A friend is traveling to Hungary in the next few weeks and has asked if I have any recommendations of Hungarian wine. As I don’t, I thought I’d throw it out to the board to see if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks.
Szepszy
Tokaji from the Royal Tokaji Wine Company or Chateau Pajzos. Try the Esszencia if your friend gets the chance . . . made from the sweetest thing on Earth!
-James
If your friend is going to Budapest (s)he could do a lot worse than visiting one of the Budapest Wine Society stores BORTÁRSASÁG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Knowledgeable staff and a good selection of Hungarian wines.
When I was making wine in Hungary a few years ago, I was particularly taken with a variety called Kadarka. Has all the aromatic attraction of Pinot Noir (though little of the complexity or ageing potential). Jozef Vestergombi from Szekszard makes a very nice example. Another wine to look out for is the Dobogo barrel-fermented dry Furmint; it is truly outstanding.
As Keith said, Istvan Szepszy’s wines are also well worth seeking out.
One thing to note is that price of Hungarian wines is not necessarily a guide to quality…
These are all great suggestions and are greatly apprecaited. Thanks for sharing.
Takler makes very good Bordeaux styled wines–Cab Sauv/Franc, et.
Kiralyudvar makes some great dry Tokaji…
Just stay away from the “buy me drink” bars because the last time I was there, they charged me and my friends $200 american dollars per drink and wouldn’t let us leave until we paid up and had the door blocked with five huge guys in black suits!
There are many to recommend and some not to recommend. You won’t likely find much by Szepsy other than his sweet ones if you can find those. His dry wines sell quickly. People know him so they mention him, and he’s an outstanding winemaker all around and I’m happy to have a fair bit of his wine, but there are others as good or better.
My advice is to look for whites as they’re more generally successful than reds and shooting blind, you’re less likely to miss. But keep in mind that the dry whites seem to be frequently hit with just a hint of RS, or they’re fruity enough that they seem to be. That’s not a bad thing mind you, but it’s next to impossible to tell if it’s going to be bone dry or not.
If you look for indigenous whites from say Tokaj, made in a completely dry style, you can find things that are reminiscent of Muscadet perhaps - very lean, almost austere, with piercing acidity. It’s why they make such fantastic sweet wines. Many of them get hit with a bit of wood too, but it’s not like a fat buttery wood, it’s more to round them out and it also provides a hint of nuts. So those would be Furmint and Hárslevelű mostly, but often others. Those are likely to be your best bets and there are many producers in Tokaj making them. Less than a handful come to the US.
The Kiralyudvar mentioned above is an example. It comes over because the owner also owns Huet, so he has connections and PR savvy, and he bought into Tokaj when the buying was cheap. Szepsy was initially a consultant there, but he’s long gone. However, the wine maker is good and he also does wine under his own name that’s quite good. There are probably a dozen or more tiny wineries in that region that you’ll never find but that make outstanding wine, as good or better than anything else you’ll find in Hungary or elsewhere in the world. But those tend to be quite small. If you can, look for Alana. It’s a new winery, but superb. To my mind, most of the bigger wineries in Tokaj don’t make outstanding dry wines. Oremus for example, has a wine called Mandolas. I think it’s a pass. I guess the better one would be from Dereszla - their dry wine is actually kind of nice and priced well, i.e. under $20. Some of the others will be several times that. And the wines like Pajzos or Royal Tokaji are already imported to the US, so why bother.
So look for wines from other areas where you find many different grapes, including many “international” grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Matter of fact Hungary does a really good job with both of those and there used to be really fine Chardonnay planted at Apatsagi, but they pulled it out because it was just too hard to sell into a market full of Chardonnay from all over.
So keeping with the Hungarian whites, look for Irsai Oliver maybe, or Kéknyelű, or a grape I really like called Juhfark, which I really like - it’s not common and mostly from Somló but if you can find a good one, it’s worthwhile. Somló is a pretty small region in the west of Hungary but there were a number of volcanos there so the soil is interesting. I’m not sure what to compare it to - it’s unique enough that you should seek some out. There’s a pretty new producer over their - Kreinbacher, and I think they’re imported now and they’re worth looking for. But if you go into a store and ask for some wines from Somló, they can help you out.
Cserszegi Fűszeres tends to make a simpler wine, sometimes with a hint of floral notes; it can be quite enjoyable but I’ve not had any that’s really profound. Leányka and Királyleányka are related and again, tend to be pleasant and slightly perfumed, but rarely brilliant. There’s of course a lot of muscat and sometimes that’s good, but it’s also something you find elsewhere.
Irsai Oliver is yet another wine that can be interesting - there are maybe four or five in the US that I know of. Often comes from around Eger, or Matra, and can be really inexpensive and cheap.
