Mix and match of ready made wines is kind of a cheating to me but it can be a very delicious sin. In 2009 Gál Lajos, Lőrincz György, Hagymási József, Sike Tamás and Rabóczki Attila used some of their wines from Boldogságos, Kántor tag, Rózsás and Szarvas vineyards and made a blend of Olaszrizling.

Ripe maize inclined to gold hue. Dense nose of delicious rocky minerals mingled with a hint of vanilla (petunia?). Similarly styled palate, a bit rustic, almost robust.

Brassy beige hue. Meadow floral bouquet, fresh but rather restrained with notes of acacia and boiled parsley. Weighty palate with a creamy texture and very subtle acidity. Restrained aromas at the entry, short and a bit dull character at the finish. Yet it’s a pleasant drink, with gently composed marzipan and pistachio. It’s an overall decent effort from (my preferred?) Mátraalja winemaker.

Szecskő - Szürkebarát, 2008

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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Really pale, clean, watery lemon yellow in appearance. This wine has a complex and fairly intense nose of citrus, grapefruit and celery with a perfumed acacia accent. Fresh and crisp. The palate has a clean and fresh character with crisp and sharp lemon flavored acidity from the mid-palate, flowing into a long finish over a layer of various fruits.

Fairly priced.

Lemon yellow with faded greenish reflections. Yeasty bouquet with mayonnaise aroma. Elegantly styled palate with fair amount of acidity, not too much, just enough. Light fruity character with a mixed basket of continental and tropical fruits. Good length too.

This is a blend of 34% Olaszrizling, 28% Chardonnay, 26% Leányka and 12% Viognier. Of these, 15% is alcohol.

Lovely vibrant lemon yellow. Exciting nose of salty-chalky minerals mingled with light honey and veggie stock. Slightly sweet on the palate, with Viognier being dominant in taste, overly so if you ask me. Hours later melon aroma emerge.

Serve chilled!

I tasted this wine with friends few weeks ago when this wine stood out with its charming warmth and unusually complex character, and I promised I would buy a bottle and write a review. Here it is.

Orsolya – Abrakadabra, 2008

Lovely vibrant golden yellow with lemon reflections.

Fairly exciting minerally bouquet of rich chalky saltiness mingled with light honey and veggie stock. Unlike last time, on the palate dominantly Viognier, certainly less impressive today. It was broad and complex, now it’s much simpler in character, but creamy and fairly weighty with 15% alcohol hidden behind. I must admit that this bottle wasn’t very well handled when it landed in my hands so this might be the reason for its underperformance.

What really impresses about the wine is its finesse and complexity two days after opening. Creamy, minerally and well-balanced, displaying late harvest notes of sun-dried apricot and ripe papaya. Truly extraordinary when I last tasted this wine, an unusual and good wine this time.

Wine producer of the year 2010. Why 2010? Unofficially, the prestigious award of local relevance is given to different region each year and last year it was Southern Balaton’s turn. My understanding is that, taking the all-important lobby out of the equation, of the few notable winemakers of the region, Légli Ottó has the longest proven track record of predictable quality.

I may be wrong but to me Légli is still a white wine producer, indeed, in spite of some very decent efforts lately (Ikon Evangelista, 2007, to give you a for instance), the whole Southern Balaton region is for the time being a white region to me.

Légli Ottó – Szőlőslaki Chardonnay, 2009

Clean and vibrant lemon yellow hue, with many tiny bubbles. Lively nose of fresh and ripe apple. Light weight palate packed with fruity aromas of apple and traces of elderberry around a core of tingling acidity. There may be some residual sugar here which is lovely with the light saltiness underneath the broad character. Good length.

Fairly priced at HUF 2 400.

I haven’t been following the winery as closely as I used to since the new generation of Figulas took over Balatonfüred’s possibly best winery, which certainly used to be the best ten years ago. I paid a visit in 2009 and what I found can be summerised as follows. They’re still strong in the lower price category but with an increasing focus on full-bodied and more complex white wines. The red wines are getting somewhat better but there’s nothing to be too excited about. The use of new oak is less obvious, but still important.

Figula – Olaszrizling, 2009

Bright lemon yellow with greenish reflections. Fresh nose of parsley and celery. Further on more vegetable notes on the palate supported by moderate (too little?) acidity and a hint of salty minerality. Later more juicy mouthfil adds to the already silky texture. It’s light, yet fairly complex wine with a medium-long finish, a lovely wine, very good drink but a bit pricy (HUF 3500).

Somlói Apátsági Pince are as clerical as I am although their commitment to artisan methods is almost religious.

Juhfark is a varietal despised by many, including wine critics, never mind that it is now a matter of fact that Juhfark is able to express terroir brilliantly and although the grape’s vinious notes are always present, the wines made of Juhfark can be complex, fruity and minerally in the same time.

Somlói Apátsági Pince not just realised this but they managed to put it into practice, as we have seen in previous vintages. This is their latest attempt.

Somlói Apátsági Pince – Juhfark, 2009

Straw inclined to mid-golden hue. The nose kicks off with rich minerality, a rocky explosion actually that also implies saltyness, cereals and a hint of vanilla, with traces of acidity. Later lime tree blossom and other floral notes emerge.

On the palate it’s rich and ample with fruity aromatics and an exciting minerally texture to it. Although primarily minerally, the palate is loaded with fruit: fairly rich lemon, grapefruit, apricot and even radish and kohlrabi whilst it also reveals a botrytis-like undertone. The sweetness (it could be the 14% alcohol) suits this full-bodied wine as it is rebalanced with a good dose of dense, salty minerality and pleasant acidity.

The finish could be longer, but this is a terrific wine even at higher temperatures. Not cheap, but fairly priced.