In our Wine Society we developed a kind of habit, we tried to visit those wine makers who visited us. The mission was Somló (Béla Fekete, Imre Györgykovács) and some wine regions around the lake Balaton (János Veress, dr. Károly Bakonyi and Papp Winery, Öregbaglas).

The smallest wine region in Hungary is Somló, that’s how usually books on Somló start. Yet I would rather point out a proverb from Márai which summaries about the wine region: ”In the wines of Somló you could find the most noble attributes of the Hungarians: wisdom from the east and education from the west. There is something of Asia´s tranquillity and Europe´s curiosity.

The great Somló is an old volcano, the main soil formation is basalt, tuff while at the bottom sandier clay and loess is present. At the 431 m high peak is the St. István view point and not far away the St. Margaret Chapel. Vineyard can be found all around the hill site today the total plantings are not more then 700 ha only white vines are allowed. The main training method is low cordon and the primary vine variety is Olaszrizling. Yet Furmint, Hárslevelü and of course the Juhfark (which was once forbidden, what a mistake) are the more interesting grape varieties.

If you would ask me how the wines from the Somló taste, I would simply answer: you have to try them, try them and try them again. There is no easy way around this, just by trying and again and again will you come closer to the answer. I could just add to Márai´s proverb, the very best wines from Somló offer a fierce passion with a friendly smile.

Béla Fekete, or Uncle Béla as I like to call him, over 70 but still going strong. He paid us a visit back in November 2003. I remember when I invited him, his wife answered the phone, she is in charge with the business as far as I can tell. First Uncle Béla wasn’t quite keen to visit our Wine Club. I had to pull a few asses to convince him, I said the editor in chief of the Friends of Wine Magazine would be a good friend, László Alkonyi and he would try to come. He seemed a little bit more open, then I said dr. Róbert Cey-Bert would come for sure and he is a honourable member of our Society. “Oh, I hope you’ll be satisfied with my wines then” was his reply. Yes, sure we will. You have to introduce yourself in a right way or with the right people. The wines were great the tasting went very well, so we decided to pay him a visit a year later.

On the main road 8 heading to Somlóvásárhely you turn up the old volcano and halfway between the 431 m high peak (castle ruins on the top) and the entrance towards west must be the Winery of Béla Fekete, sign should guide you to the right place. He started to make wine professionally fairly late, yet today he bottles all the wine (no bulk selling, and all the wines require bottle aging) and uses only his own grapes. I have to point out one wine immediately, Hárslevelü (linden leaf or lime tree in English), the 2000 vintage was exceptional but also the 2002 was stunning. So look out for this, he does Furmint, Chardonnay and Juhfark. The later grape was forbidden for long time -yet for no reason just an old communist habit- Uncle Béla introduced it back to the region.

Well done. This grape gives quite a steely wine, with superbly high acidity, little fruit. You get a feel that it tries to tear out your teeth, man power needed, nothing for softies. The other wines are rather pleasant (yet I must say Juhfark-sheeps tail has also his admires, and count me in) yet the high acidity and minerality will remain just there is more ripe fruit involved. The Fekete Winery doesn’t use any small oak barrels (barrique´s) just traditional vinification with fairly long barrel aging. They only do white wines (as by law nothing else is allowed) yet I had the chance to try some red from him, he makes it for himself and close friends. Oportó-Kékfrankos vintage 2000, “gee” I tell you on the nose it was a lovely Pinot Noir, red fruit spice, cooked but on the palate it was as someone put salt on it, really-minerality in a salt mine form yet in balance. Curiosity factor: awesome!

I’m very pleased that his son, Zsolt will continue the wine making that such a great estate remains in family hand. It’s a kind of very special and I would say it’s still the best winery on the Big Somló.
Address of the Winery: Great Somló hegy, appointment must been made in advance, (88)327-407, mobile: (20)942-9089

Few hundred meter further down is the winery of Imre Györgykovács, probably the word “winery” could be a bit exaggerated if you look at the estate size. But really if you have one hectare of vine you don’t need a palace. Alkonyi said once: “He is the bumblebee of Hungarian winemaking.” As the bumblebee should not be able to fly by the wing size and body ratio, so should Györgykovács not be able to survive by making wine on 1 ha. But the bumblebee flies and so does Györkovács survive and makes fantastic wines on the old volcano. No steel tanks just barrels, yet I have to point out some of the wines bear occasionally too much smoke yet weight, body and spice is undeniable. He does Tramini, Furmint, Olaszrizling and Hárslevelü. I remember he helped me with the blind tasting to prepare me for the official wine juror/judge exam which happened to be a successful mission, a week later.

