Budapest Daily Review

Pale hay hue. Unusually gassy bouquet but it lacks the flinty character which had become the trademark of Lajos Takács. It’s stoney though, elegantly minerally. And it’s sharp, light but full of ckicken stock mingled with lovage, kohlrabi and parsley.

On the palate it has a grip and it’s sharp but it’s smoothened by an underlying polished, butter-flavored creaminess. Elegant, just enough acidity except the tired finish which is dull, lacks the vibrant acidity and tastyness of the midpalate.

It’s still a good wine but a bit pricey for that.

Score: 5+ points

Price: HUF 3000

Rizling in Hungary can be either Riesling, Olaszrizling, both or none. Laposa’s Badacsonyi Rizling is Olasz Rizling which I can only assume (but not to be absolutely sure) means Olaszrizling.

Pale golden yellow. The bouquet is lovely and rich. Minerally notes mingled with lime, lemon balm and other greenish notes, especially a lovage accent here. Fairly exciting, fresh, not too heavy, interesting. Similarly expressive palate which kicks off with brilliant, sharp acidity with lime juice aromas mingled with a drop of sweetness and a hint of boiled persley. Well balanced long finish with flavours of lemon balm and lime. The palate gets more and more salty.

Relatively coherent wine considering its complexity at it’s price.

Score: 5, 5+ points

Price: HUF 1760

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

The name of the guy who invented time machine is Dr. Sándor Tóth, winemaker under the name Scheller and a long-time favorite of mine. It’s difficult to track his work over the years, although rumour has it that he’ll put on the market the wines of 2006 soon (what happened in between is up to you to find out). But his wines from 2003 are still fresh and lovable in spite of being light and not overly acidic, theoretically not exactly suitable for ageing for too long. They’re not in perfect shape any more (perhaps they’ve never been), but you like to think that once they were beautiful, maybe even gorgeous and they are still enjoyable, in some way, after so many years.

This Zöldveltelini from 2003 is pale golden yellow with a light brassy reflection at the edges. It has a creamy, maionnaise bouquet with a lemon zest accent. Creamy texture with a sparkling bitterness from the midpalate. It’s ample but with little substance. Soft acidity. Very empty finish. When chilled, it feels like a lollipop made of butter with a little bit of persley and sometimes other spices too. I finished off the bottle on the third day and it was still as good as 3 days before, and on the second day it turned out to be a great pair with a chicken curry, something unimaginable before. You may laugh now, but you should try it instead!

Score: 4 points (at least)

Price: HUF 1 500

Another “artisan” wine from easily the most beautiful area of Balaton. 2.5 hectares on the southern slopes at 150 m altitude, covered by forest dark soil above the vulcanic sand known as Pannon sand is Péter Váli’s vinyard.

I chose an Olaszrizling with 13.5% alcohol (13% according to their website) because the mineral character which this wine I’d been expecting to have suits better full-bodied wines.

Lovely bright golden yellow hue. On the nose lime and greenish, firm, medium-ripe acidic green apple. On the palate, the formula is: lot of apple mingled with citrus aromas and minerality, inevitably. Later tons of celery, lovage and persil with hints of nettle, supported by lot of young acidity. The finish could be more polished. Rustic style.

Váli deserves more attention.

Score: 5- points

Price: HUF 2000 (cheaper directly from the producer)

For introduction please read this post. For a Concubina white retrospective please refer to this post written almost exactly a year ago.

I never read my previous posts before I taste a wine and neither check it’s bottle. I didn’t even remember how much I liked Concubina 2006. Still, these are two different wines so keep reading.

The review

This cuvée is medium dark golden yellow. Lovely. The nose is very charming, intense, full of warmth and liveliness, a bit perfumy, with notes of pineapple and litchi with a rosemary(!) accent mingled with a hint of very light honey. The very same character’s found on the palate, gentle, warm and soft and certainly could have more acidity. At this point I realise it’s a semi-dry wine with some well integrated residual sugar. The wine will become better and better with more and more minerality which I simply adore. First a mouthful of chalky minerality then rocky minerality, it’s the whole Cenozoic and Precambrian era happening at once. Add a velvety melted butter finish to it. Later on the nose some pistachio. Nice linear finish.

