Budapest Daily Review

Behind this stupid name is a blend of Sárgamuskotály, Hárslevelű and Furmint, late harvested in 2007. Tokaj late harvest wines are not only often very good and smart alternative to 3 or 4 Puttonyos Aszú wines, but they reach the consumers quicker than the Aszó wines and I’ve been looking forward to the sweet wines of 2007. Another reason to open this bottle was that I often drink late harvest (mostly Tokaj) wines when preparing sushi at home. Don’t ask me why, it happend once a few years ago and I find them a very good aperitif before sushi and they go surprisingly well with the rice vinegar and the raw fish. I didn’t have my usual suspect in stock this time so I went for this recent purchase from Degenfeld.

Medium-deep yellow hue between lemon and golden, nothing special there. The nose is relatively intense and full of tea with a floral accent. Hárslevelű certainly left its footprint there. It has a mouthfilling palate of ripe papaya, very ripe apricot and peach, quite sweet, supported by well integrated acidity. Good length with returning tea dominance and quite a lot of nutmeat. Later tangerine and tobacco too. Stirring it more will release hints of lemon juice and blood-orange aromas.

Fortissimo 2008 is already on sale but this 2007 will still age well, but I suggest you to enjoy it now.

Score: 6, 6-

Price: HUF 2 600

My first encounter with Kreinbacher wines didn’t impress me and I still couldn’t get used to their (sometimes overly) high prices although I now at least appreciate their efforts to find Somló’s new old character.

They embraced old grapes through their lower-end label Szent Ilona too. Entry-level cuvée Taposó-Kút is, every year, an Olaszrizling-based blend which in 2006 produced a more Furmint-like character instead. I at least attribute that sour-bitter element on the mid-palate (not at the finish as often seen in Furmint) which is so dominant in this wine to Furmint.

But let’s have a look at the color first: brigh hay hue, not very deep and very lively. Complex, yet friendly floral nose mingled with hints of honey and ripe tropical fruits having a vanilla undertone and a mineral accent. The palate has a mineral and bitter character because of the Furmint I suppose which also leaves its mark on the taste spectrum (along with marzipan).

Aged in mostly used large oak barrels during which the wine had a long contact with the lee (so characteristic to Kreinbacher wines) which is at least partly responsible for the lovely acidity being overshadowed by that bitter taste and texture. This wine would be very exciting without that, but it’s still a very decent effort and a good introduction to this side of Somló.

The wine’s not young and I don’t expect it to get any better with time.

Score: 5 points

Price: HUF 2 500

October is very cold this year but I couldn’t resist the sale at a retailer I often visit and I bought this Vörcsöki Furmint 2007 whose versison from 2006 I liked so much I chose it one of the most memorable ones I drank in 2008.

I was disappointed to see that one of the nicest wine labels has become a cheap replica of the previous year’s. Such a shame, I know it’s an inexpensive wine but I’d switch to screw cap first if I had to save some money. Let’s hope they didn’t compromise on quality inside…

The look has become a bit paler. The nose changed too although it remains very intense, but this time insted of fruity character it is rather floral, indeed honey-ish, more Furmint-like with hints of vanilla and salt - lot of it actually.

A little bit sweet on the palate, but this is well balanced by a salty mineral element and abundant acidity. Not too fruity, only some tanderine’s found there. Medium-large body and lot of pleasant acidity. There’s a bitterness brought in by Furmint, particularily accentuated at the finish. Very licvely acids.

We also finished off a bottle of Monarchia’s Chardonnay Battonage 2006 which I always looked at as something of fair value for the money, but this Kerkaborum, 60% cheaper and although beaten by its predecessor, is still not much behind it (and is still a best buy). And it is Furmint, which is not even taken into account, but important because it’s somewhat unique to this region (mostly accessible in Hungary and Slovenia).

Score: 5+

Price: HUF 1575 HUF 1 350

Sziget Fesztivál has become a must-go event on the yuppie calendar from students’ island 16 years ago. So has changed the line-up, the cultural offering and gastronomy of the festival too. I arrived late from work so I missed the Ting Tings gig and just in time to see the warming-up of the crowed for Bloc Party so I didn’t hesitate and went straight to the closest tent in front of the main stage and bought a very decent chicken tikka with a simple naan, before taking position near the sound control tower to see Bloc Party, where I immediately was almost peed on by German punks apparently fighting pre-mature incontinency. 