Address of the Winery: Great Somló hegy, appointment must been made in advance, (88)200-116, mobile (30) 232-3896

After such a rich, complex full of minerality and high acidity wines your appetite increases beyond your dreams. I shall recommend the Palota Borház in Sümeg (despite some rather disappointing wines but the food was good), in the centre of the town in close range to the castle. The castle on the top of the hill was blown up by the Habsburg because of a military exercise. The bishop of Veszprém came often here and certainly enjoyed the wines of the region too. Well we did enjoy the food very much and the Wine house does have a cellar yet make sure you pick good wines, as I had some wines which made me look like Alf (this hairy guy with the long nose-mouth) from the planet Melmak because of the unripe and nasty tannins.

Sümegi Palota Borház

Family estate in the woods not far from the town Zalaszentgrót. Bit hard to find but look out for Csáford Alsóhegy, it’s a peaceful quite area ideal to make wine far away from the people. János Veress rediscovered an ancient grape variety, the Pintes, I shall tell you about this a bit more in a moment. The wine region is the so called Balaton-melléke (beside the Balaton) which has not yet quite found it’s right place beside the big players of Badacsony or South Balaton (Balatonboglár), said that there is plenty to discover, Vinum Veress is one of them. He does Olaszrizling, Chardonnay, Rizlingszilváni (Müller Thurgau), Királyleányka, Zöld Veltelini (Grüner Veltliner) and the mentioned Pintes.

Márton Németh found the for almost extinct variety by Pécs. The name Pintes derives from the world pint (the Hungarian Pint is 1,6 litre) as it was a variety famous for high yields. The skin is thick, harvest takes place usually end of September, beginning of October, it has a natural high acidity. The Vinum Veress is the only estate who has this wine, I appreciate such an effort. My first encounter with the wine was rather pleasant and I still have some bottles left. Yet I must also stress that it´s very vintage depending, the balance between acidity and residual sugar is a delicate one.
János Veress was a great host, he showed us everything, all the wines from the steel tanks and later from the bottle. Good quality with promising future. We had a good discussion at the table, he knew what´s happening out side of the county Zala, you have to see the bigger picture and he does. Our conversation turned into a political debate the later the evening and he was maybe right but you should not be blinded by any ideology. Nevertheless we rung the bell out side in good hope that some of us would return to the estate and to the wines. They’re certainly worth to be visited. Not only is the Veress Winery amongst the best in Count Zala but with their effort to work with the Pintes grape they certainly deserve thumbs up.

János Veress
Csáford, Alsóhegy u. 2638, (83)362-415, mobile: (30)939-7595
www.vinumveress.hu

Dr. Károlyi Bakonyi became famous in Hungary as father of a crossing Irsai Olivér x Red Tramini and the result has become Cserszegi Füszeres, be named from the village Cserszegtomaj and füszeres means spicy in Hungary. The grape and the wine had a certain success in Hungary and some may believe also abroad. I´m a bit more sceptical about this, as the Hungarians use to say this grape variety or rather the wine made from the Hilltop Neszmély Winery was the wine of the year (or the best wine) in 199? something in the UK. The woodcutter or unpronounceable as the English said. I rather reckon it was the best wine on the biggest UK supermarkets shelf under 4 GBP. That’s probably closer to the truth, but whatever it did, it had a certain success story in Hungary too. Simple, floral, spicy light bodied white wine, sometimes with a bit of residual sugar. Not much of an accomplishment would you say? Yes, you’re right. We paid a visit to the Papp Winery in Vonyarcvashegy (another town name which is unpronounceable, hooray) to try some of the wines made out of the variety. We tried some new crossings like Valentin and Nektar beside the Cserszegi Füszeres variety. Not much of a fun, if I´m frank.

Address: Vonyarcvashegy, Cseri u. 8. (83)/348-138

There is this Swiss guy who speaks a very good Hungarian, Thomas Burkhalter and established the estate Öregbaglas (use to be an estate from count Hunyadi dating back 1773) and makes a huge range of wines, from dry over red to noble sweet. Not only the sheer number of varieties are huge but also the size of the estate too. He does some rather pleasant Irsai Olivér (floral/blossom, bubble gum) white to Semillon, Chasselas –no wonder he is Swiss- and on the reds Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The sweets (Ausbruch and TBA style) are made mainly from Olaszrizling, Semillon, and Traminer. Personally, I think he has to cut back on varieties with the time as it’s hard to control but probably also to distribute yet amazing fun and education to try everything. A very modern wine cellar with own bottling line. That actually broke when we visited the winery, Murphy’s law. The wines are correct to good, one of the bigger estate which produces wines with identity. With such a huge range and plantings I must say: good quality indeed.

Kéthely, Baglashegy Pince 062, (85) 339-168, www.oregbaglas.hu

From right to left, dr Robert Cey-Bert, Uncle Béla (Béla Fekete), Kristian Kielmayer

Tags: somlo

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