This is Konyári’s classic Bordeaux cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from Southern-Balaton.

Purplish ruby with a dark core. On the nose quite restrained, displaying spices mingled with chocolate and a ripe mulberry undertone.  On the palate it’s medium-bodied, tight and gentle with a slightly tart soft tannic backbone supported by very subtle acidity of just the right quantity. No fruits here except the dark cherry flavoured finish. Well-structured, straightforward, well-made wine of low complexity but nothing to be too excited about as of now. So it’s a bit disappointing for HUF 4 000. Good aging potential though.

Note: it’ll respond well to decanting.

As I’m always happy to meet a new winery I can’t be too negative this time, could I? Plus, Merfelsz seem to be lovable folk: small estate (12ha), charmingly useless website, family tradition, Szekszárd roots, what’s not to liket? Nectar Sexardique is the flagship cuvée of the winery I suppose (for there is a whole empty page dedicated to it in the main menu of the winery’s website) and if you couldn’t make a decent wine in 2008 in Szekszárd then perhaps you’re in the wrong industry. Let’s see if they are.

Merfelsz – Doppio, Nectar Sexardique, 2008

According to the label on the bottle (there’s more useful information on it than anywhere else on the web combined about the wine) this is a kind of late harvest wine, which explains the alcohol (14.5%, might be too much for you, but not for me). This wine has seen 14 months in oak, unfiltered. So far it sounds like this wine mas made for me.

The nose is fresh and fruity with wild berries. Similar palate with mulberry and black-currant and tasty sour cherry bitterness. There’s no finesse here or elegance especially as long as the tannin’s concerned, at least partly due to some harsh acidity at the finish. After decanting and leaving it for a while it’ll be more evolved structurally as well as taste-wise, developing fine dark chocolate aromas.

Still much to learn, Merfelsz, and perhaps it would be wise to reconsider the pricing as well.

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.

Hangács Bikavér 2008 is almost identical to Áldás 2008 (aka El fin de la inocencia) except that it’s not. And not just that Syrah didn’t make it to the blend at Hangács (and it’s not the less oak either). It looks like only Pinot Noir did. Hangács Pinot Noir 2006 wasn’t a huge wine itself but I wonder if Hangács Pinot Noir 2008 is any different from the Bikavér Blend made in 2008.

St. Andrea – Hangács Bikavér, 2008

Medium ruby, clear and lively. Spicy bouquet with hints of anise, clove and Açaí berry, very Pinot Noir-esque. Fresh but warm style on the palate with very smooth tannins and a sour cherry core bitterness. Loose in terms of structure, thinner than Áldás first, as far as I can judge, but feels bit more weighty after some exposure to air. The acidity remains a bit scratchy on the midpalate for hours but the palate will be packed full of fine dark chocolate.

Should be decanted long before drinking. Not so expressive at present, this Bikavér may still age better than Áldás 2008.

One more remark: this wine shouldn’t have passed the Bikavér examination. Because it’s not one.

Price: HUF 3 750

A stock clearance of a well known retailer provided my with a good opportunity to acquire some bottles for party people coming to visit us from time to time, you know smokers and alike. Some of these wines were so disappointing they drove me to the conclusion I made about mediocre wine reviews in this post. Tiffány’s Portugieser 2009, Tiffán’s Imortal cuvée 2007 and Tűzkő’s Sauvignon Blanc 2008 were good match with cigarettes only really. The following two wines were the best of the lot, so far.

The wines

Chateau Kajmád – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Kékfrankos, 2003

Considering it was made in 2003 we can call this an early bird of it’s kind with it’s 14% alcohol.

The look: A dark core surrounded by pigeon blood hue and a pale brownish rim, with some purplish reflections.

Nose: Interesting spices coming through a stuffy bouquet at first, things like turmeric-favored plum and other oddities.

