Hungarian wine 2013 Muscat Ottonel – Welschriesling

We recently received this wine to taste and comment on. Once properly rested and chilled it was opened and wow, its a little fizzy. Not in the sparkling wine way but fizzy.

It has nice stone fruit flavors to go along with enough acid at the finish to make your mouth water and beg for more. This wine is called dry but has a subtle fruit sweetness to it and with the fizz makes it seem almost off dry. In fact thats were we would put it. Hey it is our impression of the wine. Now not that that is a bad thing as it is a lovely hot weather starter wine for greeting guests to your soiree or just something to have on a whim because you want something a little different and tasty. 

Here is what the folks at the Hungarian Road Show had to say about it;

Muscat Ottonel – Welschriesling
This wine has become a traditional and unique white cuvée in the Günzer Winery. It contains Muscat Ottonel and Welschriesling and is made with reductive technology. The bouquet of this fresh and harmonious greenish-yellow wine is primarily lent by the Muscat Ottonel, while the flavor and character derive from the Welschriesling. Typified by lively yet rounded acids, this refreshing and elegant dry white wine was bottled with a touch of carbon dioxide.

All in all a nice off dry yellow and orange stone fruit flavored fizzy wine thats fun and, well fun to drink. We would buy at **** and a 6 on the official scale, for those dress up bashes where something different to start is called for. A great welcome wine where usually a sparkling is poured as a welcome this would be great as a conversation starter. In a good way!

Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout.net

Kiwi & Koala

Wine Review Thummerer 2011 Cabernet Franc-Merlot

Not to long ago we had the pleasure of tasting a bunch of Hungarian wine at the Hungarian Wine Roadshow in San Francisco. As some of you know this can often lead to palate overload or thinking you like the wines more than you do because, well, the pretty girl is engaging, the expert tells a good story or the most likely culprit is after a dozen or so tastes in a friendly upbeat atmosphere you start to get a little buzzed (don't spit in front of the pretty girls, Mum says its not polite). The tasting was very nice and the representatives had voluminous amounts of information and there were some nice nibbles to for those who chose to indulge, and some truly indulged. Although we do really enjoy these tastings and as much value as they are in assessing new wines, it seems the real test is when you open a bottle at home on any given night to have with dinner. No pretense, no one to impress with your awe inspiring knowledge and tasting skills and the time to let the wine talk to you with the quiet to listen.

That being said we had arranged to get a few bottles chosen at random from the tasting list and plan to drink them at home with dinner and see how they fair. The first of these just happens to be going with our famous lamb chops (possibly an unfair expectation).

Provided information;
Cabernet Franc – Merlot – Lemberger (Blaufränkisch)
A dry, red wine grown in the Eger Wine Region.
Plantation: Guyot method of cultivation, 240 x 100 cm row and root stock width. Clay and mud soil; 5-7% slope; southern and south-western position; light basoid, brown soil. Vintage and production: early budding; dry, warm summer; early harvest.

Wine description: a friendly wine with fine tannins, matured to mellowness. Thanks to the two types of grape, spicy and fruity notes meet and are completed with discrete barrique ageing. Alcohol: 13.5%. Acidity: 4.9 g/l. Recommended at 16-18°C as an accompaniment to grilled meats or game.

Storage: Bottles should be laid flat and kept at a constant temperature in a cool, dry, well-ventilated space, away from sunlight.

This is a dry light bodied wine with a soft mouth feel and light fine tannin structure. The initial sips were a little dry dusty with a hint of cherry and some raspberry flavors and the although the tannins were quite well integrated at first they had a little sharpness. This went away after a few minutes of playing with it in the glass and once the wine was also introduced to salami, smoked Gouda and water crackers it really fell into place. Drinking with the lamb it was perhaps just a little light to be a perfect match but none the less very enjoyable and it held its own quite well.

This wine rates a 6 is **** and a wine we would share with almost anyone and most importantly,
one we would purchase.

Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi & Koala

The next great wine region...

When you talk about wine regions and wine with your wine mates, the conversation probably never goes to Hungary. Why should it, its not like they make great wine or we would have heard of it. Right? Yeah nah, they do and you haven't! We were fortunate enough to get to taste a couple dozen nice examples recently at a media and industry tasting in San Francisco at the Hungarian Wine Roadshow and we were very surprised (in a good way). While maybe not the next great wine region it is very good and one not to miss.

Wine was introduced to Hungary by the Romans, and the country was known for its excellent wines until the devastation of World War II and the Communist era. Recently Hungarian wines have had quite the renaissance with their 22 designated wine regions. There are even unique Hungarian wines, such as Furmint or Hárslevelű from Tokaj, which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The Hungarian Wine Roadshow was a great chance to taste them first hand.

Even the internationally-known wines made in Hungary are just a little different or special depending on your point of view and taste. The number of hours of sunshine is also a little different from their neighbours to the west in this region and a grapes maturation time is longer, add to that the the south facing slopes with their volcanic soils, and you get a combination of natural conditions that with the the expertise of talented wine makers result in slightly unique and fine wines. These factors make even more of a difference in comparison to wines of other close by countries. Hungary's climate is very favourable for quality wine growing because the average temperature is much higher than let's say in Northern France, and autumn is rather dry with warm, sunny weeks until mid-October.

The country’s distinctive geographical conditions ensure that these varieties do stand out from the crowd. Hungary's wine regions have some unique characteristics like around the area of Lake Balaton which has lots of sunshine, while the subsoil of the Tokaj Wine Region cannot be found anywhere else. Tokaj was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002 under the name Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape. However, its fame long predates this distinction because it is the origin of Tokaji aszú wine, the world's oldest botrytized wine.

Their goal is to get their wine into the US market. Among the wines presented were many that are organically grown, traditionally produced, handcrafted, and aged in Hungarian oak barrels. Hungarian wines they say are healthy. They are produced according to very strict food quality standards and they contain no genetically-modified ingredients.

Horkay and Marton

Enough with the mundane and answer the question. So how were the wines? Lets put it this way. There was not a single wine tasted that we would not choose to open, drink and enjoy and with price points starting and mostly in the US $12-$20 range (all ****) that is quite an accomplishment. This is for whites and reds. Some truly great value good drinking wine. The wines range from 5-6 to 7+ and **** to a couple at ***. Also when you consider that in Hungary they are not allowed to alter a wine with water, reduced alcohol and a whole range of other things making these probably the closest thing to what is the latest buzz term 'Natural Wine' you can drink

The outcome of this tasting experience is that we would not hesitate to purchase Hungarian wine. It is good!
We have also put Hungary on our travel wish list. Thanks to the Hungarian Wine Roadshow for the great hospitality and sharing your lovely wine. Till next time, Cheers!

Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi & Koala

We have secured a few bottle samples and will be doing a review on these so stay tuned.