Furmint: The Next Big Thing....

Interesting article by CarolineGilby:

in which the next big thing in the WineWorld is the Furmint grape.
Not sure I have such a megalomaniac take on that grape, but she does make some interesting points.
One of the reasons is that she feels it parallels Riesling in it’s ability to make a range of wines from bone-dry
to intensely sweet, all of which can be great. But this is exactly one of the reasons many folks criticize Riesling because
you can never be sure what kind of wine you’ll encounter w/ a btl of Riesling. That’s a negative, not a positive.
She refers to a reported tiny planting of Furmint in the RussianRiverVlly. That would be LimerickLane. Originally
planted yrs ago by MikeCollins in his desire to make a Aszu kind of Furmint. Alas, not reliable botrytis there in the RRV
to make one, though he did make a few very good passito versions. Jake has made a few Furmints at LL, but I’ve not seen one
from them in several yrs now. I shared the LL Dry Furmint w/ HeidiSchrock a few yrs ago and she was favorably impressed and
traded the remains of the LL for one of her BA Furmints so she could share the remains w/ her two sons.
The HeidiSchrock Furmint, both dry & sweet, from the Burgenland, has consistently been one of my favorite Furmints.

Anyway, according to Caroline, Furmint is the next big thing in the WineWorld. You first read it here.
Tom

I’ve already arranged wine tastings on volcanic wines (another Next Big Thing) with some emphasis on Hugnarian Furmints some years ago and also helped a friend arrange a Furmint tasting on the International Furmint Day (Feb 1st). So Furmint being the next big thing is old news to me, but I guess you first read about International Furmint Day here. :smiley:

When in Budapest and Prague it’s fairly easy to find a selection of dry furmint.

it’s a very nice wine

not so much at home in the states.

And it won’t be because it’s not going to be the next big thing. It’s been the next big thing for at least ten years, if not more. It’s the Brazil of wine grapes. It ripens late but it buds early, so it’s tricky to grow, and it has thin skins and is subject to lots of problems.

The Hungarians didn’t waste it making dry wine until just a few years ago when they realized, after finally emerging from the Iron Curtain, that there just isn’t a great market for sweet wine in the world. So they adapted.

That took some learning, so doing a retrospective regarding aging will be a bit constrained. Then there’s the tendency of the grape to oxidize. People who paid attention saw that with the Kiralyudvar dry wines, which are some of the few that were imported because of their connection to Huet.

When done well, it produces an austere and very lean wine, more similar to something from the Loire than about anything else I can think of. Heidi’s version is not that type - she’s growing it in a warmer region and it’s a bigger-bodied wine than you get from the best sites in Tokaj. I like it well enough, but it’s not a brilliant wine.

I had a couple bottles of the 2014 LL Furmint. We ordered them by accident. They drank ok but its not a varietal I am chasing to put in the cellar.

I woud argue Mission is the next big thing, but I would say that, wouldn’t I? [wink.gif]

I drank a lot of Furmint while on holidays in Budapest and Prague early this year. I liked the dry ones enough, but still don’t see much of a comparison with riesling.

But hasn’t Furmint been the next big thing for a while. I’ve tried all that are available around Santa Fe and most of them are OK but not compelling. They are inexpensive, however.

I just finished another bottle of the 2013 Kiralyudvar dry Furmint. In great shape with no premox (I admit that a few have been oxidized). Has a strong petrol component on the nose, which is the only parallel with riesling that I see. otherwise it is quite reminiscent of a very good Loire chenin sec. I’ve been very happy with them, particularly at the price at the time (I think it was under $20).

Yes!