Also you can find some Riesling, which they usually call Rhine Riesling, or Rizling. But if you really want to get a sense of the fundamental wine, find some Olaszrizling. It’s the most widely planted grape and if you’re driving through the country and you stop at a gas station, you start talking to someone and likely as not he’s got a bit planted at home, or his father or neighbor or uncle does. I hesitate to tell you specific names because it’s really the grape that I identify with Hungary more than any and as a friend said to me one day when we were talking about it, “We’ve never had a BAD Olaszrizling.” And he was right. It’s looked down on by many, but that’s because it’s ubiquitous. It can be damned good. In Austria, Heidi Schrock and Kracher both grew it.
Reds are much more hit or miss. They’re anxious to be prime-time players and finally, some of them are, but more of them are not quite ready yet.
The grape I like is Kékfrankos, which is called Blaufränkisch in Austria, but that’s a troubling grape. When good, it’s outstanding, but there’s a lot of crap. See if you can find one from Gróf Buttler, or in fact, any of their wines. And they’re not going to be cheap. Buttler is in Eger but that grape is even more identified with Szekszárd. Lizst drank wine from here and supposedly in his day it was grand enough for Popes and Kings. That’s where Takler is from and his wines can be quite good, although IMHO, rarely as good as American wine writers say and rarely worth the price.
There are many interesting winemakers in that region alone. One grape that they do extremely well is cab franc for some reason, and that’s in many places in Hungary. Szent Gaál for example, makes a wine called Passionata. Find that. It’s worth seeking out. In fact, put that on your to-do list. Also from Szekszárd is Heimann - he’s not only a thoughtful, smart guy, he’s pushing the limits of what people think of when they think of “Hungarian” wine. Try his wines. There is Thummerer and Vestergombi, both highly regarded, but again, pricey for what you get IMHO, at least if you’re used to the variety available in the US. Another one that I really like is from Merfelsz.
Because the name of the region sounds a bit like “sex ard” and many people speak English, and because Liszt referred to one of the wines as ”nectar sexardique”, Merfelsz has named their cab franc Sexardique. It’s also good and worth looking for but not widely distributed.
There is Kadarka planted in several areas of course, and I think it has a lot of potential. But one complaint from many winemakers is that there really isn’t an “indigenous” red. Kadarka came from the Serbs. Kékfrankos, or Blaufränkisch, is obviously not native as you can tell from the name. So they’ve simply taken the red grapes that others work with and they’re working with them. As I mentioned, cab franc is quite nice in many areas, but so are the merlots and sometimes the syrah can be shockingly good.
Villany is the area probably best known for reds and they do indeed produce some good wines. There is a good merlot called Solus made by Atilla Gere. Or maybe I should say sometimes it’s great. I’ve loved it some years and then last time was less impressed. Not sure if it’s me or the wine.
Another winery to look for is Konyari. They are by Lake Balaton, which is a different area from the ones I’ve mentioned. They do a number of whites and reds, many of them blends, but they’re all drinkable and some are shockingly good. Dan, who’s a friend of mine, did work in Napa for a year or so, so he’s got a good idea of what’s going on in the world of wine. They make a really good and nice drinking wine called Loliense, both in red and white, and you may want to see if you can find that. But their top wine is Páva and that’s definitely worth seeking out. It needs airing - it seems closed at first but if you give it an hour or more in a decanter, it really blossoms and I think it should age well too.
There are many other wines to talk about, but this is too long already. However, I may post some notes. I don’t really like to but since people don’t know the wines and there really aren’t other references, I’ll dig up some things to post in another thread.
Good luck.
For Budapest,
If you want all of Szepsy’s whites even the single vineyard Furmints go to Tigris Restaurant (Etterem).
You will find a great variety of Szepsy wines here. I had some amazing dry Furmints here.
The dry Szepsy wines are really in a class by themselves to me.
They also have alot of Attila Gere’s red wines including the Solus which is pretty great. 100% Merlot.
Also Takler Cabernet Sauvignon which is quite nice.
For sweeties, I like the Szepsy wines alot.
If you want a glass of Oremus Essensia, go to Cafe Mokka.
Don’t be tricked into Aszu Essensia. (Although it is not bad, it is very expensive also) It is nice but I like the 6 Puts and the Szamorodni (as it comes… a field blend of grapes). They are cheaper and have better utility as dessert and as a compliment to foie.
Royal Tokaji makes great Essensia also and 6 Putts.
As an aside, have the Foie Gras at Tigris. It is special. They have a very special connection to the best producer in Hungary. Amazing stuff.
FWIW.
This has all been very helpful. I’ve past all the information on to my friend. He leaves for Hungary in a week. I look forward to his return and comments on the wines he experiences. Thanks again everyone, you’ve been extreamly helpful and its very much appreciated.
Roy
Roy - here is some more in another thread.
TN - some white Hungarian wines - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In Budapest, tell him to go to the restaurant Maligan. It’s not that difficult to find but it’s kind of hidden in a non-descript street. They have tastings every Monday I think and they’re a great resource for wine and wine knowledge. The owner makes wine of course. But they also sell retail and their prices are quite good - it’s not like the US so you can try wines there before buying. That’s not the only place, but it’s worth the stop.
And many places will deliver to your hotel, so it’s worth trying stuff wherever you are.