I haven’t been following the winery as closely as I used to since the new generation of Figulas took over Balatonfüred’s possibly best winery, which certainly used to be the best ten years ago. I paid a visit in 2009 and what I found can be summerised as follows. They’re still strong in the lower price category but with an increasing focus on full-bodied and more complex white wines. The red wines are getting somewhat better but there’s nothing to be too excited about. The use of new oak is less obvious, but still important.

Figula – Olaszrizling, 2009

Bright lemon yellow with greenish reflections. Fresh nose of parsley and celery. Further on more vegetable notes on the palate supported by moderate (too little?) acidity and a hint of salty minerality. Later more juicy mouthfil adds to the already silky texture. It’s light, yet fairly complex wine with a medium-long finish, a lovely wine, very good drink but a bit pricy (HUF 3500).

This is going to be a bit personal and maybe even sentimental post. For a good recommendation only just skip to the bottom, I won’t take it personal (because I won’t know).

Whereas Balaton is the prime summer destination of Hungarian working class and a gangsters’ paradise, Balatonfüred is the last major city with some charm and also the starting point of a coastline of less than 50 kilometers actually worth visiting. I don’t know how they achieve that while being one of the most crowded places of the lake, but even the tourists are different here. You can walk on the most aristocratic promenade sipping your wine whilst spotting hundreds of  women wearing their best dresses (cheap, of course, sometimes provocative but always clean, ironed, selected carefully and with no taste at all). They often walk calmly with their partner hand in hand, the men usually wearing a sandal (still often with socks). Charming, adorable. There are very few drunk people, mostly the youth, who are loud and drunk but the landscape is different. The buildings are, of course, the main source of elegance of this city, the old villas of the Monarchy’s bourjoisie and the similarly old commercial buildings. All of these are getting renovated and refurbished, villas turned museums and wine stores opening here and there. Only for a good meal you need to cross the lake otherwise you have to rely on the local kiosks’ offering (usual suspects: lángos, palacsinta) and, especially in the row of wine kiosks’, sausage and fish, the suspiciously tasty deep-fried Hekk (of which a larger portion with some potato and kovászos uborka costs as much on a paper plate than a 3-course menu at Budapest’s Gold Bistro, for two persons!).

Balaton is nostalgy to me and for many of us I suppose (why else would people go there?) and I love it. For an hour or two at least. It gives me an enormous pleasure to be there, to smell the burnt oil of the food kiosks’, to watch the lake with the sailing boats, the hills, the gangsters, now the hypsters too, the inevitable remembrances of the communism (every employer in the country form the 60s on owned one, or sometimes a dozen buildings granted to their employees fora  week or two, especially to those who had children) but mainly the heros of communism, the working class, and I mean it in a very positive way.

The Balatonfüred wine festival is not a place for the yuppies to show-off and hence its charm. The wines are poor but who cares. They’re very well chilled (much better than at any other wine festival I’ve been at) and the people are relaxed and funny. A good reason to grab a glass of wine at one of the kiosks’ is that it’s the only place around Balaton where you’re not cheated, where the prices are more than reasonable, where a decent Fröccs comes cheaper than a mediocre, warm beer.

I wasn’t impressed with the wineries present but one: Koczor’s Sauvignon Blanc was so good I had to buy their most expensive bottle which, guess what, was very good too, for HUF 1 300 I think, an Olaszrizling from 2007 (!) of which I’ll post a review when I tasted it properly.

I noticed that lately I hardly miss the chance to taste one winemaker’s rosé as opposed to only a year ago. Have I become a converted fan of rosé wines or I just like them more because they’re mostly rich in red berry fruits flavors and warm aromas, they’re mostly bigger-bodied than their fellow white wines from the same price category but in the same time they drink extremely well in hot spring and summer days? And in most cases they’re better balanced than reds/whites from the same price category. Moreover,while most Hungarian red wines are still overpriced in international comparison, rosés tend to be competitive in international perspective. So no wonder that I didn’t resist Figula’s only rosé wine, the Kékfrankos rosé 2008.

The review

Medium-deep pink color with light brassy reflections. This Kékfrankos has a friendly, warm nose full of raspberry with a strawberry accent. Small-medium bodied and well balanced, this Kékfrankos is firm and well integrated on the palate with the help of a hint of saltiness to rebalance the hint of sweetness. There’s some gas smell element on the nose too which I find rather interesting.

Rosé wines are extremely favorable from cash-flow point of view. Take this Kékfrankos for instance. The grapes were harvested in early October and by the second week of November you could fully enjoy the wines. It’s a pity that by November most wine lovers turn to something more enjoyable at higher temperature.

Score: 5/5+

Három (I I I), 2007 is a blend of 25% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot. The wine has spent 5-6 months in Barrique. It has a nice purplish-ruby color with a rosé pink rim.

Surprisingly elegant on the nose, fairly dense but light in the same time releasing fresh forest berry fruit aromas. Medium acidic with slightly unripe but pleasant tannin. Medium-bodied, firm with a hint of warm sweetness. This wine will improve over the next two years but it’s already a pleasant cuvée.

Score: 5+ (/6-)

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.