Pannónia and Catalunya, rosés that push past the borders, orange wine and Kadarka comprise our selection

We visited the Sauska winery in Budafok for the first time last November. The ridge that connects Budafok with Gellért Hill is made up of freshwater limestone, with a 50-kilometer cellar system inside it. The base wines blended in Tokaj arrive here, which are then bottled, fermented, aged and disgorged by the local team. And the person who oversees it all from the harvest to the dinner table is Regis Camus, the advisor to the Sauska team.

Once again, we dived in, and tasted such wines that for a long time we reckoned would be worth writing more about. Of course, we opened a lot more than six bottles, and in the end, we selected the best ones. This is how – also having June in mind – we put together the Plus selection, comprising lighter, cooler wines, including the recently arrived vintage of Tihany rosé, Pascal Jolivet's hedonistic entry-level wine, and one of the Best Bikavérs we’ve tasted from the Lőrinczs.

Over the last year, we couldn’t travel as much as before. Instead, we spent the time at home, tasting and searching. We sought out wine, revived old relationships, and we got to know winemakers via webcam for the first time. And one of the best such (re)discoveries of recent times was cool Chablis. 

“Our style is unusual, we use barrels for ageing, which is not so typical in Chablis. We balance out the strong local characteristics with oak, and it’s the barrel that gives the refined, taut-structured wines their richness and depth. This way, density and salty tension appears on the palate at the same time.” – Arnaud Lavantureux.

We slowed right down again for an afternoon and tasted wines. Among the bottles there were old acquaintances that we don’t mention too often, and we also brought in a few new names. That’s how we selected the wines for our May+ case, which includes our selection’s new winery, Domaine Lavantureux from Chablis, the new vintage of Gellavilla’s Oroszy and Budaprés’ first traditional method cider. We’re introducing these three first, and we’re also putting alongside them three such wines that were a great experience to taste again. 

Florian Zaruba took over the management of Kristinus Birtok in 2015, and with it a complete transformation started. Following a few years of preparation, he switched to biodynamic cultivation on the complete area of the estate, on 62 hectares of vineyards and 30 hectares of pastureland and orchard. It’s exceptional (while typical of much smaller-scale producers) to step out on this path with such a great volume of vineyard as it requires constant presence and work among the vines.

It’s possible to talk and write about wine without end. It’s important to know the producer, the place it was harvested from, the wine region and the history. The feeling that the wine’s style, structure, label and bottle evokes for us is also important. Apart from these, the same amount of time can be spent talking about the technology that has developed around the profession by today and can operate well-known wineries that make predictable and faultless wines in large quantities year after year with clockwork accuracy. Parallel to this, another phenomenon has popped up: the natural wine that is encompassing the world’s wine regions. Similar to fermentation, it bubbled, made a stir and ushered in several unwritten rules.

For our April+ selection we picked one wine each from six such winemakers, and alongside the wines each of them talked about a subject that characterises them.

In our selection, we once again brought wines in from different parts of the world. That’s how the Sorelle Bronca Prosecco from the foot of the Alps got into the same case as an unfiltered Cabernet from the Szeremség’s Tarcal Hill or the Blaufränkisch of Burgenland winemaker Roland Velich. Exciting, miscellaneous labels, one thing is common in them: they are not every day wines. Six characters, six occasions – laid-back and leisurely, from a large glass.

We shall make an important distinction between durability and ageability. The former only means preserving the quality, while the latter promises an improvement in quality. Long life in wine is valuable because it ushers in improvement. Even the fact that a food item can be kept for years, or even for decades without deteriorating in quality, let alone improving, maturation is indeed miraculous. And a good wine can do that. 

We’ve had a connection with the Pannonhalma Arch Abbey for a decade and a half. Beside the Pannonhalma mineral water and the Abbey’s beer, an even farther link (400 km as the crow flies, plus a border) also connects us. This is the Szilágyság (Sălaj), more exactly the Kárásztelek traditional method sparkling wine winery, where the team of winemaker Csaba Bereczki made three traditional method sparkling wines from the 2017 vintage’s small but perfect crop.

The date is March 7, 2013 - From this day on, every step of sparkling wine production takes place in-house at Zoltán Demeter’s winery in Tokaj. In complete freedom, along own decisions – it is a small producer’s way of sparkling making, just like in case of Champagne growers. Zoltán presses wine, adds liqueur de tirage and does disgorging alone. Additionally, he also fine-tunes the details wherever and whenever he can.

2017 was a classic, big Villány vintage. It was the promised land, both in terms of quantity and quality...

There are many legends linked to the name of Roland Velich, as usually happens with iconic winemakers. What’s for certain is that he grew up in Burgenland, he was once a ski instructor and a croupier, and that he had already been making Chardonnay, on the family estate with his brothers, when nobody else did in the wine region. Then, after an about-turn, he founded his own Blaufränkisch-based estate, called Moric. He is a polarising and unavoidable character in Austrian wine, and since recently also in Hungarian wine, due to his new project called Hidden Treasures, which has been running for a few vintages.

Good wine by itself is an empty concept. Its values are defined by the circumstances. For whom? When? Where? To find the right wine for an occasion is almost as difficult a job as building up a good team. One needs knowledge, empathy and a touch of luck. When the plan works out, the clogs match, the party comes to life, eyes twinkle and people start talking, and the host can lean back in satisfaction. 

