The Hungarian Wine Roadshow Crosses the U.S.

A couple weeks back I happened upon a chance tweet from @HUN_WineRoad announcing the Hungarian Wine Roadshow tour of the United States. Even better, they were stopping in at the Screwtop Wine Bar, close to home in Arlington Virginia. If you are unfamiliar with Hungarian wines, there are a couple indigenous beauties such as Furmint, Hárslevelű, Irsai Oliver, Kadarka; with German\Austria influences of Kékfrankos (Blaufrankish), Müller-Thurgau, and Olaszrizling (Welschriesling). International varieties flourish in Villány as well as Eger & Szekszárd.

When I arrived at the tasting, there were maybe 30 wines lining the table with the Roadshow's rep Martin, ready to pour. The wines ranged in retail price from $1.50 (yes, some bulk wines) to $15 for the serious brands. So affordable. There were only about five white wines, which generally reflects the composition of the Hungarian wine industry. The most interesting of these were the Figula Winery 2012 Sauvignon Blanc and the Almagyar-Érseki Vineyard 2011 Lelkifröccs White Cuvée - a blend of Leányka, Traminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Rhine Riesling, and Olaszrizling.


For the reds, I found that the Tamás Günzer Winery was the most consistent, followed by Mészáros Winery, and Polgár Winery, and . Tamás Günzer is located in Villány and their single varietal Cabernets were the highlights of the tasting - both had juicy characters with soft tannins. Their Stílus blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Kékfrankos was not bad either. Mészáros is located in Szekszárd and specializes in Kékfrankos. Their Bodzási Lemberger was the best Kékfrankos of the group, portraying the typical slightly spicy flavor with a twist of toffee. The winery's 2011 Merlot was also well received - nice acidity and cherry flavors. Polgár is also based out of Villány with their 2011 Cuvée (Syrah and Cabernet Franc) and 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon both drinkable now with their soft tannins. A couple other interesting reds were the Demeter Winery Franc de Franc, a blend of Cabernet Franc and Kékfrankos, and the Thummerer Winery 2009 Bull’s Blood Superior. This later is a blend of Kékfrankos, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot and is velvety smooth, and like the former, juicy sour cherry flavors.

The road trip continues through mid-June, so check their schedule to see if they are visiting your area: Jacksonville, New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Napa. And if so, definitely plan to attend. Cheers.

Exploring #HungarianWine for #Winechat with Blue Danube #Wine

Blue Danube Wine is my primary source for Eastern Europe wine and they supplemented my passion by hosting this week's #winechat discussion. The focus of this tasting was Hungarian wines and Blue Danube chose three very traditional wine grapes: Kadarka, Furmint, and Olaszrizling.

We started the evening with a slightly chilled red, the Eszterbauer Kadarka Nagyapám 2011 ($18).  The Eszterbauer Winery is located in Szekszárd in southern Hungary near the Croatian border at latitude between the Loire and Bordeaux. Their 8 hectares of vineyards consist of chalk and loess soils which include 9 clones of Kadarka - a traditional grape that probably came to Hungary with the Serbs fleeing the Ottoman invaders.  The name, Nagyapám, refers to Grandfather in honor of János Eszterbauer's father who drank Kadarka straight from the barrel. The grapes for the wine are sourced from the vineyard's oldest vines and the result is a Cabernet Franc like dark cherry wine with subtle spice and tart tannins and acids at the tail.

The second wine was the Bodrog Borműhely Furmint Lapis 2011 ($21.95), a 100% dry furmint from the Tokaj region. Known for the kingly Tokaji Aszu, Tokaj is situated in north-eastern Hungary and is the world’s first appellation system over 100 years before Bordeaux.  Bodrog Borműhely produces a combination of dry and sweet wines,  and the Lapis vineyard, clay and volcanic soils, sits just high enough from the Bodrog River and its floodplains the breezes dry the grapes to prevent Botrytis.  This Furmint was fermented and aged in Hungarian Oak - undergoing full malolactic fermentation and then aged 9 months sur lie. The result is a peach & creamy wine with a toasted sugary pecan nose followed by a steely minerality. The wine finishes with subtle spice and decent acidity. I think this wine was the biggest surprise among my associates as many had never tried a furmint - let along a dry furmint. Well done.

We finished the evening with the Fekete Olaszrizling 2011 ($24.95), produced from the Grandfather of Somló winemaking, Béla Fekete.  Somló is Hungary’s smallest appellation and the area was once an underwater volcano. The oldest writings mentioning Somló wine date to 1093 with viticulture occurring earlier with the Romans.They know good volcanic soil when they see it. Located north of Lake Balaton in eastern Hungary, the app Somló appellation consists of only white grapes with Olaszrizling the favorite. Olaszrizling is actually the most planted wine grape in Central and Eastern Europe known as Graševina in Croatia, Welchsriesling in Austria, Riesling Italico in Italy, and Laški Rizling in Slovenia.

Béla Fekete started making wine late in life, while in his late 50's, yet because of his longevity has been producing wine for 32 years. Approaching 90, 2013 was his last vintage, so tasting his 2011 Olaszrizling was a great honor.  He uses non-traditional techniques, waiting for spontaneous fermentation  in old 1200 liter Hungarian oak casks. He never stirs the lees nor completely seals off oxygen. And all wines are aged for 2 years before bottling. The result is a complex wine, white fruits, with plenty of minerals and salty elements fishing with good acidity. Cheers to all the wines and thanks to Blue Danube Wine for supplying them.