All attempts to produce really good red wine in the northern Balaton region have failed so far. The truth is you can barely find half decent efforts. Villa Tolnay have been supplying the market with perhaps the most stable quality of white wines over the years. And yet they’re still betting heavily on red wines.

Névtelen 2006 is almost terracotta colored. Warm, very light nose with hints of spices, caramel and walnut. Later wild mushrooms and earthy notes. Very dry, very thin, with a slightly bitter tannic backbone. Pretty vacant.

We have seen so much better for half the price from Levendula.

Score: 4-

Price: HUF 2 600

Next in the row in the hunting for good red wines under HUF2000 series this Kékfrankos was recommended by a merchant who’s very proud of his discoveries of unknown or smaller wineries (as a matter of fact Levendula Pince’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a best seller in his store ever since I introduced it to him but I wasn’t so lucky with his recommendations so far). I was a bit disappointed by a bottle of Losonci Kékfrankos the guy once recommended to me and other minor disappointments followed.

This Halmosi Kékfrankos has a good-looking bottle (I keep forgetting taking pictures lately). The nose suggests very ripe material, aged in large used barrel ( but that’s my guess only).The reality’s different. Clear nectarine aroma on the palate but the wine is too acidic which doesn’t suite this rather thin wine. Relatively long tannic-bitter finish.

Score: 3+/4-

Price: HUF 2 100

Levendula Pince started as a winery in 2006 then called Vági Pince. In 2009 the estate consists of 2 hectares but they also have 1 hectare of “borrowed” land under cultivation which was “thrown at them” as the owner puts it. Lovas is a small village above Balatonfüred and this part of the outskirts of the village are particularly inaccessible by motorized 4-wheel vehicles. Once there, the view from the entrance of the cellar is stunning. Below us spreading are steep slopes  planted with 5 different grapes in well-maintained rows running downhill on the rusty rocky soil so typical around Balaton. The top of the cellar and a rather big surrounding area is covered in Lavendel – hence the name of the winery. The place is beautiful and the owners and winemaker are very friendly people. We’re immediately offered bread with pork fat and fresh onion rings between apologies for not having prepared anything in the traditional oven of the estate (Kemence) but of course we didn’t book such things since we ended up here after having just fled from Söptei Pince, a quite disappointing place if you ask me. With only 15 minutes left before closing the winery we are immediately taken into the back-end of the recently built cellar and shown the 225l+ oak barrels and stainless steel tanks and 1 minute later our glass is full with Juhfark 2007. About two hours later we emerged from the cellar content and happy.

Levendula Pince - grape press

The reviews

Note: the first three are barrel samples.

Juhfark 2007 is a barrel sample and as such, quite raw material. Pale hey hue. It has the most unusual dill aroma nose with Chardonnay grape notes and a hint of elderberry. On the palate dill mingle with gooseberry and other small green berry fruit elements with a green apple accent supported by abundant fresh, lively, slightly harsh acidity. Thin-bodied, light, quite acidic.

I am told by the winemaker that yields are high, they don’t really care about reducing it. The grapes were harvested in the beginning of October.

Score: 3+ points

Price: HUF 1 000 (but also available in 1,5 litre bottles at about HUF 1 500)

Chardonnay 2007 is very pale with celery and other greenish aromas on the nose, a little bit less intensely than Juhfark’s. Thick and similarly structured as Juhfark with a little bit less acidity, but still quite firm and grip.

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 1 000

Olaszrizling 2007 is another very pale wine very similar to the previous two in every aspect, with the difference of acacia and unripe walnut aromas on the palate and a gooseberry-Traubi accent.

Score: 3+ points

Price: HUF 1 000

All three wines above are very acidic, overly, if you ask me and I only recommend them for acid fanatics.