We usually look at the Champagne wine region as a unit, as the mecca of sparkling winemaking. It’s characteristics – a cooler climate and the limestone ridge that cuts through the wine region – create a unique terroir in the world and are ideal for making base wine for champagne. Although, it isn’t much talked about, there are sub-regions within Champagne, with completely different features and styles. We gathered the most important aspects of the five sub-regions.

You only need to meet them once to remember: Béla is the winemaker, Bandi is the grape grower. They were born and bred in Balatonszőlős. They are level-headed and it’s hard to distract them, yet they experiment every day, reacting to the environment on their own naturalistic way. 

We got to know Balázs Sike via the Skizo wines and we’ve been working with his wine with their ‘colourful hands’ labels for many years with great success. Good value wines, reliability and precise winemaking are the things that first come to mind when we think about these light (mainly) single-varietal wines...

Theirs is a key name on the northern side of Lake Balaton, and one or two of their single-vineyard wines serve as benchmarks on the wine scene. Lately, we’ve grabbed certain details in connection with them: Hét hektár (Seven hectares – the name of a Figula blend), single-vineyard selections or simply the Olaszrizing. But now that everybody has time on their hands, we asked Misi to tell us in a bit more detail.   

Last year, we first introduced the family wineries and the growers of the vibrant Champagne region – those who work alongside the region’s big brands. In order to learn more, we returned to Champagne from where, beside other things, we came back with the champagnes of two young wineries. We are writing about them now. 

The 200-year-old story started with the marriage of Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon, in 1818. One of them had vineyards, the other had a cellar, which provided the perfect foundations for the birth of a champagne house. Billecart-Salmon is one of the very few champagne houses that while keeping, or rather, constantly growing its prestige during history, could remain in family hands. Currently, the house is producing two million bottles annually, under its name, from 260 hectares of vineyards. The 200-year history, the fame and fortune do not come for free, and it’s not an obvious natural state of affairs. Still, what does it take for a winery to remain on the stage for 200 years?   

When the Furies got the shears in their hands

On the last Monday of August, we drove in the drizzling rain to Dunaradvány. We’d been invited to the Botts' house, next to the Danube, where unusually, we tasted the wines of the fresh vintage not just with our colleagues but with more than a hundred wine lovers. And we started chatting. We asked writers, wine merchants and sommeliers about the wines that are made from next to the River Hron (in Hungarian Garam) and their experiences about the winemaker who produces them.   

Why Riesling?

Out of all the varieties, Riesling can claim the biggest right to be called delicious. Its exotic nose is a real fruit cocktail, while there are fireworks on the palate. It’s a scintillating, rhapsodic, flamboyant wine. 

Rosé is the art of indication, there is everything in it but not in their complete form, only as shadows or reflections. As Paul Verlaine in Art Poétique ushered everything out of the poem that was heavy, factual and obvious, as the Impressionists putting up their canvases outdoors were more interested in the change, the trailing of the light, capturing the colour of the half-shadow than the forms themselves, rosé is also the genre of the evanescent impressions and subtle implications weightlessly soaring. A rosé is sliding, there should be no struggling or fluttering of wings in it – it leaves itself open to the currents of air and surfs on the waves of the wind. 

At this time of summer barbecues and sipping wine late into the night, there is always a point when someone utters the unavoidable sentence: “I’d love to have a good gin and tonic.” 

Kékajtó Winery - Kőröshegy

Everybody imagines an ideal activity for themselves whereby they feel that they can reach their pinnacle and be happy. Then there are those who also accomplish it. This was the thought that occurred to us when we met up with Miklós Németh and his wife, Gyöngyi, on a beautiful day in May. 

A little more than half a year ago, we were visited by two representatives of Dog Point, Murray Cook and Matthew Sutherland. They are in charge of the winemaking decisions at the winery, and while they are professional at their jobs, they don’t make exaggerated statements. They placidly respond to any kind of question and are not bothered to admit if they still searching for direction in any subject.  

We love the Sauvignon Blancs of Montes, but in this case, there is much more going on than this – the team of Viña Montes went off the beaten track. They sought out a place of growth where they can stretch the variety’s and their own limits.

South Africa started fascinating us two years ago. We tasted a lot of different kinds of Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, then searched, selected and one of our favourites became the Painted Wolf winery, which was founded by Jeremy Borg and his wife. Beside the wines, we were also impressed by their views and responsible attitude.  

If Austria seems green and peaceful from here, then South Styria (Südsteiermark) within it, is very green and very peaceful. So, we were surprised when our first host, Michael Gross, asked us to stop at their Slovenian estate first, at the Stajerska Slovenija, in the Holze wine region. He said the reason they established an estate over there as well is because it’s a lot greener and calmer then Steiermark.

We are in Dunaszentmiklós, on the northern edge of the Gerecse hills, at the Kösziklás vineyard. Dunaszentmiklós is a beautifully-situated, 400-strong small village full of wine cellars overlooking the Danube that’s towards the north and west, surrounded by forest and limestone vineyards. And of course, rock-hard, diligent Swabians. 

We know that there are dedicated winemakers. But when we called Zsolt Liptai from Pannonhalma and asked him if he could talk to us about Pannonhalma Arch Abbey’s Sauvignon Blanc and he replied that he’s tasting wine in Champagne for a week, well, then we got a bit edgy. “No problem, you should talk to Balázs Hangyál until I get back, his Sauvignon is at least as good as ours.”

