The following wines were kindly given to me as a present by our new friend from Hungary, Ambrus, whom Albino, Andrea and I thank for the opportunity to taste these wines. The tasting notes are from June 2006 old, I am sorry to admit (as I had promised to post these a number of times...).
Please have a look at the far end for a mail from our liberal donor, included here in full with his permission, in which you will find a most insightful explanation on Badacsony and the three samples we received. Needless to say, I am already planning to visit the region next time I visit Hungary.
For those who have problems interpreting my "verbal scoring", the numerical correspondences are as follows:
79 and below = NOT GOOD (i.e. no need to figure out exactly)
80 – 84 = GOOD (same as 16 and over in the European 20-point system)
85 – 89 = VERY GOOD (same as 17 and over; I sometimes use EXCELLENT or ALMOST-OUTSTANDING to indicate 88 – 89)
90 – 94 = OUTSTANDING (same as 18 and over)
95 – 99 = GREAT (or CLASSIC, same as 19 and over; I sometimes use NEAR-PERFECT to indicate a 98 – 99 score)
100 = PERFECT (20/20)
Villa Tolnay Borház Kft. Rajnai Rizling Reserve 2004
13.4% alcohol at about 10 g/l residual sugar, 9.5 g/l acidity and 28 g/l dry extract, an off-dry Riesling. The original name of the single vineyard this stems from has apparently fallen into oblivion (note this wine is from Badacsony, same as the other two, even though the winery is placed on the Csobánc hill). Pale green colour. Soft aromas of Cox Orange apple, verbena, Swiss chard (leaf beet), greengage (Reineclaude) plum-like acidity. A touch tannic. Above-medium concentration, a bit deceptive in this regard. Some (unroasted!) pine nut with airing. An interesting wine that would have reminded us neither of a German, Alsatian nor an Austrian Riesling, though perhaps Swiss, if anything at all. Albino finds the acids prominent for his taste (all right for the vintage, I guess), and the sweetness too low for it to be called more than off-dry (it does indeed say it is “félszáraz” on the label), but is happy it is high enough to cover up some of the acidity. The alcohol integrates very well as a long as the wine is being served chilled, and still does not stick out like a sore thumb when the wine warms up in the glass. The empty glass leaves behind a scent of faintly oxidised persil. Very good pushing excellent quality? 12 hours later, this smelled somewhat Sauvignon Blanc- and/or Pinot Blanc-like, although the nose on the whole remained subdued (already partly closed). Suggestion of wet asphalt? Albino still felt the acidity hurt his tongue and throat. Some white pepper, perhaps a little residual yeast. Nowhere near the complexity and depth of the other two wines, but impressive surface smoothness despite the high, nicely herbaceous acidity, the mouthfeel in part due to the alcohol. Best served as an apéro wine, perhaps with appetizers.
(Please note the Neméth Pince (a common name in Hungary denoting people of originally Germanic origin, német meaning „German“), István Németh from Badacsony, should not be confused with the Attila Németh from Gyöngyöstarján whose wines I wrote about in an earlier post!)
Németh Pince Badacsonyi Rajnai Rizling Aszú-Domb 1997
No more than 2 g/l residual sugar, a dry Riesling. From the so-called Aszú-hill. Barely medium yellow-green. The nose at first reminded me a little of the 1989 Abtsberg Spätlese by Maximin Grünhaus (von Schubert) due to a (weird) slightly flinty quality of printer’s ink, green banana and banana leaf, modern (= somewhat aromatic yet virtually flavourless) strawberry, but this soon gained more harmony. Healthier forest floor, mustard seed and greener apple and lime on the palate, drier and much more minerally, more concentrated and viscous, with lower but more solid acidity (free from brittleness), a very well-structured, rather complex, intense and quite deep wine with lots of character, firmer and more persistent finish. Fairly full body. That slightly “burnt” minerality persists to a slightly lesser extent on the finish and aftertaste. Highly impressive and by far the best dry white we have so far had from Hungary. Outstanding indeed. But 12 hours later, the mid-palate density seemed somewhat less impressive next to (here also) quite high acidity. Love the forest floor/underbrush flavours on the entry and back end. Touch of quinine on the nose. Alcohol integration, while still very successful, now reminded me of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Németh Pince Badacsonyi Olaszrizling Kesoi Szüret Aszú-Domb 1997
What Ambrus refers to as the “off-dry Welschriesling VT” in our mail conversation, even though he insists none of them are late harvest selections (rather, the whole crop is picked in one go, much like Szamorodni in Tokaj Hegyalja). Also from the so-called Aszú-hill. Medium-pale yellow-green. That burnt printer's ink note to the minerality, same as in the Riesling, must be a (basalt?) soil note! Highly impressive minerality and wine for a Welschriesling. Flinty watermelon with a slightly medicinal blackcurrant top note, initially verging (almost) on rubberiness. More oiliness to the mouthfeel, more alcoholic Spätlese-styled, Albino says, although no more than off-dry, boasting a fairly full body. Some fresh yellow cherry on the palate, with airing additional flavours of acacia forest floor and elderflower. I was surprised when Albino mentioned, justifiably so one might add, that the minerality is not irreminiscent of St. Saphorin or Dezaley (Western Swiss Chasselas no one has ever seen him taste or drink!). A bit less persistent on the finish than the Riesling, but the aftertaste carries on here. Cannot say I have tasted or drunk much Welschriesling that I liked as well or better, but it remains a grape variety that will never rock my world as Riesling does on a regular basis. About outstanding (subjectively almost) dry white, thus a great success for what it is. 12 hours later, although this now showed a soft (only the faintest, really!) Sherry top note, thus seemed less resistant to oxidation, we agreed this must be regarded, given what grape variety it is made from, the most exceptional wine of these three. Nicely full, with perfect alcohol integration, a lightly viscous balm-minty herbaceousness on the finish. Nevertheless, serving Welschriesling next to the real thing (Riesling!) is simply not fair.