This is just illustration, the review's about the 2007 vintage

Olaszrizling Késői Szüret 2007 is a late harvest but dry wine and clearly the premium white wine of Levendula Pince. A slightly darker but still quite pale hue in appearance. A nice, warm and even sweet nose with floral notes. It reminds me of Hétszőlő’s late harvested Kövérszőlő in this aspect. Light but full of floral notes. On the palate more polished with gentle acidity and sligly greenish tannin. Wood leaf, parsley and green vegetable notes. It only has 6g/L residual sugar but 15,2% alcohol. And it’s OK.

Score: 5+

Price: HUF 1 500 (and best buy)

Cabernet Sauvingnon 2006 is medium dark ruby with an almost brownish rim.

On the palate dark chocolate supported by lively tannins and fresh acidity. Dense, concentrated and upper-medium bodied. This is a very decent effort from a region which is not famous for its red wines and from a winery not famous from low yields.

Score:5+

Price: HUF 1 500 (and it’s a best buy too, of course)

My perception has always been that Vincze Béla is one of the most overrated wine makers of Hungary (which is quite remarkable because the competition for the being the most overrated is huge in Hungary). The obscure outcome of the winemaker of the year elections didn’t change that when Vincze won in 2005 surprising many, much less skeptical persons than I am towards him. Anyway, paying half price is probably the best opportunity to give someone another chance, so this Cabernet Franc 2006 is from the stock I purchased on occasion of Wine Wednesday.

The review

Medium deep ruby with a rusty-brownish rim. With only some hints of tobacco leafs on the nose this wine is so closed  it doesn’t show anything for 90 minutes when it finally opens more with more dense tobacco and sawdust notes. The first foamy-flimsy texture will be better integrated after some time and sour cherry and chocolate elements will be added to the palate and a black-pepper accent to the nose. It remains a bit too alcoholic however. The wine as a whole improves a lot, starting from 2+ points and ending around 4 points 2 hours after opening, when I actually started to enjoy it. And let me state again here that many Hungarian red wines necessitate 2-3 hours to show something, a feature I never encountered so widespread in any other region’s wines. Would you believe that most Hungarians see this as a positive thing?

Score: 3+/4-

Price: HUF 1 600

I knew very little about Tihanyi Apátsági Pince but I was pretty certain that a visit would help. Well it did a little bit but after 2 hours in the cellar and 20 minutes googling the keywords I’m still uncertain about the ownership, the size and pretty much everything else about the winery. I decided to taste their premium label named after the (or one of the) owners, the well-known entrepreneur/property developer/ex-Skála boss Sándor “the richest Hungarian” Demján. Here’s what I found.

The reviews

Badacsonyi Olaszrizling 2008 made me realize that I won’t necessarily be tasting Tihany wines in this beautiful spot of the Tihany peninsula’s interior lake as I hoped. The wine has lemon yellow color and a closed nose with citrus aromas. On the palate green notes supported by abundant fresh acidity in this small-medium bodied Olaszrizling. Score: 3+/4-

Rosé 2008 is 60% Kékfrankos and 40% Zweigelt of relatively low yield (1,6 kilos/vine). Brassy color like those fine kitchen apparels, very nice. The bouquet is messy with earth and wet grass elements. Medium-bodied and relatively well balanced. Score: 3+

Merlot 2006 has seen 6 months in barrique. The wine has a muddy deep ruby color with Port- and Cognac notes on the nose. On the palate it’s relatively rich with dried plum and a hint of sour cherry. Nicely textured with subtle acidity and oily tannin. Relatively dense but fresh with  smoky and chocolate undertones. But it has a mainly Port wine/Cognac character on the palate too. Score: 5- points

Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 is a 50%-50% blend of these two with 13% alcohol. Deep sour cherry color with a black core. Dense nose with chocolate, sour cherry notes. Fresh acidity. Score: 5- points

Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 is dark and dense with overly ripe sour cherry aroma on the nose. Well balanced, well structured with fresh but polished tannins and medium acidity. Very dense, with black pepper notes. And a hint of, well, sweat on the nose. Score: 5/5+ points

Dull wines.