We’ve been travelling around the world for 25 years, because we want to see the landscape and the grapes by our own eyes, and to get to know the producers and the wineries. This time around, we’ll start off in a different way. We are organising this study trip together with the travel agency Yes Travel – to a wine region that is extraordinary by all means, and where there are doors on which a plain mortal would knock in vain.

It was just eight years ago when Marci Ruppert found a job ad on the university bulletin board, written in broken Hungarian, and he sought out Robert Gilvesy. They have changed a lot since their first harvest together – combined they now cultivate almost 25 hectares of vineyards on two hills’ two different soils...

Swiss owner Philipp Oser started building up the Villa Tolnay winery 15 years ago. Now the estate at the foot of Csobánc Hill has been expanded with the addition of a modern cellar, while the image is also being changed and new blends are being created. We visited them on a grey February day, but it was still obvious: here, everything is already about the spring and innovation.  

We’ve been to Fertőrákos, the village of Enikő Luka and Ráspi. Next to the table, a snow-white cat with one brown and one blue eye blinks in the sun. The Professor. The flames crackle in the stove of the beautifully renovated TSZ pub, while by the table three Poncichters (the German name for Sopron grape producers) share Sopron’s fairy tale winemaker legend. Csaba and Balázs Orosz are siblings and they both have beards, while their friend, Samu Linzer, smiles continually and pours out his stories. And we also tasted the wines: Zweigelt and Kékfrankos.  

We sit down every year and bring out earlier vintages of Burgundian Pinot Noirs. We observe how this exciting and diverse variety develops. Based on our latest tasting, now we voted unanimously for these Pinots.   

Elegant and memorable wines from Tuscany’s indigenous variety, from the Mastrojanni Winery.

Sommeliers are our friends, colleagues and partners. They taste at least as much as we do, and talk as much (if not more) about wine than us. We took a bottle, sat down with them to talk and only asked them to tell us what comes into their minds about wines.  

Earlier when we talked about Bordeaux, we mentioned full-bodied, earthy, smoky notes, as well as powerful tannins and long ageing potential, even of up to 15 years. And sometimes barnyardy ‘brett’. There was a style we learnt to accept: the world of slightly aristocratic and not always easy to understand big wines. Bordeaux is changing. The new vintages give lighter, less tannic wines that can be enjoyed earlier.

We went to Tokaj for our annual report. It’s a fairy tale number. A lot of things have changed over the seven years.

“Don’t come to us wearing a suit!”

Story-like characters from the Kozér vineyard

“2017 was the vintage of richness both in sweet and dry wines.”

“I’m made of grape matter and zeolite.”

“This vintage gave more broad-shouldered wines than 2016.”

“It should be consumable quickly but also for a long time.”

“I might as well be a cobbler. The main point is that I should do it well.”

We visited Csilla and Csaba Sebestyén in Szekszárd, during the early harvest. We started at Iván-völgy, then it was off to the Porkoláb and the Görögszó vineyards. These are real treasures, which you might easily speed past on the motorway, thinking that Szekszárd is not a nice place and that you shouldn’t stop there. But you simply have to stop in Szekszárd.

“An entry-level red wine should be rich, flavoursome and zesty. I don’t believe in light bistro wines,” says Gábor Kiss vehemently, getting straight to the point. We also talked about the Rouge 364.

This story is about grapes. About grapes and a grandfather whose daughter needed a change of scenery. It’s about grapes – Kéknyelű and Hárslevelű – about basalt, sandstone and pines. And about a mother, Bea, about a daughter, Dóra, and about a little girl, Lujza.

It’s mid-May and the sun is shining. We are sitting high up on the slopes of Badacsony’s Öreghegy and below us is the vineyard called ‘God’s slope’ by Zsófi and Bence. Everything is verdantly green, the old-vine Olaszrizling is three weeks ahead of what is normal for this time of the year. Hot basalt, blue Balaton and the high life. It’s Friday before lunch, yet it’s a full house on the Laposa wine terrace and the place is jumping...

Fifteen years ago, we got a phone call from a friend, Géza Ipacs, a graphic artist from Eger, who suggested that together we should go to Verona, to Vinitaly, to taste wine, to check out the labels and get some inspiration. One of his friends, a really cool flower merchant, who had a tiny cellar in Mór, also came along. 

The words ‘old vines’, ‘vieilles vignes’, ‘alte reben’ or ‘viñas viejas’ can often be found on wine labels. The aim is obvious on the part of winemakers: age adds dignity and commands respect. But is there any rational reason for respecting old vines?

You could debate as to whether the world would know about New Zealand wine had it not been for Cloudy Bay, but one thing is for certain – if it had not been for Cloudy Bay, there would be no Dog Point either...

If we’d have had no idea where we were heading to, we’d never have found out which one the Böjt Winery was among Ostoros street’s small, identical-looking family cellars. Maybe only from the fact that no sign, arrow or battered board signals the Böjt winery – contrary to loads of other neighbouring wineries...

This year, once again, we asked 14 winemakers about the wine, traditional method sparkling wine or spirits they enjoy during the festive season. This isn’t a Top List, it’s more to learn what varieties, wine regions, styles and colleagues are the closest to them. This year, the most exciting outcome was probably that a surprising amount of them chose traditional method sparkling wine.

