The Heimann Kadarka 2017 has been recently featured in the Wines of the week series on jancisrobinson.com, which made me realize that I have not tasted this wine yet, although recently I was impressed by Heimann’s top Kadarka, the Céh Kereszt 2017. That was actually the best example of the variety I have tried in the last few years, too bad that it quickly disappeared from the market (but hey, seems to be available in the UK at Thirty Nince 10, I highly recommend to go for it).

I could only agree with Tamlyn: this is a proper wine for an introduction to Kadarka. Pale colored, light in body and tannin, as usual, don’t expect complexity or structure – but it’s a bit better in every aspect than it’s peers. It has a better balance, a bit more fruit – it’s more polished. More importantly, it’s flawless; Kadarka is extremely sensitive to Botrytis, and you can literally taste the rotten grapes in many bottlings. I learned from Zoltán Heimann that they make a big effort to select the berries at harvest, for Kadarka it can be easily 40% of the crop that has to be discarded. You can taste that effort here in the lively aromas. With its black cherry notes and the playful nature, this has some resemblance to a Beaujolais Villages or Cru. Nice midweek quaffer, just give it some aeration after opening.