It’s been a while since I wrote an entry here. It’s due to many factors, one of them being that I felt blogging’s become suddenly a bit old-fashioned when masses begun sharing information with each other through social network sites and individual blogs seemed to have lost their appeal to other tools too, like Twitter. Leaving other factors behind (laziness standing out in particular) for now, I’m not sure if this is going to be a last post or others will follow. This one is not even inspired by a particular wine, I’m simply in the mood of writing a post about one or maybe several of the wines I liked this summer. So here’s one, if not exactly off the top of my head, but a more or less random one of those wines I took note of lately.

Heimann – Syrah (2008)

Rather darkish carbon-paper blue with a matt purplish rim. Forest soil and tobacco-like notes mingle on the nose. On the palate it’s soft and dense with velvety tannins which flow into a fairly long finish, carrying tasty notes of sour cherry but without the annoying bitterness. Nice curve in the mouth. After some exposure to air, the wine develops a fairly rich but not too intense bouquet of toasted bread and perfectly ripe dark berry fruits. As the wine’s character becomes more jammy, it displays ripe and sweet forest berry aromas. Smooth, well balanced dense wine without becoming too weighty.

Very good to drink and easy to like, this wine’s well worth HUF 3 300.

See other good value Heimann wines here.

Lively medium-deep ruby.

The nose is packed with ripe forest fruits, leveraging notes of jammy black-currant and mulberry. Quite fleshy bouquet with hints of oaky spices. Medium-bodied, well-balanced wine with gentle acidity and a young tannic backbone, which mixtures with alcohol (lots of it) resulting in a not too well defined texture. Leather notes in a rather short finish.

Like most Heimann wines, this is a fairly priced piece of Szekszárd.

This is a wine from my preferred range: I don’t feel comfortable buying cheaper red wines (HUF 3300) but I can’t afford spending more on wine every time I feel like having a good red one (which is more often than I like to admit). So this better be good.

Heimann – Birtokbor, 2007

A blend of 50% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot and 15% Kékfrankos this wine has seen 18 months in used oak barrels.

Clean and vibrant medium ruby hue. The nose is a touch reduced showing sweet fruity with traces of wood. This wine smells of gage and plum with strawberry added to the fruit profile.

Elegantly styled palate with smooth acidity and finely composed structure with well handled, yet well defined tannins. Faded notes of clove and other spices also imply smart use of oak. Light but well balanced palate although some might find the 14.5% alcohol sweetness over the top. Open and accessible wine with a good length, but rather restrained in terms of aromas. Lovely texture.

As I’m always happy to meet a new winery I can’t be too negative this time, could I? Plus, Merfelsz seem to be lovable folk: small estate (12ha), charmingly useless website, family tradition, Szekszárd roots, what’s not to liket? Nectar Sexardique is the flagship cuvée of the winery I suppose (for there is a whole empty page dedicated to it in the main menu of the winery’s website) and if you couldn’t make a decent wine in 2008 in Szekszárd then perhaps you’re in the wrong industry. Let’s see if they are.

Merfelsz – Doppio, Nectar Sexardique, 2008

According to the label on the bottle (there’s more useful information on it than anywhere else on the web combined about the wine) this is a kind of late harvest wine, which explains the alcohol (14.5%, might be too much for you, but not for me). This wine has seen 14 months in oak, unfiltered. So far it sounds like this wine mas made for me.

The nose is fresh and fruity with wild berries. Similar palate with mulberry and black-currant and tasty sour cherry bitterness. There’s no finesse here or elegance especially as long as the tannin’s concerned, at least partly due to some harsh acidity at the finish. After decanting and leaving it for a while it’ll be more evolved structurally as well as taste-wise, developing fine dark chocolate aromas.

Still much to learn, Merfelsz, and perhaps it would be wise to reconsider the pricing as well.

Red wines under HUF2000 is a dangerous territory, but also an inevitable one. Here’s two of it, one is a finding from Budapest’s  misterious stock (50% off from retail price) of Orbán square’s grocery store and the other one, well, I have no idea. I used to drink Takler wines a lot. I don’t miss those times, and I knew this before I opened the bottle. With Tóth István, you never know.

Takler – Merlot, 2008

Lively medium-deep cherry hue, just lovely. Fresh fruity bouquet with mulberry and black-currant. On the palate fresh but too thin and tannic with hints of sloe and black-currant with an appalling bitter undertone.

Tóth István – Merlot, 2004

Blurred ruby with a brownish rim. Lovely nose with, again, black-currant and mulberry, intense and jammy, later with a cigarette smoke accent. Feels much younger than it is with it’s harsh acidity. It’s loosiness won’t get any better after 80 minutes in spite of some tasty strawberry jam coming through.

Both wines had attractive bouquet but both missed the target on the palate, the Takler by miles and the Tóth István only just. I paid HUF 900 for it so i didn’t mind.