Geoffrey Dean reports back from his visit to some of Hungary’s great vineyards
Istvan Szepsy
Despite what Peter Molnar, the general manager of leading Tokaj
winery, Patricius, described as the ‘one of the driest, if not the
driest, growing seasons for 100 years in Hungary,’ the 2012 vintage
there looks like being an outstanding one. Although yields are down by
up to 40% in Tokaj, partly due to lack of rain but mainly thanks to a
vicious hailstorm in late July, consumers can start to get excited
about the potential quality.
Istvan Szepsy, the best known and most respected of current Tokaji
winemakers, is already talking of ‘a memorable dry vintage.’ His long
and elegant dry Furmints, particularly those from his Szent Tamas
vineyard, inspire cult-like devotion among his many followers, but it
is his prized Aszu 6-puttonyos sweet wines that have given him
legendary status. “I hope to have a really good Aszu vintage as well,”
he told Harpers last week, when his team started picking botrytised
grapes. The harvest will continue through the whole of November.
Botrytis has always been the key for Szepsy as he insists on a minimum
of 140 g/l of residual sugar in his sweet wines. “For that, we need
340-50 grammes of sugar in the grapes, and that’s only possible with
botrytised grapes,” he said. “If there’s no botrytis, I just sell the
grapes to negociants. There hasn’t been enough botrytis for the three
previous years – in 2009, rain in October washed it away, so we had
very little Aszu; we had none in 2010 when it was cold and rainy; and
2011 was extremely dry, so I sold 100 tons of grapes.” After barely a
drop of rain throughout the entire summer, Szepsy says his Aszu crop
was saved by 28mm on Sept 20th, 8.5mm on the 25th, 20mm on Oct 3 and
14mm on Oct 10.
His family, which goes back fifteen generations as winemakers to the
16th century, lost all their land under communism when a third of a
hectare was the most that could be owned. “We just aimed for quantity
then as it meant more income,” he recalled. “We produced 22 tons per
hectare – now it’s back to two and a half. After 1989, I purchased all
the lands I could on the free market.”
Szepsy was fortunate that his experience under communist rule as
winemaker for the co-operative of the splendidly-named town of Mad had
enabled him to get to know exactly where the best botrytised fruit was
in the great Kiraly vineyard, where he bought his first plot. He and
his son have now built the family’s holdings up to 70 hectares. “Our
production is going up from 50 to 70,000 bottles per annum as we’re
making more dry wine. We still buy land in special places and plant
half a hectare every year.”
If Szepsy is king of Tokaj’s winemakers, then Zoltan Demeter could
well be prince-in-waiting. Having learnt his trade in California and
Burgundy, he honed it under Szepsy and now makes his own exquisite dry
furmint (notably the Lapis) as well as richly concentrated yet
beautifully balanced late harvest and Aszu wines. “My mission,” he
says, “is to show the Hungarian people where I am with my quality. We
lost our way and have to find it again, to set up a wine culture. I
see us as a wine-drinker nation.” Unlike much of the rest of Europe,
domestic consumption of wine in Hungary has been consistently rising
over the last few years.
Demeter’s seven hectares of vines spread over five villages contrast
with Disznoko’s 104 hectares under vine, making it the biggest winery
in surface area in Tokaj (although the Royal Tokaji Wine Company’s
annual production of around 260,000 bottles is higher). Laszlo
Meszaros, the general manager, presides over a complete range of wines
from light dry Furmints through to the great Aszu and Eszencia wines
Disznoko on which built its considerable reputation. It also has an
excellent restaurant with views over the Great Hungarian Plain, from
where the humidity essential for noble rot comes in early autumn. A
tasting there is highly rewarding, for you can try some 100% Zeta,
made from a grape high in acidity that is blended in small quantities
by certain Tokaji producers, as well as the 2005 Eszencia from the
celebrated Kapi vineyard. Containing 600 g/l of residual sugar, and
with 1.5% alcohol, this is nectar of the gods.
If Tokaj’s winemakers gain most of the plaudits, at least
internationally, a talented practitioner from just outside the town of
Eger, north-east of Budapest, is making waves. Janos Bolyki, who was
Young Hungarian Winemaker of the Year in 2009, has built a winery into
the rock face of an old stone quarry that is well worth a visit. His
range of dry whites and reds, notably his kekfrankos and
cabernet/merlot blend, are as impressive as the 300-year old cellar
tunnels in the quarry.
Bolyki planted the vines on 11 hectares in 1998 after buying the
quarry, whose stone was used to build Eger’s castle and houses, from
the state. Two giant boulders fell into the quarry not long ago,
crushing a 37,000 tank full of wine, but the loss did not deter
Bolyki, whose wines gain notable minerality from Tuff rock of volcanic
origin. They are ones to watch.
Szepsy’s Szent Tamas vineyard