We could see each other more often…

We could start our imaginary letter to aszú or sweet szamorodni this way… 

Kreinbacher, Sauska, Veuve Clicquot…

We’ve been selling more and more traditional method sparkling wines over the last few years, and besides the foreign ones, great Hungarian sparklers have also made it into our selection. 

International, Balkan and Hungarian. The Zvonko Bogdan winery from Vojvodina.

We’re only a few kilometres from the Hungarian border, but we’re dropping in on another world; the taste and the atmosphere are completely different. In Subotica (Szabadka in Hungarian), the cafes and restaurants are full of people chatting and smoking, even in the early afternoon on a Tuesday.

Winemakers of the distant south: Ernő Sagmeister and Oszkár Maurer

In the first part of our writing about the wines of the exciting sounding Délvidék (lit. Southern territories), we’re now introducing two winemakers from Szerémség (Syrmia), and next time a South Csongrád winery.

It happens at a similar time in similar ways every year, or so you might think. The truth is there are as many methods and ideas as winemakers, and sometimes even a certain amount of eccentricity is attached to the harvest. Now, concentrating on these, we’re going to look at the most important steps of the harvest, introducing nine such exciting wines, whereby the making of which saw certain steps of the harvest activities differ a bit (or a lot) from the usual ways.

“Grapes are like business cards, they say a lot about someone”

Káli Kövek winemaker Gyula Szabó started making village wine in a totally pioneering manner in the region, and apart from his peers in Tokaj, he was also among the first winemakers to do so in the country a few years back. This year, he’s got six wines out, three of which are village wines (Monostorapáti, Szentbékkálla, Szentantalfa). Three new wines (Furmint, Chardonnay, Riesling) have also been made. We talked to Gyula in connection with the new wines at his Köveskál base and in the Öreghegy vineyard in Monostorapáti.

One of the TOP 3 questions posed to us in our wine shops – mainly from spring till the autumn – is whether we can recommend something with low alcohol. Luckily, we can. But when exactly can we say that a light, summer white wine has low alcohol?

When we arrived in the Garam Valley, a tea made from field horsetail and nettle was simmering in a huge pot next to the grapevines. They spray some 300-400 litres of it on the vines on a weekly basis. Alongside the horsetail and nettle, they also add anise, mugwort and osier to it. Different green and medicinal herbs grow between the rows of vines, and the orchard on Muzsla’s Öreghegy exudes friendly tranquillity and joviality, the same way as its owner Frigyes Bott does.

“We’ve gone to Prosecco,” we said incorrectly when we left to check out the who, where and how of Italy’s and the world’s most popular tank-made wine. As a matter of fact, we didn’t actually go to Prosecco...

Gergő Sámson, our colleague in Pécs who reported on Porto Tónico straight from Porto, isn’t just a regularly returning visitor to the city but he also lived there for a while. During university – as a meteorology student – he became interested in the Portuguese language (alongside his knowledge of German, Italian and English), which is how he arrived in Portugal in August 2009 on an Erasmus scholarship. 

In June we talked to five winemakers from the hilly northern side of Lake Balaton about Olaszrizling. We said farewell by saying that we would continue because there are so many great Rizlings (a derivative form of Olaszrizling) that we wish to introduce from Hungary and from over the border. Now, we’re going to talk about some special wines...

The 2013 vintage of the Sauskas’ two flagship wines first arrived last autumn: following a tasting held together with the winery and an extremely successful pre-order period, another few months of bottle ageing followed from the middle of October...

Novelties, classics and a sparkler

In wine circles, Sauvignon Blanc is like the first ray of spring sunshine. It charges us up, energises us and turns us into addicts until the final autumn evenings. One of the world’s most recognisable varieties, it’s the provider of instant ecstasy to inexperienced tasters. For the more experienced, it’s a must have on warmer days. It may well not be by accident that Sauvignon Blancs have been the most popular wines in our selection for years. 

We know the road well but anyone who comes here for the first time would be looking for the Györgykovács sign in vain, as they don't like being disturbed while they’re working. And they work constantly. The first minutes after our arrival are spent with Imre excusing himself: a couple of weeks earlier our colleague, Gábor Csorba, who was around called them and said that he would drop by to say hi, but Imre and his wife were busy with racking and then it’s not good when visitors mess about. There is no fooling around when it comes to work.

We've once again collected the most exciting data of last year – we counted, schemed and drew, and now we're sharing it with everyone: from grape varieties through wine regions to the big screw cap dilemma: this is what 2016 looked like in numbers.

February felt horribly long, and then one day we went to Balatonlelle where the temperature was 16 degrees Celcius. There was snow in Pest, but there we found snowdrops growing. We talked to Dani Konyári on the terrace about Kékfrankos, travelling and family. No big stories or far-fetched ideologies. Just Kékfrankos, Malbec, Syrah and Páva. 

There are endless possibilities in winemaking. Varieties, wine regions and methods, with the last one able to be influenced by the winemaker by the most. There could be adventurous blending, whole-bunch pressing, fermenting, skin contact for white grapes, or using amphoras instead of barrels...

There are certain staples on every table at Christmas: wine, fish, meat, cakes… We can always talk a lot about wine, but this time we asked three friends of ours what has changed over the last 10-15 years, what the new favourites are and what the classics are. Anna Niszkács from Gerbeaud, fishmonger István Nusszer and butcher József Károly talked about their perspectives on the holidays. 

