Deep golden yellow. Heavy bouquet, revealing almost nothing in terms of fruits or else. On the palate highly concentrated substance with some wet grassy notes at opening. Full-bodied wine, rich in fairly exciting stoney and mineral notes from the mid-palate, but I’d like more acidity and liveliness here. It looks like acids cannot bear the 16% alcohol. Good length though. When chilled it’ll reveal an even richer stony character  with picante olive aromas and texture.

I recommend this for lovers of rather enigmatic wines.

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Zöldveltelini isn’t one of my favorite varietals and as such seldom is poured with much expectations, or at all. Yet after Szabó Zoltán’s surprisingly good Merlot recently I thought why not give it a go when it only costs a thousand forints (well, that’s why, I know), but it proved money very well spent.

It has an unmistakable apple pie nose with a lemon balm edge, the pie made with cinnamon. Warm, sweet and well rounded. Apple juice flavored palate with lot of acidity, not in a crunchy way. Thin Zöldveltelini but filled with aroma. Later supported by a hint of saltyness. Very good wine for the price.

Score: 4+/5-

Price: HUF 1200

This is just to let you know that there might be less and less bargains out there but I’ve found a rare good red wine under HUF 2000 which I now put on my watchlist. Although Szabó Zoltán’s Riesling 2007 was a bit disapointing after the breakthrough 2006, the Merlot 2007 is a very decent effort for the price and makes me wonder how the 2006 could have been.

I used this Merlot to make magrets of duck (following Larousse Gastronomique’s receipe, which is a wonderful book btw, sticking predictably to some of the clichés as long as Hungarian wines are concerned but fortunately weighting Hungarian wines properly by dedicating it no more than a few lines on its more than 1 2000 pages) and although I cleared two galsses of it in the process I cannot write a proper review just yet but I was impressed by the balance, the soft texture and the freshly intense fruityness (cherry) of such a thin wine. I don’t dare to make prediction for how long this wine may age well but it still certainly has a vibe that gives me hope I can still enjoy it in the near future again. And this may just as well be a new start for Pécs’s red wine evolution (Europe’s capital of culture, LOL).

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

I fell for the hype. Having read the enthousiastic review few days ago on amuva.hu, I did not hesitate too much and I eventually ended up buying the 2 last bottles in the shop. Because this wine is not widely available in Budapest and I bought these two in a bookstore (well, I bought 2 other bottles in their other store a bit farther the same day).

According to a short self-introduction in a hidden corner of the web, Zoltán Szabó is an experimental winemaker currently owning only 2 hectars having mainly Chardonnay, Riesling and Zöldveltelini, plus 10 (!) local varietals from the Kárpát-bassin. He even made Aszú from Riesling for a try.

I couldn’t say I did not have high expectations.

The review

Bright lively hay color and lively moves in the glass.

It’s intense smell is an exotic mixture of fresh grass, minerals and flowers with a hint of tropical fruits, camilla and citrus. It’s almost like not only made of Riesling.

The taste is in sync with the smell but very quickly the acids wash away all other tastes. You have to wait more than an hour to enjoy more the taste and the wine to become a round, full-bodied (for a white) wine. But first citrus and peppermint are dominantand the acids provide a long finish. It also comes with a little bit of bubble sparkling.

Later the minerals become more palpable, almost dominant. At this moment it reminds me of Mandolás Furmint in style but wit more acid of course. Unfortunately the wine’s building blocks start to fall apart after only about 2 hours, but it’s still enjoyable.

For EUR 6, it’s a best buy. For those who like nice acids, this wine scores 0,5-1 points higher than for those who like a more balanced, round wine.

Score: 6+

Price: EUR 6