What I wrote yesterday about Tóth István’s Kékfrankos 2003 applies for all of his wines, with more or less minor changes. So instead of repeating myself I present you the delta between the two wines.

First of all this is a blend, a Bikavér as we know it but don’t let this convention confuse you. The only difference on the nose is that this Bikavér has more wild mushroom notes and some sour cherry, but fundamentally very barrell influenced just as the Kékfrankos. The tannin’s a bit scratchy sometimes.

I had to buy this wine, and although it may look like I’m obsessed with Tóth István’s wines I want to make it clear that they’re not that good. But they’re not bad either and if the northern winemaker’s wines are not exactly enigmatic, they’re certainly different from not just the mainstream wines, but most terroir wines too. Knowing that, who wouldn’t buy a Kékfrankos made in 2003, with so little to lose (HUF 2000)?

But before you do, you should know that this wine will devide opinions. Some of you will pour, taste, spit and perhaps never return to this blog if I don’t make this disclaimer.

Tóth István, Kékfrankos, 2003

Blurred, deep ruby with brownish tones and a terracotta rim (so far this could be any Tóth István wine). Another trademark of his will follow on the nose: mouldy, earthy and stuffy and that won’t change with time. On the palate red fruity notes mingled with meaditerranean spices. Hard structure with tannin providing firm underpinning to the rubber taste substance but the tannin will smoothen and become softer after longer contact with the air. The acidity won’t, it remains harsh especially in the finish.

Only for hard core terroir fans who are not afraid of old barrels.

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.

Boy, do I love Ales. I could spend hours in a London pub any time of the year, every single day of a week. So guess what, I did. I’m passionate about the atmosphere of it all and I love reading the Observer or the Independent or a book, careful about being strategically positioned near the Ale pumps and I even enjoy watching rugby there (the only other place I do is in Toulouse), a game that only starts to make some sense at all if you’d just watched cricket. Reading in a pub might sound strange to continental Europeans but when you’re the first guess at noon you either watch the passers by (another amazing thing to do in London btw) or read. And when you’re first guest as often as I am then you tend to read for a change. Not very closely related to this topic but closing down the old Waterstones shop on Shaftesbury was a crime against civilized humanity.

Am I happy to be back in Budapest? I’m depressed actually. Still in London, when I almost had enough of beer, I changed for sake for a while but after a week I couldn’t wat to have a good glass of red wine, I wanted a sure shot, a full-bodied, well-balanced aroma bomb and I found a bottle of Gróf Buttler’s Portugieser (yes, it can be all that!) in the basement. Bingo! But it was corked (my first ever). Next one: a Pinot Noir 2008.

This is less vibrant than other G.B. wines with relatively pale orange-ruby color. On the palate soft, warm with velvety tannins and perhaps it’s only a bit too young. Good wine though, don’t get repelled by the alcohol (14.5%).

Although I believe that wines can be fully appreciated when tasted hours after your last meal (desserts excluded), I recognise that wine and food pairing is an important business and very few sommeliers are actually good at it (Budapest’s Four Season’s Italian sommelier is one of them). On the other hand, a meal or indeed, a tasting menu can be more exciting with a glass of well paired wine. This is probably stating the obvious but I had to write an introduction to this post so you don’t realise immediately that I’m not going to write wine reviews today, but about a related topic which is dining at good restaurants, more precisely at Budapest’s supposedly best.

When I first dined in Costes (aka the only Michelin star restaurant in Hungary as of 2010) 2-3 years ago I wrote that it was the best Hungarian restaurant, full stop. It wasn’t an overstatement, I felt quite confident about it for Costes had been so much superior to any other local restaurant in terms of innovation, preparation and presentation that it was undoubtedly the best in town. I also knew that it was just as good or even better than some Michelin star restaurants elsewhere (notably, certainly better than a particular one star restaurant in London’s Soho, as long as food is concerned although I’m not so sure about the atmosphere). Now that the Portuguese chef Miguel Rocha Vieira is back (Seja bemvindo!) I was lucky enough to visit Costes three times in 2 weeks lately so I hope you’ll forgive me if I jump to some conclusions here.

A major problem with their heating system was apparent on my first visit and unfortunately they couldn’t (or didn’t) fix it in two weeks,  but the front desk people were even cooler than the December frost outside. The arrogance and negligence of the waiters remained the same as two years ago, in spite of the owner sitting next to our table in one occasion (with a former Lou Lou employee who I happened to recognise). This could have been a good sign, because if the kitchen folk didn’t change much either then I could have been expecting a terrific performance from them. But this time the waiters’ arrogance was combined with a sort of carelessness and even incompetence that was already a bit scary (when serving the plates, one fella insisted to interrupt our rather important (well, let’s face it, rather important to me) discussion to tell us exactly what’s on the plate in front of us, feeding us with information we’ve already wknown or just seen (I’m sure you can recognise lentils) as if there were subspecies thought to be extinct of an already rare exotic deep ocean seeweed, whilst he seemed not to be enjoying himself too much either). I’m used to getting humiliated by clerks and waiters, they do it all the time with you in Hungary but sometimes it only costs you one Euro or so but for a hundred Euros, it opens a whole new dimension, believe me!

