Budapest Daily Review

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)

Pántlika owns 40 hectares around Dörgicse, a well-preserved small village with a stunning view of lake Balaton, and it probably makes it the largest winery of than region. Although the cellar’s based in a former socialist co-op “hangar”, the front-end of the headquarters is a nice old-fashioned stone house. After this dichotomy I was very much looking forward to tasting their wines, made by a 19 year-old (!) winemaker.

The reviews

The Olaszrizling Válogatás 2006 was the first ever made in the history of the winery. Pale yellow with greenish reflections, this Olaszrizling has an intense nettle nose. On the palate it’s light, thin and quite empty for a “selection” with relatively low yield per vine. Slightly sparkling on the palate with nettle and elderberry flavors. It’s a bit tart from the mid-palate.

Score: 3+ points

Sauvignon Blanc 2008. This pale yellow wine also has nettle aromas on the nose and on the palate but a bit more warm and with a flinty-gas accent. Better textured, more creamy but it’s just as thin as the Olaszrizling. Less acidity here but better rounded.

Score: 3+ points

Chardonnay 2008 is bright with medium-deep yellow tone. More closed on the nose, fairly fruity but this one’s also very thin-bodied, although well balanced but it’s a wine without character.

Score: 3+ points

You’ll find informative pictures on the website of the winery: pantlikapinceszet.hu

Figula Winery has been my top pick from the north bank of lake Balaton for many years. But this was my first visit to their Balatonfüred cellar since the “boys” took over the family winery after the tragic death of the winemaker of the year 2000.

Founded in 1993 by Budapest Kertészeti Egyetem’s graduate Mihály Figula the winery today has a bit less than 30 hectares – the founder had no plans to expand it, he believed that 25-30 hectares are more than enough for a family winery, he once told me. Most plantations are quite old located in the Balatonfüred, Balatonszőlős and Pécsely areas. They embraced the technology in winemaking relatively early but never abused them. Indeed, my perception is that they’re using less new oak today than they used to around 2001-2002. The press is operated at 1 bar to obtain a clean juice and the controlled fermentation and aging in stainless steel helps only to preserve the fruity character of the grapes. Figula took his winery to the next level with Szilénusz which, in better years, is made as a blend of changing vineyards and varietals but always giving exceptional cuvées.

The review

Sauvignon Blanc, 2007 comes from the Gella “dűlő”, the highest point of Balatonszőlős with Southern and South-Western exposure. It’s quite windy too which increases quality while decreases loss for rotting. The yield from this area had been decreased from 3 300 hectoliters to only 1 800 today. This means 1-1,5 kilos per vine (which are planted in rows of 2,7m distance from each other and at 70cms within the row). The vines here are very old, around 48 years most of them.

The wine has a bright, medium yellow golden color. The nose is medium intense nettle and lovage with a floral accent. Nice and warm, very friendly.

The palate is less fruity than I expected with apple aroma supported by a Traubi-acidic underpinning. Slightly sparkling, the wine is well balanced and has a fresh character with a hint of salty-minerality. It’s a bit short on the finish with apple-bitterness (like cider). Small-medium bodied.

Score: 5 points

Nyerges, 2007 is a selection of Pinot Gris. Fermented in large oak (“Ászokhordó”, for those willing to learn the Hungarian terms) and bottled after 12 months but before that it spent one month in second use Barrique. The grapes come from western slopes. The wine has 14% alcohol and around 6 g/l acidity.

This Pinot Gris has a brassy-onion skin hue in appearance and a relatively heavy nose with herbs, honey and spices. Later with crust of bread aroma! and dried tropical fruits quite densely. Soft, velvety with good acidity. Upper-medium bodied wine with a hint of bitterness.

Score: 5+/6-

Szilénusz, 2006 is the flagship blend of the Figulas. In 2006 it was made of 50% Olaszrizling and 50% Chardonnay, Szürkebarát and Semillion. Fermented in Ászok barrel, then half of the wine was moved to Barrique after 4-6 months for another 2 months, then they’ were poured together again.

This cuvée has a medium yellow golden color. It has a light, yet penetrating flinty nose, quite perfume-y with a vanilla accent. Very interesting.

Fresh, soft but crispy acidity spiced up with a hint of salty-minerality. Light and elegant, in a certain way, the wine’s well integrated and this along with its harmony is the key strength of the wine.  It has also hints of vegetable and greenish notes but it’s not as fruity as one might expect. It’s a very good wine though.

Score: 6, 6+

The post would be too long, so I’ll write another entry with the red wines of Figua Winery.

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. 

Arriving late in the evening at the Bodri Pincészet I couldn’t visit the vineyards spread on 11 hectares around their cellar at Szekszárd-Faluhely (they have another 14 elsewhere) but from what I could see I’m suspecting that the valley must be beautiful in the daylight. Visitors can also appreciate the spacious cellar built recently using 100-years old bricks. And István Bodri is fun to listen to, but prepare to get an overflow of information very quickly. No bullshit though. 

The Bodris are very proud of the technology they use and its proofs are everywhere. They’re producing more white wines than their fellow Szekszárd winemakers which I appreciated. They’re very well known locally but not so much elsewhere. 