When we reached Gilvesy’s cellar on the hill, we could only smile at Robert’s idea: “Let’s march up to the top of the hill and have a picnic as it’s wonderful up there at this time. We can taste the ’15 Mogyorós Sauvignon and the Tarányi Riesling there,” he said. 

Móni, Gábor, Klári and Zsolt. Two married couples, four good friends. Three of them are from Boldogkőváralja, while Klári is from the Balaton area. Always together at school, then at weekends in the picturesque castle. 

Frankly, we’re having a strange year. After the beginning of the warm autumn spell over the last few weeks, 35mm of rain fell unexpectedly in Szekszárd. We’re walking among the Kadarka rows with the Heimanns as they discuss which clones should be picked and when. Ági and the two Zolis argue and loudly, too! We are treading in the mud and tasting the berries. Eventually, the younger Zoli makes the decision: “We’ll start tomorrow with the 111 and 113 clones.” The decision is accepted by everyone and we sit down to taste on the terrace. While Zoli calls some people, Ági starts the story. 

“The wine doesn’t make itself”

“My 2015 wines stand like trees” – Attila Homonna 

"Only 2013 was even better than this”

“The grapes were with us” – Stéphanie Berecz and Zsolt

“We’ve got to win the championship”

 “Winemaking without barrels? I simply can’t imagine that” – András Bacsó

“Everything depended on the timing”

An annual vintage report could never be complete if we only returned to the same places every year. Each year we intend to provide the opportunity to small, upcoming wineries, although we have no idea for how long we will have enough room on the Tokaj shelves. In connection with 2015, we tasted the wines of more than a dozen wineries, and it’s apparent that Tokaj is unstoppable in producing new talents...

We’ll be honest: we don’t understand this whole orange wine thing. We have tasted orange wine several times here in Hungary, in Austria and in Germany, and from amphoras, concrete eggs, barrels and tanks. It’s an exciting undertaking for winemakers; a journey of exploration to discover the direction towards traditional maceration or whole bunch fermentation. However, the outcome is usually more ‘interesting’ than truly enjoyable. 

We initially only had two or three different beers in our shops during the summer months and at the end of the year, but last year we stepped it up and 13 different kinds of beer graced our shelves. By the spring, all the beer was gone, and since then, the question keeps popping up on a daily basis: “When will you have beer again?” It was obvious to us that we should offer at least as many as that for the summer, but during the year and at our tastings we found so many exciting beers that eventually the sum doubled to 26. It’s an almost industrial amount but only includes craft beers.

The winemaking philosophy of Lower Austria

2015 is the vintage of the decade. While most of the more serious 2015 wines haven’t even hit the market yet, winemakers and experts unanimously agree that it is the most outstanding vintage of the last 10 years. What surprised us during our tastings was that even though it was an especially hot summer, the wines are remarkably fresh with intense aromas, and we haven’t experienced any signs that would imply overripeness or botrytis. The wines are dense without being heavy, fruity without forcing the spiciness and minerality into the background. As is typical with stellar vintages, all this is true with the entry-level wines. 

At the beginning of April, one of the most renowned Austrian winemakers, Roland Velich, was our guest at the Borsuli. Between two ‘Winemaker in the House’ tastings, he talked to us about past and present, the birth of Moric, and Blaufränkish.

János Konyári’s younger daughter came up with the initially unusual sounding name of Késa. The tiny, fledgling family winery was named after Bori’s daughter and Szent István’s wife: Késa, which is an ancient diminutive form of Gizella.

“Elegance ahead of intensity: in addition to a wine having good drinkability, it can be harder to recognise richness when it comes along with rustic and overly direct notes. However, one should seek elegance as joy is more important in wine than seeking intensity.”

Some winemakers emphasize that grapes have to suffer in order to be able to produce fine wine. According to others, the suffering of the grapes does not have any beneficial effect on the outcome of the wine, in the same way that it isn’t any good for winemakers to be stressed. Tokaj winemaker István Szepsy has an apt response to put the whole question in its right place: “struggle makes it noble, but suffering makes it crippled.”  

With respect to Riesling, the Mosel (its complete name is Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) is the most important region along the sharply winding River Mosel.

Despite its considerable size, Rheinghau actually belongs to the smaller German regions, yet globally it’s the most widely known wine region in Germany, besides the Mosel. 

This is our fourth vintage overview.
Although the vintage was almost a write-off, we sat down to taste the wines and we were not disappointed. 

German Pinot = Spätburgunder

We hit the road to Tokaj once again. Although we knew there was little wine made in the vintage – or that some winemakers didn’t even make any – we felt that Tokaj deserved as much for us to check out the wines of such an adverse vintage. 2014 will remain in our memory as a difficult vintage, although we can’t emphasize enough that this doesn’t automatically mean bad wine. It was a challenge for the grape growers and winemakers, but for us it sometimes brings surprises.

“A lighter vintage with more intricate wines”

“I couldn’t give up on the barrels” 

“Tállya needs more ageing”

“We were able to catch the ripe acidity”

“I was really pleased with the Hárs”

“The most important measurement is the second glass”

As is the case all over the world, the most popular new French wines will arrive in our wine shops on Thursday, in limited number. We have to admit we couldn’t wait to get them and tasted all four: the Louis Jadot, the Pierre-Marie Chermette, and the Beaujolais Nouveau of two organic winemakers from Terroirs-Originels – Jean-Michel Dupre and Lucien Lardy – who are new in our selection.

