuses. Madness doesn’t stop there. Guess who are the folks behind this obscure prize?

The mission statement of one of the organisations responsibles for the award is this:

“It is one of the major assignments of the organisation to guarantee the protection of origin. Therefore it regulates and controls planting as far as location, variety and other specific regulations are concerned. Through preparing and controlling the implementation of rules for the wine communities, it regulates those factors of grape and wine production and partly even of trade, which have major importance and largest impact on the quality. It is the head of the wine community that issues the certificate of origin for each quantity of grape produced, which is the basis in the control of the origin of the wine.

Producers have to declare their production and stock to the wine communities, which process the data electronically.

Another important field of the wine communities’ activity is the formation of the image, or, where it is already established, its protection.

The National Council of Wine Communities acts as a product council, i.e. it is consulted by the government when questions of legislation or market measures or other issues concerning the wine sector are discussed.”

The justification of the award goes something like this:

“… the winery which achieved the utmost publicity for the Hungarian wine, wine culture and highbrowed wine consumption in a given year…”

D’you know what I mean? It’s like the BSA voting for the “software  company of the year award” based on the arguments above (or based on whatever criteria, for that matter). Or like Customs officers electing the best transportation firm of the year, awarding the company who did the utmost to publicise transportation.

Good job boys! Well done! Keep up the good work!

According to Pannonhami Apátsági Pincészet’s website the winery broke a 5 years old tradition by replacing Tramini with Sauvignon Blanc in this blend, arguably due to Tramin’s dramatic dicrease in wine quantity. It must be my fault then that a spicy, overly disturbing element (a quite Tramini-ish one) dominates this wine’s palate, as opposed to what is said on the official website, emphasizing a Rajnai Rizling and Olaszrizling character. The wine’s overly acidic too. Very boring wine, not exactly faulty but with nothing to be liked about it. Except the nice packaging.

The wine probably goes relatively well with a heavily spiced chicken from the grill (rosemary, for instance).

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 1000

I now feel more comfortable buying Hungarian Pinot Noir, especially after the positive surprise of Gál Tibor’s from 2002, tasted recently.

This one’s a pigeon blood ruby Pinot from Pannonhalma. It has a creamy cherry compote nose with hints of raspberry.

Nicely composed palate, showing velvety tannins, elegantly styled, suppported by just enough, very subtle acidity. I miss fruitiness however, no extracts here. And it’s not exactly sweet but it feels like a dessert, yet, it’s empty. I’m not sure you think I now what I’m talking about. Very light, drinks fast. Later some oriental spices emerge. At some point the otherwise short length tastes hubba-bubba (candy), or tutti-frutti, later punch.

This wine doesn’t score high and it’s relatively expensive but it was a very pleasant one to drink.

Score: 5+

Price: HUF 3 500

What a modest title. I came up with it in only 1 minute of thinking. In my defense: it’s search-engine friendly and it’s true, from my perspective. Anyway, here’s the almost complete list of tasted wines and their score from 2008.

One remark, except the festival notes, all reviews were written based on at least 1/2 bottle of wine tasted by me alone over several hours, at least once over this period. Even wines presented in quick notes. Any occasional exception was mentioned in the given post, but they were maximum 2 or 3, if any.

Tasting Scores 2008

Wine Festival

Tasting Scores

Pale, bright color and lively move. Nice apple pie nose with cinnamon and some minerality. 

On the palate surprisingly sour acidity burns the tongue. Small body, short finish. Brutally harsh acids with some unripe apple undertone. 

Very imbalanced, not an expressing wine but quite refreshing. Not very convincing, only slightly better than Leo’s. 

Score: 4 points

Price: HUF 1980 (EUR8)