Budapest Daily Review

According to the merchant’s website, the grandson of those who bought this pice of land of Köveskál in 1945 took over the winery three years ago which means this might be his first tentative to produce a decent wine on the volcanic hills of northern Balaton. He managed to do it by blending Olaszrizling (2/3) and Riesling (1/3).

Not very intense rocky mineral smell. On the palate it looks older than it is and it’s not fresh either. Very subtle acidity except the finish where it finally shows lemon scented acidity. Good length, stretching throughout all the way in a linear manner.

I find this wine a little bit middle of the road. I’d reverse the proportions to give this wine a more distinct terroir edge and allow bigger body. But not a bad start.

Score: 4 points

Price: HUF 1 950

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)

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+

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