Budapest Daily Review

Here’s a thing. I can’t think of a winery which never disappointed me once at least, but two. One of them is a so called artisan winemaker who is not supposed to over-engineer his wines, is he? Still, he seems to be able to come out with very good wines of a recognisable style I would associate more with smart use of technology. Another thing I can’t think of is a winemaker from Mátraalja who has ever pleased me with a red wine, but one. Anything in common in these two? Are you good at guessing? Can Szecskő save Mátraalja’s red wine making? Turán 2007 was an amazing effort. But he also made the first Királyleányka and a Chardonnay and Zöldveltelini cuvée I really enjoyed.

Let’s have a look at Rubintos 2007.

Medium ruby hue. Quite a restrained and light nose, little woody but then first spicy with clove and caraway seeds, later with wild strawberry. I thought I recognised Merlot and Zweigelt here.

Lovely structure, firm and grippy yet very elegant. The tannins do their job brilliantly. They make this wine crunchy, and I feel like eating a raised cake soaked with rum or indeed, punch. Complex but elegant mouthfil sometimes sweet with a minerally accent flowing into a lenghty strawberry finish. Relatively light wine.

This wine is so interesting it deserves some research and a dedicated post just for itself. I’m not capable of it of course, I’m just someone after all who has a keyboard (and a bottle) in the hands most of the time anyway allowing me to do simple things like writing few lines but man, this wine deserves some attention! Do you know at all what Rubintos grape is? Do you think I knew until now? Do you think I didn’t think it was the name of a cuvée?

Would you try to guess who are the parents of this grape? OK, try this: taste this wine (and don’t spit it for god’s sake!) and guess! Don’t google it or ask one of your geek friends. Try hard mate, harder than me, cause I’d never have guessed it. Not after drinking the whole bottle all by myself.

To answer the question in the introduction part: I have no doubt that he already has. Szecskő is Mátraalja’s best kept secret, full stop. Now it’s official.

Score: 6, 6+ (I found that the wine reaches its best within minutes after opening, starting to decline after bit more than an hour)

Price: HUF 3 300

My records show that Eger is the best Pinot Noir producing region in Hungary. Some of the Egri Pinots even have great ageing potential.

This Tekenőháti from Noszvaj has an elegant, warm, fleshy bouquet with restrained spices. Elegantly styled on the palate, well-balanced with a long smooth finish. Soft, ultra-thin tannic backbone supporting a light-weighted body. The wine develops a very complex and exciting bouquet with notes of fat forest soil, hints of farmyard notes, with very elegantly rounded edges. Very subtle acidity. Lovely wine with at least another 2-3 years of potential. I wish I could see what this wine will become.

Score: 7, 7-

Price: HUF 4500

Orsolya is the most charming of all overpriced cellars of Eger. Their 2005 Kutyahegyi Zweigelt is a classic wine, from a certain aspect. It (and some similarily well made wines) brought them fame (in certain circles), and although the childish wine labels remain, the innocence was soon lost.

I wrote about abused grapes recently and how Zweigelt was the most prominent. For many the breakthrough came from another producer from Villány but for me, Orsolya’s Zweigelt 2005 was it: dense, fruity but fresh, very much unlike the zweigelts we used to know. I expected a lot from Orsolya Pincészet but the next breakthrough hasn’t come yet, they couldn’t take their winemaking to the next level. The wines are mostly fine, never poor really, but always very pricy.

The Zweigelt 2008 is a violet wine with a wide pink rim. The bouquet is fresh and dense, full of plum jam and notes of blueberry, clove and hints of cinnamon. Fairly fruity on the palate too but it’s composed of less ripe material. Very fresh character with vibrant acidity and unripe tannin underneath it all. The wine’s still too young, hence the unripe walnut, red currant and later sour cherry elements. These are wrapped in a thin film of dark chocolate. Later acaí (the tropical fruit), lot of it.

Score: 5+

Price: HUF 3 800

If a winemakers has 8 hectares and almost no wines at all at the wine shops than it’s a bit unusual, to say the least. But the owner of a small (perhaps the smallest) wine store in Buda recommended this wine as something remarkable for HUF 2 400.

