Mix and match of ready made wines is kind of a cheating to me but it can be a very delicious sin. In 2009 Gál Lajos, Lőrincz György, Hagymási József, Sike Tamás and Rabóczki Attila used some of their wines from Boldogságos, Kántor tag, Rózsás and Szarvas vineyards and made a blend of Olaszrizling.

Ripe maize inclined to gold hue. Dense nose of delicious rocky minerals mingled with a hint of vanilla (petunia?). Similarly styled palate, a bit rustic, almost robust.

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 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).

Lemon yellow with greenish reflections. Nettle on the nose. On the palate notes of celery and lovage mingled with light chalky minerality. Very short length. The acidity tastes flat and dull.

I’m a bit disappointed.

I’ve been looking forward to this post for, like, ever. Here it is.

Bott Frigyes – Rizling vlašský, 2009

Vibrant lemon hue. The nose is sweet, stylish minerality with an almond accent. Very attractive.

Clear and clean character with firm acidic determination. This prickling mineral acidity is rigorously accentuated throughout the palate, rebalanced by some residual sugar or alcohol (14%). Robust acidity with a tasty chalky salty charm.

I think it’s a tremendous wine. Forget fruits. This is pure acid filtered through the savory chalky peaks of the Carpatians.

How to drink? Better served chilled and decanted an hour before drinking. It goes well with a slightly cooler or warmer bottle of the same wine.

I didn’t disappear for more than a week because I didn’t drink anything good but because I’ve been drinking too much lately. Mostly in public and mostly way too much and I don’t expect that December would be any better. But fortunately I still managed to spend some quality time alone with some lovely wines, like this one right now when I’m writing this post and will publish soon, although not the subject matter Olaszrizling from Csopat but that’ll be another post anyway.

I asked the winemaker which is the single best white wine he’d recommend me to take away and he picked this one without any hesitation. Although I heard winemakers from North-Balaton complain about 2007 I took it.  You may want to read about this visit and his Syrah 2006, and also about his artisanal ways here.

Tamás Pince – Olaszrizling, 2007

Mature, medium deep vibrant golden yellow. Very densely styled but fairly fresh nose, packed full of citrus fruits and mustard. It evolves into sweet citrus with a minerally uppertone. On the palate lively acidity carries a massive layer of minerality. Very much like Szabó Zoltán’s classic Rajnai Rizling except a fading tart finish and it’s a touch woody too. Very juicy with lemon zest and grapefuit flavoured acidity mingled with adorable salty minerality stretching into a long finish. It seems to develop a more moderately fresh, less acidic character with longer exposure to air.

A charming little house on a mini-estate of 2.5 hectares with south-western exposure above Balatonudvari is where up and coming Skrabski Fruzsina’s wines are made (by, or with the isgnificant aid of Zoltán Kurucz winemaker, for the record).

It’s a good reference winery for me because the small (if Skrabski’s estate is “mini-” then we can call it nano-) land I almost bought 2 years ago is just a few hundred meters away. The land I was bidding for was only 0.5 hectar with 8 rows in total, of which the 2 on the side closer to Tihany yielded tremendous Pinot Gris according to the seller, so much better than the next row 2 meters away! If that’s true then those few hundred meters could mean a whole world apart in terms of quality and style but still, it feels like this could have been my wine (were not it made of Olaszrizling, of course). Now you can imagine my excitement!

This Olaszrizling comes in a nice bottle and with a medium-pale lemon yellow color. Fresh nose with apple here. Tight, cool and fresh style on the palate too with a light minerally accent. Well balanced at this point. Unfortunately the wine seems structurally a bit unstable and all the aroma disappears as well after some exposure to air, quickly losing most of it’s charm.

With a little improvement in the cellar and in the vineyards, a bit better pricing and the continued availability of these nice bottles from the shelves of a well known retailer will certainly ensure success for the winery.

Score: 4-

Price: HUF 1 700

Pale golden yellow wine with a light, weedy, Sauvignon blanc-esque nose and nettle. Very light, ultra thin wine yet well balanced with sharp but light acidity. It’s fantastically tasteless but somewhat refreshing.

Score: 3+/4–

Price: HUF 1000

Pale hay hue. Unusually gassy bouquet but it lacks the flinty character which had become the trademark of Lajos Takács. It’s stoney though, elegantly minerally. And it’s sharp, light but full of ckicken stock mingled with lovage, kohlrabi and parsley.

On the palate it has a grip and it’s sharp but it’s smoothened by an underlying polished, butter-flavored creaminess. Elegant, just enough acidity except the tired finish which is dull, lacks the vibrant acidity and tastyness of the midpalate.

It’s still a good wine but a bit pricey for that.

Score: 5+ points

Price: HUF 3000