Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 85

YEAR'S BEST HUNGARIAN WINES
and green, with muscat-like notes of litchi
candy. Ending clean, it's a simple white to
chill for aperitifs. § Cognac One, NY

before being pressed off into used oak barrels to age for eight months. The result is soft
and velvety, with meaty, spicy notes infiltrating its rosy pomegranate flavor. § Danch &
Granger Selections, Los Altos Hills, CA
274554

91 | St. Andrea

273490

86 | Count Károlyi

$12

2018 Pannon Grüner Veltliner (Best Buy) ^
Round and lemony with a white-pepper
spice, this is soft and easy; for takeout Chinese. § Quintessential, Napa, CA

RO S É
274616

90 | Sauska

$15

2018 Villány Rosé (Best Buy) ^ A deep-pink
rosé, this is nearly half kékfrankos, blended
with merlot, kadarka, pinot noir and syrah.
It's juicy with tangy strawberry and cranberry
flavors, and "so crushable you might miss the
complexity," as one of our tasters said. That
complexity comes through in a floral pink
peppercorn spice, and notes of stones and
herbs, with an acidity that brings it clarity
and finesse. § Sauska Wines, Milford, CT

RE D

274611

92 | Sauska

$47

2015 Villány Cuvée 7 ^ Villány is Hungary's
southernmost winemaking region, a sunny
place that's become known for cabernets
sauvignon and franc. This is a blend of both
(65/25) with 10 percent merlot, fermented
in stainless-steel tanks and then aged for 15
months in barrels. Its plump, dark-currant
flavors show the warmth of Villány's summer, the wine's lushness played up with
smoky, spicy, toasted oak. At the same time,
the wine feels firm, structured by crisp acidity
and savory notes of stone and earth. § Sauska
Wines, Milford, CT
274706

92 | Sziegl

$28

2017 Hajós Herreberg Kadarka ^ As young
couple, Petra and Balázs Sziegl founded their
winery in 2012, now farming 12 acres in the
sandy soils of Hajós, a town about 100 miles
south of Budapest. This comes from an old
vineyard that has a reputation as a grand
cru among the locals, with short bush vines.
The 2017 was hand-picked in two sessions,
four days apart, and fermented in open vats

$52

2015 Eger Egri Bikavér Grand Superior
Merengö ^ The Lörincz family has been at the
forefront of the push to improve the image of
Egri Bikavér, Eger's most famous wine, since
they launched their winery in 1999. This is
their flagship cuvée, a barrel selection based
on kékfrankos with additions of cabernet
franc, merlot, syrah and pinot noir. While
oak aging informs the flavors, adding spice
and caramel to its cherry-compote fruit, it
doesn't overwhelm the savory details that
make the wine compelling. It has an Old
World elegance, with a smooth texture that's
easy to enjoy now. § 3W Beverage Importer,
Washington, DC
274708

90 | Heimann

$25

90 | Sauska

$25

2018 Szekszárd Kadarka (Best Buy) ^  At
first, this kadarka comes across light and
herbal, with a springtime freshness to its
purple fruit. Then a humid earthiness rises
to fill it out, the wine turning gamey, with
peppery spice, which gives it a rustic appeal.
It's fun and versatile, ready for a picnic with
sliced meats or white-tablecloth meal of roast
duck. § Danch & Granger Selections, Los Altos
Hills, CA
274612
2015 Villány Kékfrankos (Best Buy) ^  This
is a spicy, brisk kékfrankos, a grape variety known as blaufränkisch in nearby Austria. Some toasty oak adds richness to the
plummy fruit but doesn't mask its freshness; the wine feels polished and firm. § Sauska Wines, Milford, CT
274610

88 | Sauska

$25

2016 Villány Kadarka (Best Buy) ^ This is
light in color and flavor, with a cinnamonlike spice warming its translucent bakedcherry flavors. Its weight and autumnal
flavors would make it a welcome addition
to a holiday turkey dinner. § Sauska Wines,
Milford, CT

DE S S ERT
274664

95 | Disznókó

$160/500ml

2015 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Kapi ^
Disznókó owns 256 contiguous acres of
land, all of it surrounding the winery. There
is one spot with the lightest soils of the estate,
with a high percentage of rhyolite. In excep-

tional vintages, cellarmaster László Mészáros
bottles this parcel separately. The 2015 season, with a hot summer followed by a long,
warm autumn, produced a gorgeous wine,
long, lean and spicy. It feels intensely flavorful more than directly sweet, the notes
of floral honey and candied citrus balanced
by notes of tea tree, lovage and fresh mushrooms. The acidity seems to render the sugar
content weightless, the wine lasting with a
lilting delicacy. Only 4,991 bottles produced. §
Monsieur Touton Selection, NY
274288

95 | Lenkey Pincészet

$100

2000 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos ^ Tokaj's
2000 vintage is considered one of the best
in the last 20 years, with a hot summer followed by late-season rains that invited plenty
of botrytis. This wine, made by Geza Lenkey and finished by Geza Jr, who took over
after his father's death in 2001, shows off the
power and delicacy of the vintage. While it
has 174 grams per liter of residual sugar (balanced by 8.9 grams per liter of acidity), it's
not at all heavy. The intensity comes, instead,
in the wine's detail and concentration, notes
of grassy herbs and warm spice, fresh mushrooms and damp stone all drawn together in
honeyed richness. And at nearly 20 years old,
it still feels youthful. § Palinkerie/Fine Hungarian Imports, Brooklyn, NY

274665

94 | Disznókó

$20/500ml

2017 Tokaji Late Harvest (Best Buy) ^ This
wine refutes the generally held notion that
late-harvest Tokaji is never as profound as an
aszú variation. "It's transporting," said one of
our panelists, pulling out of a reverie involving wildflower fields and honeybees buzzing while the sun sets in a blaze of gold...It
might not evoke the same images for everyone, but there's undeniable pleasure in its
smoky, spicy golden-fruit flavors and velvety,
mouth-filling texture, and in how the citrusy
acidity manages to keep the wine simultaneously buoyant. The flavors last in a warm
afterglow of red-blushed flavor and earth,
furmint's fiery side rendered with beauty. §
Monsieur Touton Selection, NY

WINE & SPIRITS

DECEMBER 2019

85
https://www.quintessentialwines.com/Count-Karolyi-Wines http://www.disznoko.hu/
Wine & Spirits - December 2019

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