The real milestone in the shift of Sziget towards a more civilised event (and this is a double-edge sword) to me was the opening of Ászár-Neszmély’s prominent Hilltop winery’s booth a few years ago. Strategically located just 1 minute from the main stage so you can run to it during an act for refuelling, the booth’s relatively calm and shadowy atmoshpere made it an ideal spot for longer stays as well, especially for drinking and hipster-spotting - one of my favorite pass-times on Sziget. Hilltop’s price policy on the festival makes them very attractive to me, they’re by far the fairest gang on the island. 

Near the World Music main stage area I ran into a surprisingly empty stand of various wines also fairly priced and I went for Royal Tokaji Furmint 2007. Drinking from a plastic cup, I found it smoky and barrel-dominated on the nose but fairly fruity (however very Furmint-like) and rounded, interesting enough for a wine which cost you HUF 2 500 or so a bottle on a festival so I decided I’ll buy a bottle and write a proper review of it later.

This year’s big hit however is Pálinka - and Rézangyal dominated the scene. Their success lies mostly in their artificially flavored, wide offering, many of them mixed with honey which I simply don’t understand. Today, Pálinka is chic again among urban youngsters and middle-aged middle class people but I’m afraid that moving away from the current trend of flavored pálinkas will take just as much time as it took to get here.

Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is a less than 40 km-long coastline located in Liguria, south of Genova, stretching from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. It consists of five ancient fishing villages, interconnected by walking trails. It’s already too crowded so I won’t start to describe how beautiful the nature and the villages are and how friendly and symphatic its inhabitants are. 

Cinque Terre wines are practically unknown outside of the region for all the production is consumed locally. And instantly - hence there are virtually no vintage wines on the shelfs. Amongst visitors, the wines are extremely looked after - something to be thought about by Magyar Turizmus ZRt and mostly, the wine marketing gurus in Hungary. 

The vinyards are localed by the seaside but typically few dozen meters above sea level on steep rocky hills. When hiking the breathtaking trails I couldn’t stop thinking about the effort the peasants put into building the terraces that cover the best slops of the hills. Olive trees and grape are everywhere, mostly in places where the nearest road or port is 10 kms away far beyond the steep hillsides and deep valleys. No wonder they invented a kind of railway which runs 1,5 meters above ground and can carry 1 person or few dozen kilograms of freshly harvested grapes at a time - uphill. 

Grape varieties tinclude Albarola, Bosco and Vermentino. The first two are of unknown origin, while the third, Vermentino, was introduced into the area fairly recently. 

DOC wineries include Cooperative Agricoltura di Riomaggiore - Manarola - Corniglia - Vernazza - Monterosso and minor wineries. The flagship wines are sweet white wines, but dry white wines sell more: mostly in small local stores and restaurants, always, always served at about 5 degrees celsius - at least during the hot summers. 

Entry level dry wines start around EUR 6 (retails store price) and dessert wines are priced more often than not above EUR 30 a small bottle. Interestingly, restaurants apply significantly smaller uplift than Hungarian restaurants. 

Furmint vs Vendemmia

I’ve covered the Dereszla Furmint Szegi 2006 yesterday. The day after and on the second day the wine showed minor degradation only, with marzipan perfum becoming dominant (both the nose and on the palate). Quite interesting. 

The Cinque Terre Vendemmia 2007 has a deeper, more corn-like, friendly color. The nose is fresh grass and acidity and more and more apple and Traubi (for those who didn’t live in Hungary in the 80s, Traubi is a popular soda from the socialist era made of grape - or at least they told us so). There’s no better word to describe this slightly sparking, apple-like sensation. I can sense the notes of large old barrel, but it’s not disturbing, rather it grants the wine a rustic accent. Low acidity and low sugar level. Full-bodied wine with minerality. The nose later becomes gooseberry and continental fruits and mediterranean fresh spices. 