We’ve just got home from an exciting, three-day trip. We visited 14 of our wineries, and we mainly inquired about the 2014 wines. “It was a rainy, difficult year,” the winemakers said, “yet lots of great wines were born. But, the 2015s have just fermented! Now, they’re amazing!” We tasted them from the tank, in Etyek, Villány, Szekszárd and Pannonhalma. We all agreed: November is going to be exciting.

In the ‘90s, the whole wine world was buzzing about barrique. It was a cool thing to be able to recognise the barrel in the wine, which essentially came from the toasting that suppressed all the other flavours. Today, the trend is quite the opposite: wine should be fruity, fresh and should only see a barrel in the other corner of the cellar. Nevertheless, barrel making has developed so much that by today several hundred kinds of barrels can impart influences which do not hinder but rather emphasize and enrich the wine.

We got underway last month with Dr. Bürklin-Wolf’s entry level Riesling. Now, here’s the next instalment of the great unknowns from the best places of growth. Great, because according to many, German Riesling is the only rival of Burgundian Chardonnay for the title of the world’s greatest white wine, and now it’s Riesling which seems to be winning...

There are white wines that can be tasted and analysed for hours as they keep on revealing new flavours and aromas, since they are complex and have weight. Then there are whites that we don't even feel the need to talk about; they just feel nice to drink and if tasting can be measured in terms of hours, then most likely we won't still be stuck on the first bottle.

Members of the underground resistance from among our team, who are also beer enthusiasts, have been meeting up sub rosa once every six months over the last few years in the office of our Lánchíd shop. We understand each other by half words and we communicate with secret beer expressions...

We spoke to György Lőrincz Jr. in the St. Andrea Wine Bar in the basement of the freshly renovated Eiffel Palace. The subject was Borünnep (Wine Celebration) as there is always cause for celebration. Now, it’s because the 2013 Boldogságos and the 2011 Merengő have arrived along with young György Lőrincz’s own first wine, Kedves (“Kind”). It is only offered in a gourmet case, offered by the two György Lőrinczs under the name Borünnep.

It’s now 20 years since Ottó Légli’s wine first made it into the Bortársaság selection. The wine in question was the 1994 Pinot Blanc. To mark the occasion, we sipped wine with Ottó and Bogi and tasted the two latest releases of the winery.

Benedictine monks have been drinking water from the well that’s known by the locals as the Well of King Béla for centuries. This pristinely pure water has a healing effect and it was decided five years ago that they would bottle it. It is going to take decades before the investment pays off but that’s not the primary aim. As with the winery, they planned for the long run with Vis Vitalis as well.

"Climate change is seemingly reaching us too. 2012 was an exciting year full of menacing twist and turns, the end of the world seemed upon us, like a proper Scandinavian crime story. ”

László Latorczai, wine maker

A Kreinbacher Birtoké a legnagyobb és leglátványosabb beruházás egész Somlón. Az épületek egy lávafolyamot mintázva egységes képet adnak, mégis más-más funkciókkal bírnak. a borok és pezsgők külön helyszíneken születnek. Még Várszegi György, a pincészet borásza is úgy fogalmaz: teljesen át kell állítani az ember agyát. pezsgő vagy bor – választani kell, és az épület ebben is segít!

Burgundy wines have been appearing on our shelves for a good few years now. Pinot Noir is hardly a straightforward phenomenon since at times it can be truly discreet, secretive, fragile, yet colourful and exciting. We fell in love with it when we set off for the Côte d’Or with a small team in the autumn of 2011 and visited a few winemakers...

“Small details change, everything becomes more refined” 

“2013 tired me out completely.”

“2013 placed another serious opportunity into our hands” 

“2013 was a big change in the life of Kikelet.”

“Fullness and serious composition, high acidity.”

The wines of the 2011 and 2012 vintages - re-tasted

This year we once again visited several great winemakers and even though we can’t give an account of all our journeys, we’d like to share the best memories with you.  

György Lőrincz. 23-years-old. He originally wanted to be a professional football player. He became a winemaker and a Greek Catholic lector. György Lőrincz. 47-years-old. He originally wanted to be a professional water polo player. He became a winemaker and a Greek Catholic catechist. We talked to them at the end of October in Egerszalók about wine, Eger, family and malolactic fermentation, accompanied by a bottle of Örökké and one of Valóban Méltó.

Zoltán Heimann Jnr. and the reinterpreted tradition 

We are standing in the Baranya-völgy with Zoltán Heimann Jnr., on the beautiful plateau of red clay and loess terraces, and everybody is speaking in superlatives. And then what does Zoli, who has been travelling around the world for nine years working around and learning about wine, then go and say? ...

Ours is a Swabian family from Pécs and even though my father used to work in the building industry, the history of our family has always been linked with farming, to the soil. At first, Babarcszőlős only meant a holiday to us. Then the hill, the climate and the rich soil had such an impact on us that we started planting grapes...

The truth is that ever since meeting him last year, we put Jani into a box. For us, he has been about the Kadarka, the Kékfrankos and the blue Lada 1500. Every time we think or talk about him, Jani Márkvárt is associated with that...

There are some people who make great wine in Diósviszló, in the south-western outpost of the Villány wine region, at the gate of Orámság. (Among them is Ruppert whose vineyard is partly located in the village). The first one we met here was Miklós Tamás Rácz. He is a nice, hard working chap making good wines...