Palate: Dirty. After 90 minutes it evoles structurally but I’d like more definition to it. The wine’s texture is oily and I’m suspecting a good deal of glycerin here. The tart fruityness I would even call pleasant would it not been ruined by the whole picture including quite a lot of half powdery, half sticky overflowing tannins soaked up by the glycerin. The wine has a dirty character which I associate with many – even not so old – Ch. Kajmád wines, very much the opposite of the clean Konyári or Gróf Buttler wines.

Hilltop – Prémium Merlot 2008

Look: dead ruby.

Nose: mulberry syrup, very fruity.

Palate: Ligh-bodied wine with blueberry wrapped in burnt rubber and licorice aromas. Soft texture and polished tannins. But as a whole it’s too “made” and simple.

Evaluation: forget about it.

Nice color, good look. On the nose wet forest soil, mainly, dense and heavy for a Kékfrankos. Further on whirling, robust, unripe and bitter tannins dry out the mouth. Underneath the tannic blast lie layers of surprisingly fine susbstance but hardly any of it comes through. It will open a little releasing ripe forest fruit aromas, too little, too late.

Score: 3 points

Price: HUF 3000

Next in the row in the hunting for good red wines under HUF2000 series this Kékfrankos was recommended by a merchant who’s very proud of his discoveries of unknown or smaller wineries (as a matter of fact Levendula Pince’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a best seller in his store ever since I introduced it to him but I wasn’t so lucky with his recommendations so far). I was a bit disappointed by a bottle of Losonci Kékfrankos the guy once recommended to me and other minor disappointments followed.

This Halmosi Kékfrankos has a good-looking bottle (I keep forgetting taking pictures lately). The nose suggests very ripe material, aged in large used barrel ( but that’s my guess only).The reality’s different. Clear nectarine aroma on the palate but the wine is too acidic which doesn’t suite this rather thin wine. Relatively long tannic-bitter finish.

Score: 3+/4-

Price: HUF 2 100

Meeting winemakers is as important as it is usually misleading. Always. No exception, the only difference is that there are pleasant and not so pleasant meetings. I like to make friendship with a wine, or at least get to know it without being influenced by the vineyard, the winemaker, the weather, football results or anything else. This is important to me and for the impartial view you can encounter on this blog. It can be annoying when I’m introduced to the winemaker even before I could dive my nose into a glass and sniff the wine, for minutes, not caring about the looks I’m getting from the surrounding people. I was hiding in Terroir Club’s small tasting room the other day as much as I could but there was a guy, a young one with a very honest, straightforward look in the eye who looked so seriously interested in tasters’ opinion that he shook my hand before I could fix my eyes on the label. First impression counts so I avoided handshake with the already known winemakers in the room. I may be rude but I think these guys were doing their job and I was doing mine (even if mine’s was more pleasant than theirs). Moreover, I had to finish my job before more yuppies (I guess from Ericsson nearby) fill the room with their Calvin Klein, Armani, and D&G perfumes (fortunately I learned to close out nonsense speeches and background noises years ago when working in a cubicle stuck between our secretary, my deeply neurotic (and paranoid) boss and the passers-by). My first impression this time was deepened by an article I googled out, I won’t link the page in but it’s one one of the google hits you may find about Gábor Karner. But impressions will come after I would meet him in his vineyard, hopefully not in the very far future, there’s no need to rush, we’ll hear about the guy.

That I used to be skeptical about Mátraalja wines is an understatement. So far, Szecskő Tamás was the only beacon of hope from the region to me so I was glad to discover few minutes ago on tokestarsak.hu that Karner and Szecskő apparently were in fact soul mates. But at least sharing a passion for capital. Or vines. Or both. Heck, you should speak Hungarian to understand the irony of the word “tőkéstársak”.

The review

Kékfrankos 2007: with it’s deep, black-purplish color, this wine looks everything but a Kékfrankos from Mátraalja. Dense on the nose with stewed cherry. Very firm tannic underpinning on the palate supporting a medium bodied wine which wouldn’t need so much support at all. Less fruity than its nose with tannins sharp as a blade, leaving a long mark starting from the mid-palate.

