Budapest Daily Review

But you wouldn’t tell. I must admit I opened these wines on a special occasion which also happened to be an open-air barbecue. So my notes are short and include an unusual level of uncertainty.

The aim is clear: how’s been the Gere Cabernet Sauvignon Barrique and Kopár Cuvéé (both from the classic 2000 vintage) evolved over the years. Bot were kept in cellar in equal conditions. Perhaps the Cabernet Sauvignon has a handicap for having spent few weeks in my apartment prior to moving to a proper place.

The review

Gere Attila – Cabernet Sauvignon Barrique, 2000

Dark ruby color with purplish reflections and a brick rim.

Typical cabernet and paprika nose with raspberry underpinning.

On the palate sour, robust tannins and acidity. In my memories this was a full-bodied wine but I had to wait an hour to recover that feeling. In the same time the tannin hydes behind the acidity. Overall the wine doen’t really improve in the decanter.

Too old, the sine hasn’t delivered the expected potential.

Score: 4/5-

Price: unavailable. 2005: HUF 4 300 / EUR 18

Gere Attila – Kopár Cuvée, 2000

Lively deep cherry color. It gets much much deeper with time.

Full-bodied wine with some residual sugar, round acidity and elegant, velvety tannins. On the palate intense chocolate flavor and sour cherry. Huge body. Merlot is dominant. Still fresh and lively.

The wine still has potential for at least a couple of years.

Score: 7+/8-

Price: unavailabe, or sky-high. Newer vintages range between HUF 7 000 and 9 000.

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

Few wineries are selling their young wines from the barrel to the masses. As long as buying en primeur is concerned, the 4 key factors in my decision are: inflation rate, en primeur discount (price), year of harvest and risk. The latter is the only unpredictable. Attila Gere himself made less well-done Kopár in rather good year (2003) and good wine in well, average year (2004). Especially with the recent change in the cuvée’s composition (now it’s 50% merlot and 50% cabernet franc), so no cabernet sauvignon which had been so characteristic in the past’s Kopárs (around 40%), our risk-taking appetite must be increased to consider buying en primeur this year. So what about the price then? HUF5800 (EUR 23) gross is slightly more than 4% more than the en primeur price 2 years ago. Inflation’s exceeding it by 3-4 percentage points this year. So fair enough, from this point of view. The said 2004 item’s now on sale at wine&arts for 10500 (EUR 41) a bottle, which is an 88% increase in 2 years compared to HUF 5568 (EUR 22). Fair enough even for us who underestimated the inflation 2 years ago. If you’re a fan or simply have a big wine-lover family or friends, you shoud go for the 2xdozens and get a Magnum free. Provided that the 88% return on your investment is sufficient to cover the risk of Gere repeating his under-performance of 2003 and the replacement of CS by Merlot and CF. You still have 2 weeks to decide, a lot more than in an afternoon after a Central Bank interest rate committee meeting like today .