Two mature reds, the other one was a super toscan from Castello Di Fonterutoli called Siepi 1996 side by side today. 

Duennium 2000 of Vylyan is a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from a classic vintage. 

Unpenetrably dark whatever color, more or less black. Very intense chocolate nose, not so much dark chocolate as simple plain chocolate. With it’s dense appearance and bouquet it evokes memories of that unusually warm and long summer of the year 2000.  The very same feeling’s carried through onto the palate. But unlike many Villányi cuvées and CSs of the late nineties, this wine has velvely tannins and a soft texture (after 15 months in new oak). Later a bit harder in character with still fresh acidity. Full-bodied wine with a medium long finish. Hints of farmyard elements and sweetness, but fundamentally tons of mouthfilling melted chocolate. Remarkably short of fruity notes. 

Score: 6+, 7-

Price: n/a

The Supertoscan is 50% Sangiovese and 50% Merlot. Like Duennium, this blend also has a chocolate character on the nose and on the palate too, in a more restrained way, but also little fruity. 

This is however a slightly thinner wine more of a grippy style, very consistently so even after hours. Very well integrated, better structured, well balanced. Hints of very ripe forest berry fruits. Very firm with good length. It will age well for another 5-10 years.

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

Stocking Hungarian wines is a bit of a lottery still: during the summer I opened two Gere from the classic year of 2000, one of them (Kopár) was excellent just as I expected but the Cabernet Sauvignon Barrique which was supposed to be the robust, oaky Cabernet of Gere had been falling apart (although the two have never even been in the same league).

Now I opened a Vylyan Chardonnay 2003 which every year was sold with a discount when the new vintages took over the shelves so I couldn’t expect too much improvement from it by now. But in fact, it wasn’t bad after all which makes the durability of wines a bit of mistery to me which was further augmented by a Concha Y Toro Chardonnay from the Casillero Del Diablo series also from 2003. Although having very different character, never having such acidity as the Vylyan (which itself has a relatively low level of it with Hungarian standards) but having had a bigger body and more residual sugar it aged relatively well, or at least didn’t disappoint me so much as the Gere C.S. The Chilian wine had bright, deep golden color and oily move, and an incredibly intense tutti-frutti nose with floral notes and a honey undertone – fresh! Very aromatic but had a deepness, with several vertical layers still. The palate showed more of its age especially that all its acidity had gone, literally, although it was still enjoyable as a drink but not as much as a wine. The Vylyan Chardonnay which would have scored probably around 4 points which would qualify it as a decent wine for appr. HUF 1 400 or so today, lost even less from its values and would be still around 3+ points which is relatively good for a wine which was never meant to be consumed later than 2004.

Note: all wines were kept in the same cellar since their purchase. I know, in a place with humidity visibly above the desirable.

Some would say yes. So let’s check.

About Vylyan

The death of the founder of this relatively new winery hasn’t been unnoticed although his philosophy remained fundamentally the same. 7 000 vines per hectare, 1.8m x 0.8m vineyard density, 30 hectolitres per hectare on average – on 125 hectares, this indicates their commitment to high concentration for their best wines. And a lot of attention to all aspects of the élevage. With so much land in Villány, You cannot expect that all of it is very well located though.

In choosing their grape varieties they lay emphasis on both international varieties (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah) and local varieties (Kadarka, Blaufrankisch, Portugieser, Zweigelt).

About Montenuovo Cuvée 2006

Montenuovo cuvée is the Minestrone soup of Vylyan: its ingredients vary each season as well as its quality can be somewhat volatile. Still it will be a minestrone. The continuity is brought into this product line by a relatively good value for money and a seek for full-bodied, easy to enjoy, intensely tasty style. Well-done in 2006.

I don’t need to understand the concept behind Montenuovo’s always changing composition to like these wines. However, You might wonder how have Cabernet Franc and Zweigelt replaced Pinot Noir over the years. If you approach this from the other way around then it’s better to say that Vylyan’s goal could be to provide a relatively constant upper-medium quality popular red wine as well as to consume all they can produce in an optimal way. But this would be jumping to conclusion.

Since Montenuovo is an affordable non-entry level wine hence quite popular in restaurants it’s quite possible that You’re already familiar to this name. Here’s my notes, my opinion as of today.

Review

Deep cherry color, almost blackberry. Farm animal smell rather than fruits. Oily but with high acid content (for a Villányi) and medium of tannin. It’s 14,5%alcohol is palpable. It took awhile to realise that the unusual component in taste derives from Zweigelt grapes, which makes it an interesting cuvée but not a very lovely one. But maybe it’s just my habits that make it a bit intolerable in an otherwise quite commonly composed cuvée. Its smell also lack character.

A day after opening the bottle its tannins become smoother, those few fruits gave place to chocolate, new oak and tobacco, but not to the extent of a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon of course. It’s still a good wine if served at good temperature (my guess is around 15 degrees Celsius) although I can smell some rotten, fermenting fruit taste in it at the end.

It’s an overall good wine and good value for money. Don’t expect to buy the same wine with a Montenuovo 2007 label on it, so this could be another reason to purchase it.

Score:6-

Price: EUR 11,5

Drinking a lot of wine has never been a problem to me. So starting up a collection, however, had to be a decision rather than just a necessity (of storing what I could not drink). First I stopped buying wines for a while when I realized the impact of warmth to wines in the house. Then I slowed down again when I realized that my 6-7 years old items stopped improving, in fact most of them started a process of disintegration as I call it, or blowing up into pieces. I am more careful now, although I still don’t have the rule or right formula to pick the ones that will improve over time and which can and worth to be matured in my dad’s cellar for 5-10-15 years (the Hungarian versions of Parkers and alike can help sometimes though). Since this is still more or less a lottery, I decided to share my experiences with You in order that You avoid the same mistakes, or follow my occasional good decisions so You can enjoy these aged treasures as well. My advices will be useful, believe me, since most of Hungarian wine makers tend to produce unequal quality year-by-year, unlike many of the industrialized counterparts in the new world and in western Europe. Even the tricky old names can surprise you with their experimentalism, and not in a good way.

I feel sometimes desperate when I descend to the cellar and I must pick the items for that week (I usually visit the cellar 1x or max 2x a month) and I was particularly concerned about the Vylyan Pinot Noir 2003. First, Pinot Noir is a very difficult task to accomplish, but apparently Hunagarians proved to be extremely adventurous in the new millenium. The thing is, I’ve never found a nice Pinot Noir in Hungary. And Villány, with its Mediterranean micro-climate was not very promising either (Vylyan planted the pinots to the cooler western slopes though). And this is exactly what I really enjoy, opening up a bottle in a typically awful monday evening with a sound pre-concept and then…It’s not so bad after all, even just after opening the bottle, it is quite promising, despite the blurred color which indicates the age (and wines from the 90s always make me suspicious). Blueberry is the word I am looking for and the finish is first quick, smooth, almost velvet, and a silent, long velvet ending will last until the next sip. 3 hours later slight improvement in (already surprisingly good) texture, but no perfum as you would expect only some cinnamon. But I like the finish very much.

The disappointment came when I checked one day later the price of it and its price tag above HUF 4000 (EUR 17) hardly qualifies it for best buy. It’s still a relatively fair price, but only just and only compared to other Hungarian Pinots.

Overall score: 5+/6- (appr. 83)