Score: 4+/5-

Vitézföld 2007 is the heavy-weight edition of the “simple” Kékfrankos but it’s 100% the same grape. As long as the nose is concerned they could be brothers but with 75 kilos of difference. This deep purplish Kékfrankos with even darker reflections is warmer, with a sweeter nose, heavier, more alcoholic and dense, but almost velvety (still talking about the nose). Later an earth element with a woody accent and a mineral character (and something else too, quite clearly, but I don’t really dare to say it: a plastic-rubber toy kind of element). On the palate this Kékrankos is full-bodied, more syrup-like with firm, heavy but not too harsh, although a little bit unripe tannins. Long, quite seriously tannic finish. Let’s give it some time to smoother, I’m really looking froward to see how it turns out. This extremely low-yield combined with the passion of handicraft youth in this northern corner reminds me of Orsolya Pince’s early days. Way to go.

Score: 5+/6-

Most people believe that this award is too political. Several winemakers I spoke to think the same. My personal opinion is that it may be political but many of the winners have, at some point in their careers, deserved the title, for different reasons. Just take a look at the list:

1991 Tiffán Ede,1992 Báthori Tibor,1993 Vesztergombi Ferenc,1994 Gere Attila,1995 Thummerer Vilmos,1996 Polgár Zoltán,1997 Bock József, 1998 Gál Tibor,1999 Kamocsay Ákos,2000 Figula Mihály,2001 Szepsy István,2002 Malya Ernő,2003 Árvay János,2004 Takler Ferenc,2005 Vincze Béla,2006 Garamvári Vencel,2007 Frittmann János.

Did yo notice how every major region has a man of the year yet? And buy the way, not a single women.

You know, 2 Hungarians, 3 opinions. So don’t expect that Hungarians would agree with the list above. Anyway, we should at least challenge the judges of the “Hungarian Wine Academy”, won’t we?

I picked a mid-range red wine from a good vintage,  and this is what I found.

The review

Konyári – Loliense, 2006

Beautiful, lively deep ruby – cherry color. It has a move of a full-bodied wine but not oily.

The nose is perfectly ripe sour cherry and a little chocolate with a cherry accent, and a mineral undertone.

It’s tannins are still edgy but rather elegant, not the brutal harsh tannins which are often found in this segment. But there’s lot of it due to the Cabernet Sauvignon probably (and to 15 months in oak), although the wine as a whole has a rather Cabernet Franc-ish character, or at least, to a larger extent than the actual CF part would suggest (20%).

Unfortunately the fruity notes of the nose are almost absent on the palate and with time they almost completely disappear. But the wine has a nice body with good structure and nice texture, supported by sufficient acidity. The tannin backbone provides a stability that allows the wine to evolve over a couple of hours and further until the next day. Well balanced and it’s 13.5% alcohol passes unnoticed.

It’s an overall good wine, but for HUF 4 500 you can find better.

Score: 6- (/10)

Price: HUF 4 500 (EUR appr. 18)

Dark ruby color with brick rim. 

The berry fruit bouquet quickly disappears behind spices like white pepper, and a chalky accent. 

On the palate woody, sour tannic texture. The bitterness is over the top to my taste. It’s like the winemaker was trying to battle the difficulties of the vintage with a lot of oak. 

45 minutes of decanting opens it a little and brings some chocolate and leather elements to the nose.

I could appreciate the almost full body and the wine’s medium complexity but the incisive tannins wouldn’t let flavours really come through. The long, sour finish makes it very difficult indeed. 2 hours decanting and a very ripe cherry note makes it a bit more interesting. 

This cuvée, maybe in a better vintage with some adjustments could be much much better. I’m looking forward to the 2006 but as of now, the 2005 is overpriced. 

Score: 5 points

Price: appr. EUR 17