Dark purplish hue with a Turán-like dark core. The nose is sour cherry and wood. Too much acidity especially at the end where it feels way too sour to my taste. Very dry, small-medium bodied wine. Bitter, although soft tannins. 13.5% alcohol. Feels less.

Maybe I shoud have left it in a decanter for a few hours more.

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 2 400

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

Staring at Etyeki Kúria’s Magyar Vándor 2007 I’m thinking about how I tend to freak out when I see a red wine, especially for under HUF 4 000 from Mátraalja, Somló or sometimes even red areas. So imagine the flash when some kind of positive surprise hits you in this condition. Take this wine for instance, it didn’t only take tartness out of the equation but added minerality to it. Now you’re talking!

Don’t expect this wine look any better than you’d think! You won’t like it: it’s pale blurred ruby with a brownish and pinkish add-on, forget about it.

The nose is empty, quite literally. The palate, however, seems well-balanced, smootly textured and well integrated, all Pinot Noir-esque. In an hour or so my glass begins to fill with the wine fault I like the most: salty minerality. It’s very essential to compensate the sweetness deriving from alcohol (14 percent, mate!) which doesn’t burn and doesn’t feel, well, except the sweetness. I’m sure many people would desire more definition to it but I’m fine with the acidity of this wine as well as with the soft, powdery tannins of it.

Good wine, drinks well and fast.

Etyek wasn’t even on the wine map 10 years ago. Today if you want to get to the Etyek Pincefesztivál you need to face a crowd perhaps 25x the population of the village. And today they’re exporting their know how to Sopron.

Score: 5+(/6-) points

Price: HUF 3 500

Up and coming talent Németh N.A.G. Attila Gábor is one of the titans who are trying to re-establish the reputation of Mátraalja as a region capable of producing excellent white wines and fine red wines. The efforts to prove the latter have not been very convincing so far but white-wise some prominents of this generation have already proved their point. Still, the region’s post-WW2 history is a heavy burden. For how long terroir wine merchants will be able to sell red wines like Karner’s at such a ridiculously high price is another question.

This Concubina has a pale hue with pale purplish reflections. On the nose forest berry fruits with hip dominance. On the palate it has layers of spices with underlying woodyness. Very raw structure. The wine lacks determination and it has badly integrated components.

Unfortunately I call this Mátraalja character. This style lacked the instantaneous appeal and it still does.

Whether Concubina white 2007 is as good as in previous years we’ll find out soon.

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 2000

I’ve been going through a series of bad luck as long as wine picking is concerned. I preferred not to share the tasting notes about these wines and some of them weren’t even worth to take notes of. I expected more from St. Andrea Merengő 2006 for instance. It’s a good wine but hardly as legendary as some people like to see it  (I loved it’s texture though). St. Andrea Akutyafájást 2008 (white) underperformed too but it may well have been the fault of the bottle. Kreinbacher’s sparkling Syrah Rosé 2008 was our first breakfast sparkling wine celebrating the new year and although its colour and it’s bubbles are beautiful and it’s so dry as it can possible get, it’s short of similarly positive further elements except the strawberry aromas on the nose (still, my wife loved it so you may as well). Sauska’s Pinot Noir 2007 has got a stunning nose but the palate’s disappointing, or maybe our food pairing wasn’t optimal. Although I had a Légli Sauvignon Blanc in a restaurant which I liked but it doesn’t count so I bought a bottle, still waiting to be opend. And then came Gróf Buttler’s Pinot Noir Selection form Szarkás dűlő.

Szarkás’ 14 hectares alrealy pleased me with some of the best Syrah, Kadarka, Merlot and even Kékoportó and Kadarka this country’s ever seen. This means I had some preconcepts about the style I might expect and it couldn’t be wrong.

Blurred pigeon ruby color with a pink rim. The nose is fairly complex and unpredictably so, once with sour cherry and red currant then full of spices.

