It’s been a while since I wrote an entry here. It’s due to many factors, one of them being that I felt blogging’s become suddenly a bit old-fashioned when masses begun sharing information with each other through social network sites and individual blogs seemed to have lost their appeal to other tools too, like Twitter. Leaving other factors behind (laziness standing out in particular) for now, I’m not sure if this is going to be a last post or others will follow. This one is not even inspired by a particular wine, I’m simply in the mood of writing a post about one or maybe several of the wines I liked this summer. So here’s one, if not exactly off the top of my head, but a more or less random one of those wines I took note of lately.

Heimann – Syrah (2008)

Rather darkish carbon-paper blue with a matt purplish rim. Forest soil and tobacco-like notes mingle on the nose. On the palate it’s soft and dense with velvety tannins which flow into a fairly long finish, carrying tasty notes of sour cherry but without the annoying bitterness. Nice curve in the mouth. After some exposure to air, the wine develops a fairly rich but not too intense bouquet of toasted bread and perfectly ripe dark berry fruits. As the wine’s character becomes more jammy, it displays ripe and sweet forest berry aromas. Smooth, well balanced dense wine without becoming too weighty.

Very good to drink and easy to like, this wine’s well worth HUF 3 300.

See other good value Heimann wines here.

Lively medium-deep ruby.

The nose is packed with ripe forest fruits, leveraging notes of jammy black-currant and mulberry. Quite fleshy bouquet with hints of oaky spices. Medium-bodied, well-balanced wine with gentle acidity and a young tannic backbone, which mixtures with alcohol (lots of it) resulting in a not too well defined texture. Leather notes in a rather short finish.

Like most Heimann wines, this is a fairly priced piece of Szekszárd.

Brassy beige hue. Meadow floral bouquet, fresh but rather restrained with notes of acacia and boiled parsley. Weighty palate with a creamy texture and very subtle acidity. Restrained aromas at the entry, short and a bit dull character at the finish. Yet it’s a pleasant drink, with gently composed marzipan and pistachio. It’s an overall decent effort from (my preferred?) Mátraalja winemaker.

Szecskő - Szürkebarát, 2008

Deep golden yellow. A bit tired, grassy nose. Rather robust on the palate with tingling minerality from the mid-palate flowing slowly into a short herbal finish. 14% alcohol has its weight here making the wine texturally oily. The subtle acidity underneath provides little support for this body.

The 2006 was a revelation from Mór’s smallest commercially available quality wineries. The 2008 lacks the complexity and determination of the classic 2006, but it’s still a good wine.

Blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Olaszrizling and Riesling, this wine is pale lemon yellow. Fairly fruity on the nose, light and fresh. On the palate it’s small-medium bodied with fresh, young and crisp acidity which will smoothen with time. Fair amount of pear and apple over a thin layer of vegetable notes of parsley and kohlrabi. A light scratchy tartness at the finish.

This is a blend of 34% Olaszrizling, 28% Chardonnay, 26% Leányka and 12% Viognier. Of these, 15% is alcohol.

Lovely vibrant lemon yellow. Exciting nose of salty-chalky minerals mingled with light honey and veggie stock. Slightly sweet on the palate, with Viognier being dominant in taste, overly so if you ask me. Hours later melon aroma emerge.

Serve chilled!

I tasted this wine with friends few weeks ago when this wine stood out with its charming warmth and unusually complex character, and I promised I would buy a bottle and write a review. Here it is.

Orsolya – Abrakadabra, 2008

Lovely vibrant golden yellow with lemon reflections.

Fairly exciting minerally bouquet of rich chalky saltiness mingled with light honey and veggie stock. Unlike last time, on the palate dominantly Viognier, certainly less impressive today. It was broad and complex, now it’s much simpler in character, but creamy and fairly weighty with 15% alcohol hidden behind. I must admit that this bottle wasn’t very well handled when it landed in my hands so this might be the reason for its underperformance.

What really impresses about the wine is its finesse and complexity two days after opening. Creamy, minerally and well-balanced, displaying late harvest notes of sun-dried apricot and ripe papaya. Truly extraordinary when I last tasted this wine, an unusual and good wine this time.

This is Konyári’s classic Bordeaux cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from Southern-Balaton.

Purplish ruby with a dark core. On the nose quite restrained, displaying spices mingled with chocolate and a ripe mulberry undertone.  On the palate it’s medium-bodied, tight and gentle with a slightly tart soft tannic backbone supported by very subtle acidity of just the right quantity. No fruits here except the dark cherry flavoured finish. Well-structured, straightforward, well-made wine of low complexity but nothing to be too excited about as of now. So it’s a bit disappointing for HUF 4 000. Good aging potential though.

Note: it’ll respond well to decanting.

I can’t recall any Kékfrankos I ever really liked, Ráspi and Luka also considered. If you feel about the varietal the way I do, then keep on reading.

Orsolya Pince – Kékfrankos, 2008

Muddy ruby hue, very unattractive, but what follows could be the definition of unusual. Intense and ample nose with notes of anise which will soon develop into cocktail cherries. On the palate caramelized anise supported by moderate acidity, later with oyster and scallop stock flowing into a fairly long finish. Small bodied wine but exciting and full of surprises.

As long as structure and integration is concerned, this is the opposite of well defined wine, but it makes sense.

I realise that you might have different opinion about this wine since no one in my company that evening found it half as interesting as I did, although no one present is as geeky as I am either.

That evening we’ve also finished off a Bolyki Indián Nyár 2007 which is a Kékfrankos-based blend but it wouldn’t be fair to compare it to Orsolya’s, which costs twice as much anyway.

Pale lemon yellow. With so much butter on the nose the use of oak is too apparent, although not too disturbing, with light hints of fruit underneath. There’s too much scratchy tannin on the palate for such a small bodied wine. It’s an overall very light and pretty uninteresting Pinot Blanc.

We’ve finished off a bottle of Orsolya’s Abrakadabra the same evening and the contrast was stunning, but I can’t recall all the details and I didn’t mind buying a new bottle so the review will be coming soon.

Read more Rókusfalvy reviews here.