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
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
Who’s to blame if the wine clearly doesn’t deliver the expected quality: the winery, the retailer or the wine critics?
Olaszrizling is homeground for Légli Ottó so I wasn’t suspicious when I bought the bottle (20%, must be a bargain!) although I didn’t like the label (yes, it does count). I’ve always had a very positive attitude to Légli and I was really looking forward to a nice evening.
The review
Lots of bubbles when uncorked and a pale golden tone in colour. It has a pleasant apple pie nose with cinnamon and some lemon accent.
On the palate a rather unpleasant sour acidity. Bitter but somewhat refreshing too. The wine is medium-thin with hardly noticeable fruits and minerality. The unripe apple isn’t sufficient to provide body to it. The wine doesn’t improve after an hour.
Major disappointment.
Score: 3- points
Price: HUF 2 300 (EUR 8,5 – retail)
Pale, bright color and lively move. Nice apple pie nose with cinnamon and some minerality.
On the palate surprisingly sour acidity burns the tongue. Small body, short finish. Brutally harsh acids with some unripe apple undertone.
Very imbalanced, not an expressing wine but quite refreshing. Not very convincing, only slightly better than Leo’s.
Score: 4 points
Price: HUF 1980 (EUR8)
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
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
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 started the International Perspective blog entry category for orientation purposes and the most difficult thing about it is finding peer group members in the international space on reasonable ground. I have no strick rules so I thought I just would pick 2 wines (possibly of similar size on territory size parity, for Hungary being quite small) within a certain price range.
This time however I’ve chosen 2 well-known Wachau Riesling wines and tasted them against a relatively unknown Hungarian producer. To be fair, all vintages are widely considered good or outstanding.
I reviewed Szabo Zoltán’s Riesling 2006 recently. It was fresh, with intense floral and grassy nose with a hint of vanilla. On the palate citrus and peppermint, supported by robust, rustic acidity and intense aromas mostlyderiving from long lee contact. And stony minerality. The nose and the palate were in harmony in this full-bodied wine. It has wild but pleasant complexity. It also kept its quality for a day.
Few weeks later I noticed a smoky undertone, some woody accents and unripe apricot.
Score: 6+/7-
Jamek is one of the best-known Wachau winemakers. The Jamek Riesling Jochinger 2007 was brighter than Szabo’s riesling, with crab apple nose. On the palate greenish acidity supporting crab apple, grapefruit and minerality with herbal accents. Very refreshing, still round wine. The traubi-like bitterness provides pleasant freshness along with the young but already elegant acidity. The bouquet is later completed with paraffin.
It’s overall a young, fresh, dynamic wine which is pleasant to drink and has a local character.
Score: 5, 5+
I thought opening a Smaragd would be unfair. So I opened a Domane Wachau Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 2005 inadvertently. But it turned out to be good because I only noticed my mistake after a few sips and to my biggest surprise I found the followings.
Medium gressy color with greenish reflections. Rich bouquet, intense, lovely floral and fruity nose (mango, citruses, walnut), very elegant, very pleasant to sniff.
Nicely styled on the palate but shows different character, less aromas. A bit woody and bitter with long acidity. Wet grass on the palate much later with minerality. The day after the grass element is even longer and more intense. Almost full body. Good wine but slightly disappointing for HUF 4 500 (EUR 18) against Szabó Zoltán’s HUF 1 500 (EUR 6).
Score: 6, 6+
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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: Too long between drinks, Whineguy - good to see you back.
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: Hi John V., thanks a lot, sounds delicious (from what I read about it).