Nem volt egyszerű. De egy jó ügynök mindent megold, így szeptember 15.-én sikerült beépülnöm Napa Valley egyik legjobb, legrangosabb borászatába a Quintessába. Több nemzetközi titkosszolgálat is oda küldte emberét, így a szüreti csapat elég nemzetközire sikeredett. Az állandó amerikai illetve mexikói alkalmazottakon kívül volt két chilei ügynök, egy olasz és egy spanyol – bocsánat, katalán is. És a magyar titkosszolgálat részéről voltam jómagam. Amerikában nagy divat, hogy a borászatok a szüret idejére olyan embereket vesznek fel, akik nemrég fejezték be tanulmányaikat és égnek a vágytól, hogy valami újat tanulhassanak. Hát így jutottam be én is. A megfigyelés tárgya az volt, hogy milyen technológiai különbségek vannak egy ilyen csúcs borászatnál a hagyományos borászatokhoz képest, és hogy mitől lesz az a bor olyan jó, hogy 150 Dolláros palackáron elkeljen 80-120 ezer palack belőle minden évben. ...
For a long time now, I have had this irrepressible desire to acquire wine barrels. What their fate would be, I didn’t then know, but I felt they were something I just had to have. It was always such a good feeling picturing the barrels lined up against the wall, waiting for something to happen to them. What exactly that would be, no one yet knew…
What will the vintage be like after a summer like this?
This year has gotten off to an interesting start in Napa and Sonoma counties, and it wasn’t just me that was surprised by the weather, but the long-time residents too. It started with the rain not wanting to stop in March. I asked around if this was normal and many people pointed the finger at El Nino and told me it comes around once every five years and affects the ocean currents, but it’ll be over soon. Yeah right! It rained about twice a week every week till June! In fact, it rained so much that we didn't need to turn on the irrigation system in the winery until the very end of July. …
Well, yes, but there are not too many of them here. Or maybe they’re just hiding very, very well. In the six months we’ve been living here, in the middle of Sonoma wine county, we’ve only found a few Hungarians who work in the wine industry. As of now, I couldn’t even list a soccer team’s worth, as they say. But I won't give up! I’m keeping my eye out for them because they must be out there somewhere. After all, us Hungarians are everywhere, are we not? Here is who I've found so far…
As I promised, we got a little more into Italian wine, making use of the great selection Los Angeles has of European wines. Our wine club has gotten so big, it has expanded into two groups. We tasted Sicilian wines with one group and Tuscan wines with the other. Tuscany won hands down, but it’s true, after our disappointment with Sicilian wines, de didn’t dare touch the bottom shelf stuff when time came for the Tuscan tasting. Everyone brought wines worth at least twenty dollars. It turns out you do get what you pay for when it comes to Italian wine. Here are our wine notes: …
It’s been almost three weeks now that I’ve been part of the “big American wine industry”. I finally got a job at a small, family-run winery called Derbés. As soon I was offered the job, we moved up to northern California from Los Angeles, where we’d been staying. We set up camp here in Santa Rosa, the biggest city in the Russian River Valley, about the size of Pécs. There are many wineries in the area, and it won’t be easy, but we plan on visiting them all. If I take Napa and Sonoma under one hat, and why wouldn’t I when there’s only a "measly" little mountain range separating the two, then this is the biggest interconnected wine region in the U.S. We’ve heard both good stories and bad about region, but let’s see what’s the truth. …
After having spent a month in the forever busy and bustling Los Angeles, we decided it was time for a little R & R and headed up to Northern California, to Napa and Sonoma County. Everything was so different there, so beautiful, there is this feeling of calmness and serenity that pervades all. Spring is already in the air and pruned vines stand ready and waiting for nature to give its signal. Flowers are all abloom between the vineyard rows and birds are busy twittering away.
We drove down quaint little country roads, amazed at the scenery, looking for a winery to grab our eye, so we could sit down and, with a glass of wine in our hand, talk about our plans and about how great it will be once we finally settle down here. On the left-hand side of the road we spotted an interesting crescent-shaped building with an impressive limestone edifice. Above this building stands another, smaller structure surrounded by rows and rows of vineyards next to the entrance of which reads a sign: Quintessa.Thanks to a newly acquired, very useful gadget ours—our iPhone—we quickly researched this winery right outside the gate finding out whether it was worth the trip in. Using my Wine Ph.D application, I looked up the winery andfound two wines listed, and 92 and 93 pointer with an average price of $116 a bottle. So, I thought, okay, let’s go! Soon we were on a tour of the winery, walking through the beautiful vineyards, listening to its interesting history. …
Never the ones to miss out on a good thing, we quickly created the Los Angeles Chapter of the our Wine Club Wednesday on Tuesday and held our first official wine tasting…on Friday. There were four of us in total (I admit, we have room to expand) and we focused on wines from the Collio Orientali wine region. Luckily, in L.A., there is a good selection of international wines, and we went to BevMo to pick out ours. We found about five bottles from Collio Orientali, but all of them were Pinot Grigios. We ended up picking three, one for ten dollars and the other two cost thirteen bucks. Frank and family brought a Barolo from Piedmont, a little further west, but at least we had a red wine on the list.
Yup, that’s right, we’ve moved! We’re in Los Angeles for now, but we're planning to settle down in Napa or Sonoma where I would like to find work in a winery as a winemaker. This area has been a favorite region of mine for a long time now and is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the world-even though it gets lots of criticism in Hungary for its lax rules and regulations and how the wines are manipulated, etc. I hope I’ll be able to set the record straight soon with some real insider information. …
We wish all our readers a very happy holiday season filled with lots of love, candlelight, good food, fine wine, and great Christmas music! This year we’ll be spending the holidays in Austria with friends living it up, cooking and wine tasting in good company and great pow. Our tree was decorated in holiday cheer much the same. I hope all the work we invested in scavenging for Christmas tree decorations shows! For more photos, check out our gallery.