And the attached mail, with the kind permission of the author:
Dear David,
I am so glad you both liked the wines and am very-very curious to read the tasting notes (the producers are at least as curious, of course).
I will give you some more information about the wines, but first about the region (this will help later):
The potential area of the Badacsony wine region is approx. 40% of that of Tokaj-Hegyalja. Only 40% is planted with vines and cultivated (that gives 1600 hectares). 60% is Welschriesling, almost 10% is Pinot Gris. The other grape varieties are all under 100 hectares (Riesling only 3 hectares). The wine region comprises 14 villages and two towns. The smaller of the two towns is Badacsonytomaj that has the best of the "lake facing" sites. This is also the town where our cellar is. The region has six more or less large basalt hills (Badacsony, Szent Gyorgy-hegy, Csobanc, Gulacs, Toti-hegy, Halap), the largest being Badacsony-hill itself (but even Badacsony is much smaller than the Tokaj-hill). The second largest is the Szent Gyorgy-hegy (Saint George-hill). These two together with Somlo(-hill) gave the best and most famous wines in the western part of Hungary in the XIX. century (only Tokaji Aszu was considered superior in the whole country). Unfortunately, more and more of the best sites uphill were abandoned and replaced with vineyards between the hills on the plains during communism. This began to change only 5-10 years ago.
Most soils on the hills are very similar to each other (minor differences among the hills, virtually no differences between different sides of the same hill; only elevation makes a difference: the higher above sea level, the better the soil). Therefore, there never was any real classification of vineyards. Not even the names of the vineyards correspond to real dulo-s (there are only few exceptions). The best wines stemmed from the vineyards nearest to the hilltops. People thought the side of the hill the second most important (south side was always considered best, with a little exception on Badacsony: the lake side is not exactly south, rather south-southeast; the two vineyards in the middle of the lake side - Aszu-Domb is one of them - gave the most famous wines). Third, the location of the hill (i.e. on which hill a vineyard is located).
As you can see now, Csobanc is another basalt hill in the region. It is located 10-15 kms back from the shore of Lake Balaton. The winery of Villa Tolnay Borhaz Kft. is situated on Csobanc-hill. That is why it is mentioned on the label (means something like Trimbach a Ribeauville). But the wine I gave you stems from Badacsony. They don't mention this on the label. Neither that it is from the Badacsony region. They concentrate on the name of the winery. Probably because the owner is Swiss and plans to sell most of the wine in Western Europe (where the name of Badacsony is completely forgotten). I think you needn't mention Csobanc in the name of the wine.
I think it would be best to write the name of the wine like this:
Villa Tolnay Badacsonyi Rajnai Rizling Reserve 2004
In this case, Reserve does not mean that they have several different Rieslings. It means that Riesling is one of their two best wines in 2004 (the other is the Keknyelu, which I also wanted to give you, but it was still in barrel in May 2006). (In 2005, they have Riesling Reserve and Riesling Auslese, but no Keknyelu). Borhaz Kft. means Winehouse Ltd. (or something like that); I think you needn't bother with that. In Hungary, everybody refers to them as 'Villa Tolnay'. As to the site, you can write Badacsonyi, referring to the region or to the hill itself (like Tokaji). You can also write Badacsony-hegyi that means that the wine stems strictly from Badacsony-hill (no grapes from other hills or the plains of the region). This wine (like the two others) is a single-vineyard bottling. The problem is that nobody remembers the name of this vineyard and it couldn't be identified on the old maps/in the old texts either. Some people are still looking, though. There is a very large stone cross above the vineyard on the edge of the hilltop, named Ranolder-Kereszt. It was erected by a bishop by the same name. One of the modern producers started to refer to this vineyard as 'Ranolder-dulo'. You might even mention it like this, although it's not official: Villa Tolnay Badacsonyi Rajnai Rizling Reserve Ranolder-dulo 2004. But neither Badacsonyi nor Ranolder-dulo is mentioned on the label. You might as well decide to write: Villa Tolnay Rajnai Rizling Reserve 2004 (this is the way people refer to this wine in Hungary).