More importantly, the food was OK. Yes, it wasn’t terrific. The amuse bouche were the same every time, and I loved them every time. I don’t want to go through the menus, there were some well made courses too but some were below expectations. The chicken, for instance, may have been organically fed Poulet Noir but it was a bit boring. Good, but boring, and being simply good might be too little from someone aspiring for a star or two.

The sommelier was the friendliest of the staff but Costes’ wine selection is a bit disappointing. The wines not just don’t represent the best of Hungary as one might expect, they don’t even get close to it but few (Szepsy Furmint 2008, to give you a for instance). And in total there are maybe 20 or 30 wines in their cellar, or at least on offer, and that includes whites, reds and sweet wines and even a Port. I wasn’t particularily disappointed by the pairing they offered with the tasting menus and I made my own choices most of the time anyway, but there’s not much chosing to do from a list of 20, is there?

The overall conclusion is that Costes remains one of the best retaurants in Budapest which in itself doesn’t guarantee you any standard. I remind you that we’re talking about a country where no one, literally, no one is able to make a proper baguette and if I want to buy a half decent croissant on the corner it costs me more than at Ladurée. There isn’t a decent bakery in the whole country (Villa Bagatell included), so why would there be good restaurants, one might wonder? (To be fair, the bread I had at Olimpia restaurant today was OK, but this was a once in a month occasion)

Further to the improvements in the kitchen, the whole Costes experience could be so much better with a working heating system, some well trained, polite and helpful waiters and a carefully selected, well stocked wine cellar. The U-turn Costes appears to take might not be as sharp and quick as, say, the democracy takes in this country, but it doesn’t look very promising either.

I’d never buy a Juhász wine but I don’t give away any wine I get but I try to find a purpose for them instead. This is how a quite young Rosé which was Kékfrankos grapes only 3-4 months ago was to spice up the octopus salade a little bit but you know how it’s like having a bottle in your hand in front of a cooker, you must pour a sample to yourself no matter how many times the winemaker disappointed you.

This one turned out to have a stunning fruity yoghurt nose with hints of papaya, unnaturally intense with aromas a chewing gum factory must purchase by lots of tons. This wine looked clean brassy. A bit sparkling on the palate, this is a very refreshing rosé with nice lively acidity.

Surely a well crafted wine.

Lemon yellow with greenish reflections. Nettle on the nose. On the palate notes of celery and lovage mingled with light chalky minerality. Very short length. The acidity tastes flat and dull.

I’m a bit disappointed.

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.

Yes, it's darker than it appears here.

Oremus has been one of my favourite Tokaj wineries not just because Oremus produced some of the best sweet and dry wines Tokaj has ever seen in absolute terms but they usually come up with some very affordable wines too representing excellent value for the money. That’s why I wasn’t repelled by the HUF 2000 price tag when I saw this young Szamorodni and I didn’t hesitate (and neither should you).

Although technically different, Szamorodni are as close as one can get to an Aszú without actually making an Aszú. In terms of complexity, sweetness and balance, well made Szamorodni can be a very good introduction to sweet Tokaj wines.

Oremus – Szamorodni, 2007

Bright, clean, medium-deep golden yellow. Elegantly styled bouquet of lemon zest and ripe tangerine. It also displays dried apricot , butter and a touch of fine tea aroma. On the palate it’s creamy, smooth and lightly rich in fruity flavours of apricot, lemon zest with a long lemon zest and later peach core bitterness finish.

Somehow Szamorodni are always recommended as an appetizer. This Szamorodni is more complex and balanced than many mid-level 3 Puttonyos Aszú and it makes quite a dessert.

Following yeasterady’s post about Hungarian sparkling wines, I was a bit reluctant to post about the Champagnes today. Eventually I decided to write a short note about some of the most famous of sparkling wines although these are not proper reviews but some very basic thoughts about three  supposedly very different Champagnes.

Moet Imperial

First in a row was a relatively young Champagne Brut Tradition by Alain Mercier et Fils, an old family-run small estate from Passy-sur-Marne. Darker and weightier than I expected, with deep hay inclined to brownish. This was followed by a Veuve Clicquot Le Grande Dame 1995 and, quite honestly, I didn’t feel the two being so much different at all. Both are quite acidic, thick but firm, well made Champagnes the Veuve having a bit more yeasty bouquet and mouth. Perhaps with a touch more aged feel to it, the Veuve Clicquot was more fruity displaying dried apricot and quince. The third Champage this weekend was a Moet Imperial Brut and, guess what, wasn’t quite a flash either. Basically citrus and apple flowing into a slightly bitter acidic finish wrapped in a decent amont of  pleasant yeast.

All Champagnes were acidic but not in a fresh and crispy way as I expected and were heavier than I thought.

I know one day I’ll regret writing this now but I must admit I cannot see justified the cost of the Veuve (10x of Kreinbacher’s) but it definitely has ten times more beautiful bottle and label than the 5 other sparkling wines of last weekend, combined.

Pinot Noir (I swear I poured it slowly, in an almost horizontal glass and I didn't add any soap to it)