I would say that the Furmint is trying to be more serious whilst the Vendemmia is full of fun.  Both are good wines, and Vendemmia wins by price. 

Score: 5+, 6-

Price: EUR 8,5

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After searching the internet for some information about Dereszla winery using what they claim to be the most efficient search engine available I gave up and turned to their merchant’s website. Here’s what I found:

“Egy francia cég,” Gam Audy” tulajdonában van a Dereszla pincészet. A tulajdonos Bordeaux-ban is rendelkezik birtokokkal.” (Translation: The owner of Dereszla winer is a French company called “Gam Audy”. The owner also owns land in Bordeaux)

I pressed the refresh button because I thought the page just stopped loading. But no, there you are. Apparently, that’s all you need to know. But to be honest, it’s even too much compared to the listing of wines offered online from this winery (zero) although I bought this wine at their shop only few weeks ago.

About

After the success of Dorombor and Dry on these pages I had to write about Tokaj’s one of two flagship dry varieties from Dereszla. This sentence alone would generate debate since the battle between Furmint and Hárslevelű is far from an end. I am not the one who’s going to decide which one would represent better Tokaj (the terroir, the history, the quality, etc.). But since there are so many interpretations of both varieties, perhaps it’s a good idea to taste the sortiment of a winery who’s producing such remarkable cuvées and not just the mandatory Furmint or Hárslevelű.

The review

The wine has light color and a slightly oily move.

The nose is very intense at opening with mostly Furmint and light acacia honey notes, plus minerals. It’s not like an eau de toilette or even eau de Cologne, but like essence of perfume.

On the palate unexpected acidity combined with bitterness providing support for the extract sweetness, or at least it tries to.

The nose soon switches to vanilla, cinnamon and underlying asian spices, mostly curry and tamarind.

I enjoy the long bitter finish with minerality of this full-bodied wine.

However the wine feels like it’d been put together in a very haphasard way. I believe that Dereszla is still searching for its style and this is a good, indeed interesting but from an end result point of view not extraordinary tentative to define itself in the Furmint arena.

Score: 5+ points

Price: HUF 2 690/ EUR 11

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As the winner of this month’s label beauty contest (awarded by me) and having been recommended by a wine shop clerk at Bortársaság (Ráday utca, if you wanna know, the best Bortársaság store in my opinion for the guy actually tasted apparently all the wines) this Furmint did create expectations, despite its modest price (I don’t want to upset anyone so I won’t say it’s cheap, but I might so).

The review

Rather deep golden color with some brownish reflections. Very intense bouquet, parched or very ripe apricot and mandarin, promising some sweetness and not too harsh acids. Already the bouquet indicates long contact with its lee, possibly battonage. The nose also includes other interesting odours, like lavender with herbal notes. On the palate it seems late harvest, it’s full, woody (but not tannic) and a great deal of bark and cinnamon.

The acids get a momentum first then they lay in the back, staying there for long but not too intensely. Later on the palate flan and roasted almond. Further on, marzipan. At higher temperature (which by the way this wine appreciates) alcohol. The wine does not leave fresh, young impression at all.

After one or two hours I sense more sweetness and more rocky minerality.

This wine alone would work well as an entire meal from starter to dessert. At this price, with the store’s discount, it’s a bargain too.

Score:6, 6+

Price: HUF 1650/ EUR 7 (retail list price)

I don’t even dare to translate the word “Bországgyűlés” for You, although the significant number of foreigners who visited the event despite the heavy rain which lasted almost the whole day would deserve a try. Anyway, it wasn’t a gathering of the nations’ parliamentary delegates of winemaking as the name would suggest, I was actually surprised by the small number of wineries present, but even more by their distribution within the festival area. Despite the intense grass and other natural smell coming from the surrounding park in the rain I tried to take tasting notes. My idea was that I would taste and review the winners of the VIIth Pannon Bormustra contest. Unfortunately very few of the winners actually exhibited at the Festival so I’ll indicate in the table below those who won the “Top Wine” awarded by a jury consisting of international experts like Dante Brancaleoni and winemakers like René Rostaing as well as Hungarian wine drinkers or so called experts. As always, please read the following report as a rough guide only, since I hardly ever spit during a wine tasting (unless the wine is really rubbish) and the local food selection has also provided a strong smelly background which certainly distorted the senses. So here’s a quick snapshot from the Festival, without any in-depth analysis.

