There was a time when I thought that Szent Gaál was about to become the next big thing but it never happened. Is it because they’re present in hypermarkets all over the place (so no way wine snobs will ever write anything good about them), or they didn’t improve much while others made a good progress I’m not sure, but maybe because of both.

Dark ruby just the way it should be. Lovely sour cherry marmalade nose mingled with ripe mulberry and a hint of dark chocolate. Very edgy tannins on the palate, quite hard and a tiny bit tart too. Very nice, long finish with dark chocolate.

One thing is certain: Szent Gaál may not have produced their great wine yet (it’s certainly not this one) but they never produced shamelessly bad wine either, unlike some big names form this region or further to the south-west.

Score: 4+ (now I would give it 5-)

Price: HUF 3 700

A few years ago, don’t remember exactly when, I’d been browsing the internet for Hungarian country accommodation in a castle or as they’re called in Hungarian, “Kúria” which is a small castle in the country usually dating back to the 19th century or before. There aren’t too many I must say and my search was narrowed to exclude otherwise very trendy wellness hotels which I never felt attracted to. I found a recently refurbished nice, one storey Kastély near Szekszárd, which turned out to be in the middle of nowhere on the smaller hills west from Szekszárd. Based on their website and the pictures of the rooms, I expected a snobbish, overly touristic Kastély with posh guests and arrogant service staff. I couldn’t be more wrong: the house was ran by a friendly late middle aged couple, the service was very polite and friendly and apart from a group of retired people we were the only guests of the Kastélyszálló. The rooms are decorated in 18th and 19th century baroque style with nice replica furniture. The atmosphere is quite antique and the only problem was the thin doors and noisy corridors, hence lack of privacy. In the sunny October the Szekszárd hills were covered in all kinds of color and the whole area was extremely quiet. The staff was very nice, polite and helping but not pushy at all. They just hired a new winemaker who appeared in the middle of our wine tasting in the cellar around 11 pm but he was too busy working with the fresh material to join us for a conversation. It was quite convincing seeing him doing all the labor intensive work himself in the middle of the night. They just came up with a new sortiment, including the price prestige series which I liked very much, although I found them too pricey at that time.

So you might wonder why there isn’t any post entry on this blog about Szent Gaál wines. The only explanation I can think of seems quite stupid, that is because I didn’t want to destroy the very good memories with a corked wine or a faultless, but weaker wine I may have encountered. I was still a little bit concerned about it but I couldn’t resist the 50% off from the Cabernet Sauvignon Válogatás (Selection) 2006 (which itself further increased my concern). But 2006 couldn’t be wrong for Cabernet Sauvingon, I thought, it was a long, hot season so the CS grapes must have been mature enough to produce a great wine just like the ones I remembered.

The review

This Cabernet Sauvignon is deep purple with an almost black core. Very dense on the nose. The wine swirls beautifully in my  Bordeaux sized glass, releasing high concentration of berry fruit aromas, blackberry, sour cherry, chocolate and mostly dried plum elements with a hint of clove. And a little bit too much alcohol I must say.

The palate also has a dense, fruity character with an oaky accent. Full-bodied and well-balanced, although a bit alcoholic to some people. Very appealing texture with polished, powdery tannins which, unfortunately, will be too oily after 60-90 minutes. There’s a hint of nice, sour cherry core-like bitterness in the not so long finish. This wine’s in a good shape right now but it won’t age very well for too long.

Score: 6-

Price: HUF 3 400

This wine is fairly priced, just a bit above what I would feel really fair. But if we can believe what Szent Gaál are saying on their website, further price reduction can be underway. 

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

It’s a misterious fact that even popular restaurants tend to have an awful wine list, either in-house selection or made for them by their wine supplier. Someone could explain me the 2006 Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvignon on the list in early 2008? People, taste it, or ask someone, outsource your choice!

Anyway, I believe that my dinner yesterday in Kiskakukk restaurant may require some explanation as well. Being a typical tourist trap (fake-hungarian cuisine, terrible service, fake-nostalgic interior, wines…) it should not attract me normally, but my foreign guest insisted in wanting to eat Hungarian “disznótoros” (mostly sausage, black-pudding and even more exotic parts of pork) I had no other choice than (since I don’t know these restaurants) I had to make an extremely quick internet research.

We finished 2 bottles of wine during the evening, both sold to us at HUF 4 000 (EUR 16). The first choice was a light Kékfrankos (better known as Blaufrankisch in the rest of the world).

The review – Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos 2005

Intense, deep fresh raspberry/cherry colour. So far so good.

The smell translates into similar taste with a slightly different tone. Excellent transition, smell and taste walk hand in hand. The fruityness disappears relatively quickly and the finish is smooth, no sign of tannin, alcohol burning or too much acid. Nice finish. It’s an overall charming, nice wine. EUR 9 is a fair value for it.

Score: 6

Price: EUR 9 (store price, fair value)

The Review – Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvigning 2006, Barrique (Villány)

Our second selection (we must drink a Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon, I am told by my guest) is my big mistake. Or partly, because this wine takes me back to the 90s, when the quality and trendyness of the CS in Villány and elswhere were measured by the level of tannin in the bottle. But this much tannin cannot be extracted deom the barrel nor from the vine. It’s harsh, oily texture is in huge contrast with the Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos. I know it’s a young wine, still, after massacring a significant amount of gustatory cells in our tongue, we decide to give it some time in the decanter (we had to ask for it in the restaurant, of course). It did not help. After an hour, it’s smell (fruity also, but not so intense and elegant as in the Kékfrankos) got better, but in taste the tannin is still so dominant I can’t think of anything else, scratching the middle, upper and back part of my mouth, whilst the sweetness in the forefront of our tongue is living its own life. Hugely disappointing from Malatinszky, who’s already shown lot better than this CS before. I’m getting suspicious though, I just read Malatinszky’s rate of the year 2006 (his highest score).

I wish I never got back so distant in time. At least I’m happy to be back today, and I’m leaving soon for the Etyek Pincefesztivál, one of the biggest wine events in Hungary.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 9 (overrated)