On the palate very ripe, almost jammy strawberry mingled with cocktail cherry and warm indian spices. Very little, very subtle acidity, some powdery, soft, velvety tanninc underpinning granting little structure. Later leather takes over the lead and at this point on the nose too. Further on dry, southern Spanish cherry aroma.

The bottle recommends serving it at 14-15 degrees celsius but I enjoyed the wine most at around 20, much more than when it was cooler. It drinks well (and quickly) in a winter evening and it’s affordable too. If you don’t like Pinot Noir grape then don’t start with this wine, but it’s an interesting wine for the fans of both Pinot and Buttler.

Score: 6 points

Price: HUF 2 750

Funny name, funny label, so refreshing to see after having seen so many chateaux emerging from nowhere – as I write this I realise that as a rule of thumb you could easily pick mediocre wines simply by selecting one from one of the many Hungarian “chateaux” (there are exceptions though). The fact is, there are virtually no chateaux left in Hungary and even less with a history in winemaking. Hétszőlő actually has a chateau but they’re not calling themselves chateau (although they’re owned by French, well partly). Akutyafáját reminds me of Orsolya Pince’s early labels, drawings made by children, now by a teenager, all suggesting that we all (in the wine scene) are taking ourselves too seriously. The whole scene btw reminds me of a song by The Cribs (Hey Scensters), a great (probably the greatest) indie band currently being ruined by Johnny Marr. But Akutyafáját is different, also from Eger, from a wineamker who apparently thinks a lot about his wife (or he’s more ironic than we’d think), this wine is simple and straightforward: affordable, lovable, and Hungary’s mass market needs wines just like this one. It has somewhat of a terroir character, something of Eger but it’s also very accessible by everyone. Believe me. Here’s why. The nose is full of spices, clove mainly, mingled with some burnt wood and cherry/sour cherry – already very attractive (the wine needs that to be honest, it’s appearance is quite regular, medium-pale ruby, nothing exceptionnal there). Fresh, slightly scretchy tannins first on the palate supporting a rather sweetish, friendly character. Firm, but not overly, with young but gentle tannins providing excellent backbone for this rather small-medium bodied wine full of freshness and fun, with notes of cinnamon falvoured apple pie and cherry compote. Fairly good length with just a hint of bitterness to be detected sometimes, more than that dried thyme and savory. This wine is excellent for long, friendly conversations, or for exhausted folks like myself drinking and blogging. I’m a fan of St. Andrea and only now I realise that this is the first post about one of the best wineries of Eger (and Hungary).

And this is the best red wine I’ve seen under HUF 2000 for, like, ever…

Score: 5+

Price: HUF 1 845

ps: I’d like to dedicate this wine (and post) to a friend from Eger who turned 34 today and will become a father in a couple of days. He has no idea about I writing this blog and I hope he’ll never have, but I hope Samu won’t have to waste so many brain cells as we did in the nineties by drinking rubbish Eger wines. So cheers, for a better future.

Two mature reds, the other one was a super toscan from Castello Di Fonterutoli called Siepi 1996 side by side today. 

Duennium 2000 of Vylyan is a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from a classic vintage. 

Unpenetrably dark whatever color, more or less black. Very intense chocolate nose, not so much dark chocolate as simple plain chocolate. With it’s dense appearance and bouquet it evokes memories of that unusually warm and long summer of the year 2000.  The very same feeling’s carried through onto the palate. But unlike many Villányi cuvées and CSs of the late nineties, this wine has velvely tannins and a soft texture (after 15 months in new oak). Later a bit harder in character with still fresh acidity. Full-bodied wine with a medium long finish. Hints of farmyard elements and sweetness, but fundamentally tons of mouthfilling melted chocolate. Remarkably short of fruity notes. 

Score: 6+, 7-

Price: n/a

The Supertoscan is 50% Sangiovese and 50% Merlot. Like Duennium, this blend also has a chocolate character on the nose and on the palate too, in a more restrained way, but also little fruity. 

This is however a slightly thinner wine more of a grippy style, very consistently so even after hours. Very well integrated, better structured, well balanced. Hints of very ripe forest berry fruits. Very firm with good length. It will age well for another 5-10 years.