This wine’s at it’s peak or a bit over it no doubt about it. It’s a huge best buy.

Score: 6/7-

Price: HUF 2000

When I see a Leányka I often hear the song Garota de Ipanema in my head (I love several covers of that song). “Tall and tan and young and lovely”, and all the rest of the lyrics should apply to a good Leányka, but it hardly ever does. I mentioned Mátraalja’s heavy burden in my last post.  Now one of Eger’s heavy burdens is the exact Leányka it used to be so famous (and infamous) for in the years of socialist mass production. Most Leánykas are still sold as bulk wine even on Eger’s Dobó tér itself, over the counter, out of metal or plastic bulks. No wonder sometimes you think Leányka couldn’t be different. Fortunately, Kaló, Orsolya and some others already proved it otherwinse.

This is clearly an entry-level wine of Gál Tibor, a quickly cashable asset, so I didn’t expect too much of it.

Pale yellow with greenish reflections. The nose is full of apple and especially pear. It’s intensity falls quicker than gravity would justify. This Leányka is freed of acidity and it’s relatively thin so nothing can disguise its long tartness from the midpalate except some pear flavor passing much quicker than that girl on that particular beach of the Cidade Maravilhosa. And then it’s just emptiness.

Score: 3+

Price: HUF 1400

Btw, haven’t seen the movie “Cidade de Deus” yet? You are missing one of the greatest movies of recent times. Honestly. It’s a must see.

Lovely nose, very attractive indeed and fairly complex too. Very fresh, with dry cut grass, thyme but mainly rosemary mingled with fresh nettle tea. It doesn’t stop there, releasing citrus notes with a perfum-y character adding a ripe apple accent. Well integrated, vibrant acidity and a juicy character on the palate with a salty, chalky mineral undertone. There’s a hint of bitterness from the mid-palate but that’s alright. Lower-medium body, good length, drinks very well and quickly and it’s almost as good when it warms up to room temperature as chilled.

One of the best Hungarian Sauvignon Blancs I’ve ever had and it’s definitely a good value for the money.

Score: 6+/7- (now I would even say 7, but I always publish the fresh impression)

Price: HUF 3 000

My first encounter with Kreinbacher wines didn’t impress me and I still couldn’t get used to their (sometimes overly) high prices although I now at least appreciate their efforts to find Somló’s new old character.

They embraced old grapes through their lower-end label Szent Ilona too. Entry-level cuvée Taposó-Kút is, every year, an Olaszrizling-based blend which in 2006 produced a more Furmint-like character instead. I at least attribute that sour-bitter element on the mid-palate (not at the finish as often seen in Furmint) which is so dominant in this wine to Furmint.

But let’s have a look at the color first: brigh hay hue, not very deep and very lively. Complex, yet friendly floral nose mingled with hints of honey and ripe tropical fruits having a vanilla undertone and a mineral accent. The palate has a mineral and bitter character because of the Furmint I suppose which also leaves its mark on the taste spectrum (along with marzipan).

Aged in mostly used large oak barrels during which the wine had a long contact with the lee (so characteristic to Kreinbacher wines) which is at least partly responsible for the lovely acidity being overshadowed by that bitter taste and texture. This wine would be very exciting without that, but it’s still a very decent effort and a good introduction to this side of Somló.

The wine’s not young and I don’t expect it to get any better with time.

Score: 5 points

Price: HUF 2 500

This Olaszrizling has a liquid gold hue in the glass. On the nose intense salty minerality and fresh plum (surprisingly mineral for a wine coming from chalky-loess soil, fuelling the debate over whether rocky-mineral soil is responsible for this feature of certain wines).

Less minerality on the palate, greens instead, with notes of lovage, boiled parsley and green nutmeet mingled with a bitter element, supported by vibrant, curvy acidity which could be better integrated. Remains salty however. Good length, with some bitterness at the end. Fairly complex, but could be more elegant. 

Score: 6 points

Price: HUF 2 900