Report on Buda's Wine Festival

We dedicated two days to wining and dining at the nation's largest wine festival. It was a high-end and well-organized festival held at a beautiful location with 202 wine stands and filled with people. The entrance fee for this was 2200 forints and included a tasting glass, a glass holder, and a 200 forint tasting ticket. Tickets were the form of currency used, though some stands accepted cash as well. We had just two rules during the festival. One was was not to taste any of the wines from Szekszárd—hard as that may be—because we knew we would be there the following week for their wine festival. The second rule was not to taste wines from Villány, because we can drink that any time since it's so close by. ...

So, the first day we dedicated to Tokay. I tested the Furmints and my wife the sweet aszú wines. We found a couple of very good vintages amoung them including Gróf Degenfeld’s dry Furmint. We also found one of the most expesive wines, Royal Toakji’s 2000 Natúr Eszencia (natural essence), half a half deciliter costing 7000 forints. We couldn’t let this opportunity pass, so we tasted this wine and compared it to, also from Royal Tokay, the 1996 Aszú Eszencia (aszu essence), that cost "only" 2500 forints for a half deciliter. And what an experience! Natural Essence is made by placing the un-pressed aszú grapes in a tub and extracting the juices pressed out by its own weight. Its taste, obviously, is very concentrated and very thick, almost honey-like. It clings so doggedly to the side of the glass, that to extract the last drop requires a full tilt of the head back and a short prayer for the precious drop to finally reach your lips. Its taste is very unique, sweet, syrupy, honey-like, followed by what tastes like the sweet filling in sour candies in its aftertaste. Significantly less expensive is the Aszú Essence, which is a bit darker in color, syrupy, but not as thick—a real concentrated aszu. What I found interesting is that it had a bit of acidity to it, but of course the botris is more dominant. We enjoyed both very much and both are worthy of their international recognition.

The second day we would have dedicated to Eger, but after the about the sixth disappointing tasting, we sautered over to Sopron. I have lately been interested in Hungary’s Shiraz selection, so where I could, this is what I asked for. One of the best I tasted was a 2005 Shiraz from Sopron’s Pfneiszl Winery. We tasted Blaufrakish as well, and amoung our favorites were Taschner's Blaufrankish Classic 2007 and Weidengrund’s 2006 Blaufrankish. The first was very vivid, with notes of fruitiness and raspberry. The latter, a year older, already had a more ripe flavor of jam-like fruit. I highly recommend both!

The best discovery of the evening was Kattra Winery from Etyek. I tasted their 2007 Pinot Noir aged for a couple of months in an oak barrel. I fell in love with it immediately, so much so, that the next day, we visited the winery and tasted their full selection on wines and were indeed pleasantly surprised. Almost all their wines had in common fresh, fruity, and pleasant aromas, were true to their individual variety, and had a nice balance. We bought seven bottles in all. You could read about of few of those in a little more detail here on our website. Kudos to the organizers for a wonerful festival! There were entertaining programs on stage, even dish washers for used glasses, and wonderful food stands (though we missed the traditional Hungarian "zsíros kenyér"). Around nine and ten at night, there was an even bigger crowd that made the whole atmosphere seem more like a party, so if you don’t really like a crowd and are really interested in the wine, it is worth it to go earlier in the day next year.