Péter Rack, Bortársaság – Parlament
Finally, it’s truly hot. As far as I’m concerned, ice-chilled rosé tastes even better now, whether by itself or as a frocks (spritzer), the latter along with the football World Cup. Crispy, fresh and thirst-quenching, and that’s just fine...

Dani Gyana, Balatonfüred
Summer has three truly important ingredients: swimming trunks, Balaton and good Balaton wines. The lake doesn’t only equal deep-fried bream, peddalos, swimming and having fun, but it’s also one of our most exciting wine regions as well...

Brigitta Kristófand János Gavallér, Debrecen:

Sultry nights, BBQs on the terrace, chilling out on the beach: it’s summer. If wine is too much by itself but you’re already bored by spritzer, then it’s time for a sparkle...

Krisztina Tóth, graphic designer

What makes a wine look good? Sometimes it’s due to the precise design work, at other times, it’s down to a spontaneous idea. Sometimes I like something because it’s so clear-cut, other times, because it’s complex and one can get lost in it.

Ripka Gergely, Árkád:

A spontán erjesztett borokat azért szeretjük, mert van bennük valami ősi természetesség, valami hagyományos. Régen nyilván nem volt fajélesztő és hűthető acéltartály, mégis örömmel boroztak az emberek. 

Fresh vintages of Telmo Rodriguez's natural wines have arrived from Spain from rediscovered regions, from hard to cultivate plots that have been avoided by the big wineries, from local grape varieties organically cultivated, mainly from bush vines, winemaking without intervention, spontaneous fermentation, a modern attitude but in accordance with local traditions.

"2013 was a remarkable year for white wine but it was also a very extreme vintage. Due to the cold, long and wet spring, I faced the latest bud break ever at the end of April. Then the heat in July evoked that of 2012. Following August 20, not only the holidaymakers but also the sun disappeared from the Balaton. ..."

It’s a unique experience to meet Roland Velich. He is self-assured, convincing, calm and open. He speaks firmly in the knowledge of the security of the concept elaborated in every detail that has met with considerable success in practice...

We travelled again, visited Köveskál and walked around the early-blossoming almond trees and closed restaurants waiting for the season to start. Coming in from Balatonfüred on the left hand side, we stopped at the last house of the village. Stone built walls, racka sheep and their lambs grazing on the meadow next to the house, and the ubiquitous almond trees...

The good thing about Imre’s wines is that ever since 1992, they’ve come from the same nicely looked after micro-parcels and are made at the same place, in the same way, and more or less in the same immaculately clean, old barrels...

We first met Philipp Oser many years ago at what was possibly the first wine bar in the country, Vörös és Fehér (lit. Red and White), which today is Klassz. Oser had just started making wine in the Csobánc, in the former villa of the famous Hungarian actress Klári Tolnay, which was turned into a cellar 10 years ago...

Back in Tokaj 

It is only worth starting an annual overview if we continue with it. The feedback provided by our own team and friends has also greatly helped and told us that we’re heading in the right direction. Therefore, it was kind of natural that we should proceed with an update. Before we actually hit the Hegyalja, we retasted what was still available from the 2011 series, and the experience also confirmed to us that Tokaj is indeed important. 

“The aim is simple: to make wines that are good to drink. For pure pleasure.”

“We channel the alcohol from below and the acidity from above”

“Tokaj for me can’t be about anything else other than diversity”

“With less oak, tuned to be crispier”

There are in fact two Beaujolais. One is THE famous and less valuable, the other is relatively unknown and valuable. The famous one is the new wine – the Nouveau or Beaujolais Nouveau AOC, which arrived on November 21 and has almost run out by now. The other is the Cru Beaujolais, which takes up two-thirds of the region’s complete yield, and is a noble wine with long ageing potential. Since we couldn’t initially provide a complete picture of the wine region, we’re now introducing a few beautiful wines from three winemakers based on the recommendations we received. Next year, we’ll go there, taste and bring over whatever we like the most.

This year, four Beaujolais Nouveau wines have arrived the southern part of Burgundy. Until now we ordered one village level Beaujolais Nouveau from the esteemed Maison Louis Jadot, while consciously avoiding the mass producing wineries of the region. This time we also sought the recommendations of our friends in Burgundy. Based on their opinions, on top of the couple of hundred Jadot Primeur we’re already familiar with, we’ve brought over new wines from three small local wineries. 

The individual character of the two Cuvée 7s from the exceptional 2011 vintage is defined by two factors: the marked difference between the two terroirs and the proportion of the grape varieties that produced the most stunning wines from the particular vineyards. In this vintage, the two Bordeaux-style blends also differ in their composition...

Take a village with a location and a name that could fit easily into a fairy tale, plus a fairytale castle on its outskirts. Then take three kids who, already at the age of six, spent the summer among the Gönc apricot trees of the village and who, by the time they grew up, between them became an economist in Budapest, an artisan baker in New Zealand and a building engineer. Add a young woman from Balatonalmádi, loads of hand picked and selected fruit, a hint of positive craziness, a top quality distillery and piles of work. Then wait for the pálinka to come out of it...

We are often asked by friends, customers and winemakers on what basis we decide on the wines that make it into our selection and who makes the decisions.