The reviews

We started with a white Kadarka from 2007. It couldn’t be more interesting. 

It has medium-bright color between rose and onion peel. Quite unusual and nice. 

The floral nose (acacia) makes is desirable too. Fresh, round acidity with some sour underpinning but it’s OK. Medium body, well balanced. 

I like this experimental approach and this proves that Kadarka is suitable for this tentative. Well done. 

Score: 4 points

The Sauvignon Blanc Szelekció (Selection) from 2007 has 13.7% alcohol. Szekszárd wines often have high alcohol but I don’t mind it when it comes with a nice body and a right level of acidity. 

It’s almost totally translucent. The nose is wet grass, gooseberry and a good deal of bad egg. According to the winemaker, it was aged in new oak but that’s not obvious. It has a small body and long, a bit bitter finish with pineapple, pear and grapefruit elements. 

Score: 4-

Bodri Olaszrizling 2007 has a very pale bright color and a not very intense palate despite a larger body than the previous ones. It could have more acidity. 

Score: 4-

Rozi, the rosé has one of the best nose I had a chance to find in a Hungarian rosé, if not the best. Intense, but still light-weight strawberry and strawberry jam, elegant, perfume-y. And it’s definitely Kékfrankos. On the palate it’s more stewed cherry-like. 

I forgot to give it a score then, now I would say at least 5-, 5. 

I’m convinced that most Hungarians, laymen and professionals alike, tend to overrate Hungarian wines (especially the reds) sometimes to the point where even faults are considered local character. Although vast majority of my readers come from abroad who probably do not have such preconcepts, I decided to launch a series of blind tests comparing Hungarian wines of all price ranges with their counterparts in Central Europe, Europe and the new world. I’ll call this column International Perspective.

The intention is twofolds: first is very ambitious and certainly will generate some discussion and anger, and it is to try to define the value of well known and relatively unknown Hungarian wines. Secondly, through these comparisons we might be able to discover the terroir, the Hungarian character (if there is such a thing like Hungarian character).

Dereszla

Dereszla is a relatively small French winery in Tokaj, home of sweet dessert wines and emerging white wines mostly made of Furmint and Hárslevelű. Sauvingon Blanc is not an authorised Tokaj variety hence you’ll find „Zempléni” region on the label and no Tokaj.

Halewood

Halewood is a major producer and distributor of wine and alcoholic beverages in Britain.

The Group manages over 400 hectares of vines in three major wine areas of Romania: Dealu Mare, Podisul Transilvaniei and Murfatlar.

Whilst Halewood has an informative, though not very ergonomic website, Dereszla has nothing of their own on the web.

Some official information about the wine from the Halewood website:

2006 started with a late spring after a long and freezing winter with temperatures reaching -26°C. The average temperature of the year was 25°C, this having a positive effect on the shoots growth (up to 12 cm/day). Due to the high temperatures during the summer the ripening of the berries took place earlier and the picking of the grapes began according to the fully maturation of each variety.

In the second half of September, at harvest time, there took place a careful selection of the grapes coming from Dobrogea Plateau. A controlled fermentation was undergone at the temperature of 12-14°C, for about 8-10 days with selected yeasts. Alcohol volume 12.5%.

The test – Sauvignon Blanc, Halewood, Prahova valley 2006 vs Chateau Dereszla Zempléni Sauvignon Blanc 2007.

Since it was a hot summer day both wines were cooled to appr. 7-8 Celsius degrees but this turned out to be good temperature for both wines.

The first wine had bright straw color and fresh fruity nose later with a little bit of cinnamon and lemon skin. Well-structured wine with a little bit of sweetness (it’s still a dry wine) with a little bit of wet hay undertone, but not disturbingly. Overall a lovable, soft, light wine without major faults and without a special character, but very refreshing.

Score: 5+

The second wine had very bright color, very intense perfumy nose and although I’ve never tasted it before, I immediately recogninsed the Dereszla character (it’s ont that I’m such a master, it’s really that obvious). Diffrerent trees in bloom but mostly elderberry which also dominates in its taste. Very fresh, almost crispy but with a little bit of extra sweetness which is supported by round acidity so it’s rather soft. At higher temperature both wines were a little bit overly sweet to my taste but at around 10 degrees celsius, it’s a delicious, very lovable, festive wine.

Score: 6

To me the Dereszla Sauvignon Blanc had more character and was lacking the hay undertone, but the Halewood Sauvignon Blanc from Prahova Valley is also a very good value for money. To be honest, if the Halewood was one year younger, maybe the difference would not have been that significant.

Price: EUR 7

The winner of the label contest is the Halewood to me.

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

Why am I writing about this in a Hungarian wine blog?

Benchmarking, that’s for.

I did not want to open this bottle yet, but I’ve noticed a drop of what seemed to me as red wine at the cork, so I ran home from my dad’s cellar and I was desperate to find out whether one of my best kept treasures really went wrong. It didn’t.

