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

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 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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The International Perspective category is supposed to consist of blind testing of pairs of wine of similar price range and style, one Hungarian and one from somewhere else. This time, however, I only had one, but at the end I could pair it with a Hungarian white wine.

The review

Medium-pale hay color. The tears hardly move on the glass, then they do it very slowly and in thin drops.

Smells riesling, not too intensely and pretty much that’s it, with a little bit of paraffin.

On the palate it’s robust acids are sliding on oil. Yep, no tannins scratch your tongue, instead the Riesling fills it with an oily texture that covers the acids a little bit but then the acids win. No fruits, no floral tones, no minerals, only acids. And a lot of them. They are fresh but nothing else really.

And the oil feels like a lip balm.

The wine is one-dimensional and it does not get any better with time (why would?). If I really want to, then I can say that it tastes grass and unripe crab apple.

Looks very much like Nyakas’ Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (except the oil), which received some better reviews than mine so I’ll have to taste it again to confirm my previous tasting score.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 6-7

It’s difficult to avoid to have high expectations if you open a bottle of Merlot from a legendary winemaker even from a not so good vintage. Bock József is one of the best known winemakers who gained his reputation for making some of the revolutionary wines in the nineties (well, with Hungarian standards, of course). I still have a bottle of his Royal Cuvée from 1996, which I found too old 2 years ago when I last opened one, but it’s still nostalgic and an interesting experience. Fortunately even most medium quality red wines’ qality from the new millennium exceed the quality of most “legendary” reds from the nineties. But for those who started to enjoy Hungarian wines in the nineties it’s always gonna be nostalgic to remember those days. But let’s leave nostalgy for another entry, I still keep a dozen or two bottles from that decade so I hope we can discuss them later.

The review

Surprisingly brick color, it looks much older than it is actually. Brick and stewed cherry.

Another surprise to me is the oily texture, the wine is literally slicing in the glass. The wine reminds me of Iporos 2006, a 91 points Parker wine which I did not like that much.

Very ripe cherry taste and lot of wood both is smell and in taste. It’s tannins remain harsh even after an hour. Just like in the nineties. Lot of wood.

I got a bit sentimental in the intro of this post I know. And this wine isn’t even that different from the Bock wines in the nineties. And I know he can do much better than this.

Score:5, 5+

Price: I don’t know how much I paid for it back then. The 2006 costs 13 euros. That would be way too much for the 2002. My perception is that most Bock wines are now overrated. Well, they’ve always been, but some of them are really good at least.

Despite a recent disappointment caused by Ebner’s Chardonnay from 2006, I decided to give them another chance and I bought a Portugieser at Bortársaság who put these on sale with 15% discount. With the recent volatility of euro against the forint, this seemed like a bargain at EUR 5,5 a bottle for a wine which received some nice reviews in 2007.

The wine has a quite transparent, but interestingly beautiful plum, bright purple color. It’s also quite lively which indicated its lack of body. Smell is dominated by wood and a hint of red currant and cranberry. Unfortunately this Portugieser is far too thin to my taste. In taste tannins dominate all and it’s not being compensated by body and fruityness at all.

After an hour I can smell a bit of tobacco and chocolate but not enough.

Score: 3+ points

Price: EUR 6,5

Nyakas, Budai Sauvignon Blanc, 2006

This wine is like a Caipirinha without cachaca and with some extra lime.

Grass dominates its smell and its taste, besides wet hay. Plus lot of unripe peach. Loads of acid.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 7.5

It’s a misterious fact that even popular restaurants tend to have an awful wine list, either in-house selection or made for them by their wine supplier. Someone could explain me the 2006 Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvignon on the list in early 2008? People, taste it, or ask someone, outsource your choice!

Anyway, I believe that my dinner yesterday in Kiskakukk restaurant may require some explanation as well. Being a typical tourist trap (fake-hungarian cuisine, terrible service, fake-nostalgic interior, wines…) it should not attract me normally, but my foreign guest insisted in wanting to eat Hungarian “disznótoros” (mostly sausage, black-pudding and even more exotic parts of pork) I had no other choice than (since I don’t know these restaurants) I had to make an extremely quick internet research.

We finished 2 bottles of wine during the evening, both sold to us at HUF 4 000 (EUR 16). The first choice was a light Kékfrankos (better known as Blaufrankisch in the rest of the world).

The review – Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos 2005

Intense, deep fresh raspberry/cherry colour. So far so good.

The smell translates into similar taste with a slightly different tone. Excellent transition, smell and taste walk hand in hand. The fruityness disappears relatively quickly and the finish is smooth, no sign of tannin, alcohol burning or too much acid. Nice finish. It’s an overall charming, nice wine. EUR 9 is a fair value for it.

Score: 6

Price: EUR 9 (store price, fair value)

The Review – Malatinszky Cabernet Sauvigning 2006, Barrique (Villány)

Our second selection (we must drink a Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon, I am told by my guest) is my big mistake. Or partly, because this wine takes me back to the 90s, when the quality and trendyness of the CS in Villány and elswhere were measured by the level of tannin in the bottle. But this much tannin cannot be extracted deom the barrel nor from the vine. It’s harsh, oily texture is in huge contrast with the Szt. Gaál Kékfrankos. I know it’s a young wine, still, after massacring a significant amount of gustatory cells in our tongue, we decide to give it some time in the decanter (we had to ask for it in the restaurant, of course). It did not help. After an hour, it’s smell (fruity also, but not so intense and elegant as in the Kékfrankos) got better, but in taste the tannin is still so dominant I can’t think of anything else, scratching the middle, upper and back part of my mouth, whilst the sweetness in the forefront of our tongue is living its own life. Hugely disappointing from Malatinszky, who’s already shown lot better than this CS before. I’m getting suspicious though, I just read Malatinszky’s rate of the year 2006 (his highest score).

I wish I never got back so distant in time. At least I’m happy to be back today, and I’m leaving soon for the Etyek Pincefesztivál, one of the biggest wine events in Hungary.

Score: 3+

Price: EUR 9 (overrated)