Even though we remain faithful to wine, especially since that’s what we are best at, we would like to introduce a delicacy month by month.

When the whole wine world is buzzing with the fever of diversity and originality, then we can count our lucky stars that we are blessed with a red grape that makes a unique and elegant wine, with long ageing potential, and one which practically only grows in the Carpathian Basin.

Even though the apple season is just about to start, we managed to get yet one more small batch (600 bottles dry and 600 bottles semi-sweet) of cider from the Vértesboglár “Czider girls”. 

On the one hand: summer, kecskeköröm (shellfish fossils), sabre carp, lángos, Boglár, campfire, blue ribbons, night swimming, the ferry, trains tooting, childhood, golden bridge, pedalos, “Balaton” hake, Füred, etc. On the other hand: Olaszrizling, Köveskál, basalt, loess, Béla and Bandi, bush vines, Kéknyelű. In other words, a definitive wine region where several hundred, smaller and larger, grape growers make their best wines.

The 13 hectare Szent György Hill estate is a real lovechild. After moving back from Canada in 1993, Robert Gilvesy fell in love at first sight with the view from the terrace of the ruined Eszterházi press house. The winery dreamt up way back then has become reality by today, after the listed house and the modern winery were renovated and completed on the picturesque hillside and the first three wines made it into bottle.

“I started off in Budapest, now I'm making wines in the village of my grandparents. We make village vines here from the grapes of the Káli Basin,” says Gyula Szabó, winemaker of Káli Kövek (lit. Káli Stones). “Over the last few years, I’ve spent half of my time visiting the surrounding villages and vineyards looking for the nicest locations and promising grape growers.

Ten years ago it was still major news that Jancis Robinson MW had confessed her love for Grüner Veltliner. Today, it’s one of the most happening varieties; it appears on the wine lists of every serious restaurant around the world, and you can’t get hold of the top Grüners of the Wachau superstars for under 50 euros a bottle, even at the cellar door.

“I’m from Szekszárd, I’m a winemaker, grape grower and a farmer. I make good, enjoyable wines.”

Oremus was founded in 1993, which is exactly 20 years ago and also the same time Bortársaság came into being. If you count back 190 years from this date, you’ll arrive at the time of the vineyard classification of Szirmay (1803). This date is important since, according to this old and scientific classification, all the holdings of the Oremus winery are ranked under the first class category.

To complete our 2011 vintage overview, we talked to Krisztián Sauska and winemaker Gábor Rakaczki about the dry wines of Sauska-Tokaj.

While in the former "Greater Hungary" half of all grapes grown, and two-thirds of red grapes, were known as Kadarka, its share today is only approaching one per cent of overall plantings. So why are we still talking about it you may ask? We are pursuing our curiosity since over the last few years we have encountered flashes of brilliance with the “Hungarian Pinot Noir” that put it firmly back in focus. That's why we followed it up, tasted it, and asked for the opinion of a few winemakers.

We tasted the new Konyári wines: the 2012 Szerecsen, the new Jánoshegy Kékfrankos and the Syrah, at the beginning of February. János is in South Africa with the grandkids, Dani and his two colleagues are fining the wines in the cellar while outside winter is still in full throttle on Kishegy. No wonder the dog wants to come in, but Dani doesn’t let him. Things are getting serious in Balatonlelle, from every aspect.

We tasted the Olaszrizling, from Róza, or actually from Ambrus. We were curious to know how the wines of the Badacsony biologist have changed in a year. Then it turned out there was only one of his wines left on the shelf.

The Bortársaság team paid a visit to Tokaj on observing that we’ve increasingly been tasting dry Tokaji. The story of our four days there is a first impression of the incredible changes that are going on there. Not only were we enchanted by the dry wines of Tokaj-Hegyalja from 2011, but also by our hosts; with their enthusiasm, dedication and modesty.

„Maybe this special vintage was necessary so that after 13 years myself and Bortársaság could get to know each other again. The vintage made it obvious that something is happening in the world that both nature and winemaker should adapt to. The starlings knew what their task was: they arrived a month early, and we started the harvest at the beginning of September, instead of the usual end of October."

„I’ve been running a simple estate since 1999, making two wines per year. I blend estate wines solely from hand-cultivated grapes from small parcels with extremely low yields. In 2011, I hoed more than I’d ever done before in my life. We broke up the cover crops between the grape rows and I deep ploughed so that every single drop of rain could be utilised. I was worried about the warmth and the tannins resulting from the thicker skins."

„2011 was the opportunity to make the ideal dry white wine. The grapes were so healthy that they were smiling at you. This is the 13th vintage of our dry estate wine, yet we learn something new from nature every year. The most important thing we’ve experienced in the past ten years was balance. The precise timing of the harvest, but even more giving..."

„I’ve been saying for 20 years that we’d stop adding new areas. However, we just can’t stop ourselves! Now it’s the andesite soil of Tállya and its five first-class vineyards that excite me. Once it accounted for most of the grapes in the wine region. My wife’s hairdresser has even asked me why I go there so often. We discover 800-year-old vineyard names and each parcel hides a surprise."

Frigyes Bott and his family live next door and we sometimes drop in to visit them. We only have to drive to the other side, over the green Mária Valéria bridge at Esztergom, then turn right at the first hill. Anyone who does it once will long to go back. “Gentle hills, honest people, beautiful rivers, and in a dry year ‘may green’ grapes even when October is approaching.