Everyone’s dream is (well, mine is) to just wander around in a beautiful area enjoying a good time and suddenly find a small, hidden winery whose’ owners are extremely friendly and their wine is just amazing and at the end it turns out to be an excellent value for money.

I really recommend that you check out their website and read their stories yourself here. In a nutshell:

The winery is one of the properties of a large estate which used to belong to Prince Ginori Conti, a descendant of one of Florence’s oldest families. Floriana Ginori Conti inherited the winery from her father in the 1970s, and began in 1980 to produce a Chianti Classico with the “Poggerino” label.
In 1999 she handed over the property to her two children, Piero and Benedetta Lanza, who had been managing it since 1988.

When we arrived at the farm building, one smiling guy and a sympathetic girl attended us. The guy was dressed farm worker. They knew too much about the wines for workers, so I had to realize that they are the owners. It turned out that they do as much of the physical works as they can themselves. Their wines were very friendly too, expensive though but we dot used to this by then in Tuscany.

The review

Il Poggerino – Bugialla 2001, Chianti Classico

Medium-deep ripe cherry color, sharp tannins are the first impressions as I open the bottle. No worries, no need to rush.

3 hours later its tannins are already smooth, velvet and I could swear that its color became much deeper and the bitterness had gone. Not too intense smell, it’s rather tobacco than fruits, although I can smell some nice, ripe cherry (but no sweetness!), plum and a bit of blueberry. There’s more: coffee beans and pepper, but not too much. Not an easy to love wine, but steady, not evolving too much in the glass. Does not need to. Full-bodied, round. Almost perfectly balanced. The 13,5% alcohol does not disturb me.

I could have kept this wine for another 5 years easy.

Score:7 (But the equation does not include my enthusiasm described in the intro. It would be a 9 then)

Price: EUR 30

Ps: Good to know that they have guest rooms too and the house is perfectly located near Radda.

I’ve been hesitating whether to write this post or not . I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the tier-2 winemakers in all regions, since even tier-1 producers are still trying to define themselves, they’re busy establishing their own style and I think this is just normal (let’s not go through the history of the last 50 years of this country this time). It’s also normal that these people (many of them not even certified producers or winemakers) are still learning this profession, because purchasing cutting-edge equipment is just the beginning. Consequently it’s also normal to have better years followed by not so good products even from not so bad harvests. A too balanced series of vintages is even suspicous.

So fishing in the lower-end segment, hunting for treasures is a game where the probability of success is relatively low and the reward is usually only a modest enthousiastic discovery of a promising tentative.

Márton Mayer emerged as a known tier-2 Villány winemaker in the lat nineties. I was hesitating writing this post because my previous tastings of his wines were diasappointing and I don’t like jumping to conclusion after one single sampling if the result is bad. And this is the case with the Mayer Kopár from 2004. It may be unfair to say after one bottle that this wine has nothing, really nothing special to offer. Especially for almost EUR 20. Since I started writing this blog so readers can learn from my lesson, I decided to share my opinion about Mayer Kopár 2004 with You.

The review

Having opened the bottle, nice, concentrated dark frurity smell rules the decanter. 30 minutes later the intense fruit gives room for heavier smells, leathery and tobacco, mixed with less fresh fruits. And that’s more or less it. It lacks complexity, its tannins remain harsh even after hours. Interestingly enough it’s not smoky, the only thing this wine gained from the barrell is its extreme tannins. The finish is bitterness. The word best describing this wine is woody. It’s lean and harsh, plus dominantly sour too. This wine, at least the bottle I opened, today qualifies for the top5 most overrated wines I’ve tasted this year. I feel lucky that this was a Xmes gift form a business partner and I did not spend all that much on it.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 19

Furmint’s been emerging as a standalone dry wine recently from the shadows of the Aszú, following some really exceptional late harvest furmints (whose quality sometimes exceeds some mid-range Aszús). Hétszőlő’s been quite modest about their furmint and their shyness is a bit of a mystery. The 2004 was average, the 2005 was really not so bad.

I got some Hétszőlő Furmint 2006 few weeks after getting into bottles, long before being put on general sale and it was very promising even for a very young wine. Few months after it’s more developed, almost perfectly balanced. It’s traditionally bright coloured at Hétszőlő due to the soil (loess and clay on a base of vulcanic rocks) and the process of fermentation and maturing. It’s the exact opposite of the Mandolás Furmint from Oremus. Mandolás will be covered very soon, I still have a few bottles from the legendary 2003.

Hétszőlő is one of the most honest wineries in Tokaj and in the whole country. In poor years they produce average quality furmints and late harvests, but above the average of the competition. In better years, and when conditions are ideal for botritis rotting, they produce excellent Aszú. Their Kövérszőlő is one of the most enjoyable items in its category. Tibor Kovács is probably the most experimental wine maker in Tokaj. For him, terroir is more important than regulation, but we’ll talk about this later when we will be reviewing Aszú. And he’s an honest man too. He once told me that he believes that 80-90% depends on the grape, 10-20% (maximum) should depend on the winemaker. For sure, Hétszőlő owns some of the best slopes in Tokaj.

So let’s get to the note now.

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