Vineyard visit: Gereg, one of Mátra’s best spots

An abandoned vineyard or the new way of grape cultivation? It’s the latter – this is intentional. Some brave producers in the Mátra experiments with “no treat” grape growing, and this literally means nothing sprayed, and hardly any soil work, if anything at all. I was told it works somehow – no disease affected the grapes. No need to thin the crop anymore, yields go down drastically, bunches and berries become small. I have not tasted the wines made from this plot, all I can tell is that it’s a pleasure to walk into these rows. While other vineyards nearby have a typical chemical smell, here the air is filled with the smell of summer flowers.

Continue reading

Temptation

Madal Café at a fantastic location, at Ferenciek tere, in the heart of Pest. I went only for a coffee, but it’s hard to resist when you see those cookies. What do you do when you are on a diet? There are options, luckily, those little sweet vegan balls must not contain too many calories. The cardamom flavored was pretty nice. And the coffee? Great, as always.

Another good Kadarka – Tiffán 2017, Villány, Hungary

Another good Kadarka! Nothing complicated, it’s in the same league as the Heimann 2017– light, quaffer style. It’s also flawless and a good example of the variety yet has its own character. The most typical rose hips nose, with a twist of some rooibos tea notes. As delicate as the pale cherry color suggests, tannins and acidity at the bare minimum – an easy drink for sure. Unforced yet refined. A very well made Kadarka with personality. Continue reading

A pretty Kadarka – Heimann 2017, Szekszárd, Hungary

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).

Continue reading