Here’s a photo from the venue of one of Budapest’s most important wine festivals.

I’ve been preparing to write about this wine until many things I wanted to write are now out of date. But please continue reading, having in mind that these are my thoughts today (yesterday, actually).

I must admit that I’m relatively new to Tokaj wines. At the heights of my snobbery, drinking sweet wines was out of question. This only started changing 3 years ago under heavy influence of a local winemaker. Now I can only laugh at myself, how pathetic it was not being able to find the place of Tokaj wines in wine drinking. Anyway, my attention towards Tokaj started few years after Tokaj producers realised the potential in Furmint and Hárslevelű. Even today, only a handful of them are taking the dry Tokaji seriously. Most of them still think of it as a side-effect of variable climate: botritis-based noble rotting does not happen every year, at least not with the required intensity. And the result is either late harvest wines (which do not sell in large quantities - although it should, but this will be the subject of another post yet to come) or dry Furmint. Traditionally, these were mostly sold as bulk-wines but fortunately some quality winemakers started exploring the terroir in these wines. And the grapes appreciated their efforts, resulting in exceptional dry furmints in 2000 repeating it in almost every year. Of course, its quality still varied each year, so the better the conditions were, more Aszú were produced and less dry Furmint. In spite of this, you can still buy from the exceptional Oremus Mandolás Furmint 2003 and I celebrated this so much I bought several bottles from that year’s harvest.

I must admit I like Furmint a bit more than Hárslevelű, which tend to be more spicy.

The review

Now let’s get to the wine.

First of all, the nose is still at its best: very intense, a mixture of honey, cinnamon and lemon raspings. Beautiful, very dense. Unlike the more elegant Hétszőlő (Hétszőlő represents to me a whole other school of Furmint making), Mandolás is (although heavier on the nose and on the palate) more playful, sunny. Its maker’s objective was to impress you immediately when you sniff it. Good job, well done. Well balanced in on the nose, a whirlpool of sweetness and a bitter undertone. When you taste it, the whirlpool takes to the rocky bottom: it’s a mixture of minerals and pear, or rather quiche. Yes, because almond is also present with a mouth-filling sensation. Then suddenly, earlier than just a few months ago, its age takes over the taste and turns it into a tart, but still tasty, long finish. It recalls the memories of multi-colored fall leafs in its taste. And nice touch of mineral sensation remains.

This wine is now on sale with a discount, at around HUF 2 100 which still qualifies it for a best buy but only just, and not for long. So go and get one and drink it immediately.

Score: 6+ (it used to be a 7/7+ not so long ago)

Price: HUF 2 100 (EUR8)

I must admit I am not a regular festival visitor and I was surprised by the size of the Somló Tavasz festival: about a dozen twin kiosks, a hundred visitors and a huge tent describe well the scale of this event on the meadow on the outskirts of Somlóvásárhely. According to my winemaker friend, 40% of the visitors are regular festivalgoers who never miss one (hence the marketing value of the event is a bit questionable). All ages and all types of people were present: old ladies from the neighbouring villages sat in the tent quitely sipping their drinks while staring at the stage to check the appearance of a folklore dance group, there were families wandering around, kids riding horses, and some young folks trying to get a bit drunk. I really couldn’t spot any of the urban yuppies here who usually frequent these types of events. And no foreigners either.

It was charming and looked more like a big family reunion in a family where winemaking tradition’s got its roots from times when Juhfark was not yet recognised as a standalone grape.

Besides the local names (Györgykovács, Tornai, etc.) almost the same number of guest winemakers offered their wines, with few exceptions almost only from 2006 and 2005.

I really don’t think that festivals allow you to do some in-depth analysis of wine, it’s rather a quick scan of where are we standing and tasting unknown wines and trying to memorise those that you would like to try at home. So here are my notes, but since I did swallow all of these (at least in quantities of 1/2 dl) the objectivity is questionalbe. So I keep the order, I leave it to you what “filter” you apply to my judgement.