Budapest Daily Review

I already wrote about how I think that dessert wines can be just as good standalone desserts as any other. As there’s a difference however between dessert and dessert, there are different kind of dessert wines too of course but not just in terms of price and quality, but they can be of entirely different character too. To prove my point here, I now share with you 2 very different Tokaj wines, both perfect desserts but in very different ways.

Degenfeld – Aszú 5 Puttonyos, 2000.

Deep brownish, vibrant brassy color. Burnt walnut aromas on the nose. The palate is rich in sun-dried fruits, tangerine, orange and Gioabada (a kind of Goiaba fruit marmalade from Brazil). They could be supported by more acidity. It’s very sweet. The lemon zest and orange zest elements mingled with lemon grass make it very pleasant though and so does a date fruit element too on the finish. Just an hour later the nose will be lighter but deeper with honey and floral notes.

Score: 5+

Hétszőlő – Főbor (Kövérszőlő), 2007

Almost watery color with greenish reflections. The elegance of the nose is enticing. It’s fairly closed with ripe apple and pear aromas and spring field floral notes. These characteristics carry through onto the palate, which shows  fine citrus, peach and papaya elements and a fresh, lively character. Very soft, very nicely textured and it has a good structure too: not too sweet and so it just enough acidity. This is a light, relatively small-bodied wine with not so much sugar like glue in the mouth as you often find in late harvest wines. The wine follows a nice curve on the palate, it’s very succulent with only a smack of bitterness. Surprisingly enough, the nose has a mineral note too and there’s a chalky-mineral element on the mid-palate as well. But all very gentle and elegant. Everything’s in harmony.

Score: 5+/6

Kövérszőlő means „fat grape” due to its large berries and it had been one of the most widely planted grapes in Tokaj until the destruction of the vineyards by phylloxera in the 19th century. Today it’s the main variety in the Romanian Cotnari region. It regained a state classification in Hungary in 1998 and a small but increasing number of respectable (and more innovative) winemakers have achieved very nice results with them as sweet wines complementing the far most popular Furmint and Hárslevelű. It’s susceptibility to botrytisation and its high sugar content made it suitable to making Aszú as well as late harvest sweet wines, which in better years produced equal quality to 3-puttonyos Aszú .

I think however that Kövérszőlő is capable to demonstrate its own character therefore it should not be necesserily compared to Aszú. Moreover, it can be harvested one or two weeks before Furmint which extends the harvest period, giving another rational argument in its favor.

Interesting fact is that Királyleányka, a popular variety in the northern regions is a hybrid of Kövérszőlő and Leányka, another variety of Transylvanian origin.

The review (Hétszőlő – Kövérszőlő, 2006)

Hétszőlő’s perfectly oriented, loess slopes will never provide its wines with the minerality of its counterparts in Mád, for instance. This wine represents another style which is lighter and extremely lovely in both smell, taste and acidity.

It’s almost totally transparent in color and it’s very lively in the glass. I prefer serving it chilled between 5-10 degrees then it’s an extraordinarily light, lovely fresh sweet wine. It hides its almost unnoticible bitterness so you might want to let it heat a bit to fully enjoy it. The high level of extract sweetness is supported by very nice acids but with tannins almost totally absent.

It’s taste is not really comparable to anything so instead of trying to force associations let’s just say it tastes not too intensly, a little bit spicy but not as much as Hárslevelű and if you really want, you can associate it with „Multivitamin” juices (yep, even with that carrot/papaya taste in the background).

It’s 11,0% alcohol and the 0,5 liter bottle allows you and makes you wanna open another bottle very quicky, provided that you are willing to pay another 15 euros for another 10 minutes of weet curiosity. Not cheap, but still slightly more affordable than even the best 3 Puttony Aszús and its an excellent choice for a change. Especially if You’ve already had a purely Hárslevelű Aszú, but this will be another post.

Score: 6+/7- (because of its curiosity)

Price: EUR 15 (500 ml)

Furmint’s been emerging as a standalone dry wine recently from the shadows of the Aszú, following some really exceptional late harvest furmints (whose quality sometimes exceeds some mid-range Aszús). Hétszőlő’s been quite modest about their furmint and their shyness is a bit of a mystery. The 2004 was average, the 2005 was really not so bad.

I got some Hétszőlő Furmint 2006 few weeks after getting into bottles, long before being put on general sale and it was very promising even for a very young wine. Few months after it’s more developed, almost perfectly balanced. It’s traditionally bright coloured at Hétszőlő due to the soil (loess and clay on a base of vulcanic rocks) and the process of fermentation and maturing. It’s the exact opposite of the Mandolás Furmint from Oremus. Mandolás will be covered very soon, I still have a few bottles from the legendary 2003.

Hétszőlő is one of the most honest wineries in Tokaj and in the whole country. In poor years they produce average quality furmints and late harvests, but above the average of the competition. In better years, and when conditions are ideal for botritis rotting, they produce excellent Aszú. Their Kövérszőlő is one of the most enjoyable items in its category. Tibor Kovács is probably the most experimental wine maker in Tokaj. For him, terroir is more important than regulation, but we’ll talk about this later when we will be reviewing Aszú. And he’s an honest man too. He once told me that he believes that 80-90% depends on the grape, 10-20% (maximum) should depend on the winemaker. For sure, Hétszőlő owns some of the best slopes in Tokaj.

So let’s get to the note now.

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