hungarian

Tüske Pince Harmados Kadarka 2023

Image ~ ~ Zoltán Németi
The revival of the indigenous variety kadarka is one of the most exciting topics of the Hungarian wine scene at the moment. We now have some examples that are more serious than those made in the past, but let’s review a classical one, the Harmados from Tüske Pince. The 2023 vintage is every bit the lighter bodied, pale red you can expect from a kadarka.

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Hungarian flagship reds IV.: Gere Kopar 2020

Image ~ ~ Zoltán Németi
The last wine from the blindtasting covered by previous posts is probably Hungary’s most famous big red: the Kopar from Gere. It was first made in 1997 if not even earlier, so there’s history to it; it’s made to last and I can confirm that it’s able to age for 15 years or more. Personally I often found it a bit too sweet in the past, but the current release is just great.

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High-end bull’s blood: St. Andrea Merengő 2021

Image ~ ~ Zoltán Németi
With a bunch of friends I took a look at a few Hungarian flagship reds in December. These all have some history, in some cases stretching over two decades. They are very well-known (in Hungary) and widely distributed; they are partly or entirely blends of Bordeaux varieties (not surprisingly, as they were created in the late 90s or in the 2000s, inspired by international cult reds).

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Barta Anna Kadarka 2021

Image ~ ~ Zoltán Németi
The Mátra wine region is the neighbour of the more famous Eger in Northern Hungary and it’s somewhat similar in soils and climate. On the other hand it’s rather known for white wines, not reds, although long time ago it was mostly planted with kadarka, which is hard to find there these days. I know only two producers who bottle that variety, one of them is Anna Barta in Nagygombos.

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