Some information about this wine:
Grapes were mostly healthy at harvest; the wine was made from the complete crop (no selection). Harvest: 30 Oct, sugar level 22KMW, acidity 9,5, yield 8000kg/ha. Fermented in one stainless steel tank (production around 1000 litres), cooled to around 15-16°C during the process. No yeast was added to the must, the wild yeasts stopped fermentation end of January. Early in February 2005 the wine was transferred to the cellar (temperature 11°C till May, slowly risen up to 16°C during the summer), into one or two large oak barrels (size between 500-1000l). These barrels were used for the third time (at some tastings I could notice some oak flavours in the wine). Bottling in early August. Analysis from the bottle: 13,4% alc, 10g/l rs, 9,5g/l titratable acidity (in tartaric acid; no malolactic fermentation, apparently no cold stabilization, although I would have to inquire to make certain), sugar free dry extract 28g/l (the producer wasn't perfectly sure about these numbers).
About the two 1997s:
The producer is Nemeth Pince. Location of this winery is Badacsony, below and a little bit to the east of Aszu-dombi dulo (Badacsony is not only the name of the hill but also the name of the south-western part of the town of Badacsonytomaj - the southern and south-eastern sides of the hill). Both wines were fermented and aged in old, 500l oak barrels. Bottling end of August, 1998. There probably was some malolactic fermentation in the Riesling, but I'm not sure (I only say this because I know the ways of this winemaker very well). If there really was malolactic fermentation, then only spontaneously. Acidity of the Riesling must have been above 10g/l at harvest (maybe even above 11), but it's nowhere near that now. There was no cold stabilisation in any of the two wines. The Riesling was harvested on one day around mid- or late-October, 20,5-21KMW, yield was reduced only by pruning somewhat shorter than the regional average (the average yield in the region is between 8000-13000kg/ha for well cultivated vineyards). The Welschriesling was harvested in November (I don't know any more precisely). Yields were reduced somewhat more than with the Riesling (mostly by shoot selection and keeping only one bunch per shoot). Grape sugar level was around 24KMW. Both these wines were made from non-selected grapes (single harvest, the complete crop went into the same wine), just like the 2004 Riesling. That is the reason why I didn't tell you in advance that the Welschriesling is a late harvest wine. It is not like most late harvest wines. It's just a very late harvested 'normal' wine, I think.Both wines stem from the Aszu-Domb (or - if you prefer- Aszu-dombi dulo). This dulo was the most famous and was owned by the Esterhazy family (one of the most important aristocratic families of Hungary). The communists secularized this vineyard, ripped out the old vines and made huge terraces before replanting. The two wines really stem from this same vineyard, although from different terraces (the Riesling came from two or three terraces lower than the Welschriesling). The yield and the ripeness were quite different. Also, by producing the huge terraces, people have mixed the different layers of the soil (the fertile topsoil was only 25 cms originally and full of stones). This might result in soil differences between any of the terraces. According to their soil notes, would you have said that the two wines cannot have come from the same vineyard? I thought that the difference is the result of the variety and the fact that the Welschriesling is a late harvest wine (although from a cool and dry vintage, only minor overripeness, probably no Botrytis at all). I think the Riesling is much nearer maturity and, after a few years, the soil notes in the Welschriesling will become more similar to the ones the Riesling exhibits now. What do you think?
Another thing about Aszu-dombi dulo. It was very highly regarded because this vineyard gave the ripest grapes and the highest sugar levels without botrytis. Not only in the Badacsony region, but also in all Hungary (I mean Hungary before World War I, without Croatia). There is reliable botrytis, too (that makes the name), although Badacsonyi Aszu never was and never will be on the same qualitative level as truly great Tokaji Aszu. In most other vineyards of the Badacsony region, botrytis is less frequent. In the few where it comes at least as often as on the Aszu-Domb, the quality of the Aszu berries is always inferior. All this means that this vineyard was famous for its semi-sweet and sweet wines. It is very much possible that other vineyards on the hill or on other hills of the region have better soils and, therefore, give better dry wines. That still needs to be explored.
These two 1997s aren't available anymore. Their correct and complete name would be:
Nemeth Pince Badacsonyi Rajnai Rizling Aszu-Domb 1997
Nemeth Pince Badacsonyi Olaszrizling Kesoi Szüret Aszu-Domb 1997
(The producer never puts the name of the vineyard on the label, because that would result in difficulties with the Board in Budapest).
Apart from the Trimbach and few other Alsatian wines, I have no personal experience with the better whites of Europe. I know that such an experience shouldn't be underestimated, but still I can trust your knowledge much better than my own. My question is whether the two Rieslings I gave you are typical of the variety?
Is the Welschriesling at all similar to any other Welschriesling you tasted?
Could you recognize any tipicity of the Badacsony (hill/region) in the three wines? I don't only mean basalt notes.
I am very eager to receive your full notes, but I understand that it may take you some more time to finish them. Till then, could you write me an order of the wines, which one you liked best, second and third?
I wish you all the best,
Ambrus
To end with, I hope you enjoyed this introduction to a (at least to us) hitherto unknown wine region, and allow me to express my gratitude not only to Ambrus for providing the samples, but also to István Németh and his family, if I am allowed to state the obvious, for being an invaluable inspiration to this young aspiring winemaker.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.