Visited the Wine Society's wine shop 
on Lanchid utca the other day. 
Really surprised how good the place looked!

A huge selection of Hungarian wines. 
Also a pretty nice selection of wines from other wine countries.

A bit of history:

1993

Two young men, Tom Howells and Péter Molnár, 
launch the Budapest Wine Society, 
which becomes a popular meeting place for Hungarian and Budapest-based foreign wine lovers. 
In September, 26-year-old Attila Tálos joins them. 
Péter draws up the first logo next to a glass of spritzer 
and the handcrafted wines of two winemakers, 
Attila Gere and József Bock, appear in the selection. 
Szepsy is also sold but due to the strictness of the paperwork, only from under the counter.

2011

The Bortársaság logo saying 
"Everything is fine, the wine is delicious" 
can be read on a dozen cars in Budapest 
and around the country. Bortársaság's turnover is 2.5 million bottles and it employs 55 people.

Bortarsasag

1013 Budapest, Lánchíd u. 5.

There's a wine bistro, Zona, next to the wine shop.

(took only a couple of pics of the interesting lighting in the ceiling...)

A Glass Of Wine

There's a great wine shop in Islington.

You can not only buy vines but..

...also taste them there.

A mixture of interesting regions, grapes and styles.

Worth a visit!

The Sampler

266 Upper Street

Islington

London

3rd Wine Tasting: Dobogó

The last wine tasting place was

Dobogó Winery in Tokaj

- beautiful, cosy building
.

Not just wine,

also figs
.

and cherry tomatoes
.

Dobogó winery is owned by Izabella Zwack

.

Tasting of 7 wines & Eszencia:

2007 Furmint Szerelmi Dűlő

- dry, flowery, oaky

2005 Furmint Betsek Palota

- flowery bouquet

- acidy, salty

- bought a case of it

2007 Pinot Noir

- planted in 2005 for experimenting

if possibly to grow red varieties too

- salty, rather strong

2007 Lumiere Sárgamuskotály, semi sweet

- fruity, a hint of salt, well-balanced

2007 Mylitta late harvest

- well-balanced, goes well with pumkin soup

2004 6 puttonyos Tokaj Aszú

- made of Furmint

- full taste, not too sweet, easy to drink, clear

2006 6 puttonyos Tokaj Aszú

- made of Furmint, Hárslevelű & Sárga Muskotály

- raisins, rather high acid & sugar level, well in balance,

pleasant wine

Eszencia

- texture like in honey, extremely sweet,

nature's antibiotic

.

Had an interesting tour in the winery
. and in the cellar
. The cellar was nicely lighten

with white light,

so could see the colour of the wines
.

Bottles waiting for to be labeled
.
The bottles are not just for decoration,

but as the winery's pretty small

every corner is well-used,

here for storaging
.

Extremely professional and pleasant tour & tasting

- could feel that even an individual client is important and looked after

- absolutely the best wines & tour of these 3 cellars

.

Dobogó Winery & CellarDózsa György út 1.

3910 Tokaj

http://www.dobogo.hu/

2nd Tasting: Gróf Degenfeld

Gróf Degenfeld

Terézia kert 9.

3915 Tarcal

- had a driver with a mini van by the hotel

to take from Tokaj to Tarcal,

app. 6km
.

An individual tour for 4 of us

by a student
.

Short visit to the winery
.
and to the wine cellar
.
Wine tasting of 6 wines

Tokaj Furmint 2007, dry
- a bit ugly smell and taste
.
Tokaji Muscat Lunel 2008, semi dry
- light, acidy
- sweet bouquet but not sweetyness in the taste
- quite nice
Tokaji Hárslevelű 2007, semi sweet
- kind of girlish wine
Tokaji Fortissimo 2007, sweet
- beautiful golden colour
- easy, sweet wine
Tokaji Aszú 3 puttonyos 2004, sweet
- a bit of green in the golden colour
- grass in the bouquet
Tokaji Aszú 5 puttonyos 1999, sweet
- deep golden colour
- raisins, burnt sugar, apricot
.

Gróf Degenfeld Mansion Hotel

In the 1994 the Degenfeld family decided

to revive the old winery

and purchased vineyards

and an ancient cellar in Tarcal.

.

Downstairs of the building

there are a restaurant

and different function rooms

.

Nice swimming pool in the garden
.

Had lunch outside on the terrace

Perfect warm September day
.

Norwegian salmon with saffron sauce

& a grilled shrimp

- beautiful portion,

but the salmon had a range grey colour,

eatable but not tasty at all

- probably been in freeze for too long time...

.

Quite beautiful, posh place,

but something missing

the atmosphere not so pleasant

- the wine tasting & tour very avarage,

absolutely nothing special

.

1st Tasting: Rákóczi pince

At 11.00 Rákóczi pince

Kossuth tér 15.

3910 Tokaj
- a group tasting in English (12 persons)

.

Wine tasting cellar
.
Wine cellar
.
A tour in the cellar,
information of making Tokaj wine
- interesting, lot of new information
.
Tasting of 6 wines,
starting with the base wines:
Furmint, Hárslevelű and Sárgamuskotály,
continuing with special wines:
Szamorodni, Forditás and 5 puttonyos Aszú
.
Hétszőlő Tokaji Furmint
- nice, light dry wine
- bought a case of it
.
Hétszőlő Tokaj Hárslevelű late harvest
- goes well with meat or poultry with fruit sauce,
and with Hungarian fruit soup
Hétszőlő Tokaji Sárgámuskotály late harvest
- fruity bouquet, spicy
- goes well with gooseliver
.
Hétszőlő Tokaji Édes Szamorodni
- kind of raw taste, sugary, smell of alcohol
Hétszőlő Tokaji Fordításű
- raisins, hint of spicies
.
Hétszőlő Tokaji Aszú 5 puttonyos
- raisins, acidy
- won a gold medal in Paris
.
Good years were:
1996
1999
2001
(2004)
.
Well organised tour & tasting!
.

Facts about Tokaji wines

By the end of the 19th century

the phylloxera epidemic destroyed

most of the grape varieties grown

in Tokaj-Hegyalja (Tokaj Foothills).

Since then only

Furmint, Hárslevelű and Sárgamuskotály

are planted.

.

Ordinary wines:

Tokaji Furmint & Tokaji Hárslevelű are white wines of special character.

Sárgamuskotály has the special Muscatel aroma and elegant acids.

.

Late harvest:

The harvesting of grapes for winemaking

starts traditionally on October 28.

Late harvests take place as late as in November.

As the grapes are too matured,

and sometimes there are much botrytised berries too,

the sugar level is rather high

and they have a pleasant, fruity bouquet.

.

Tokaji Szamorodni:

The name "Szamorodni" was given by a Polish wine merchant,

it means "the way it was grown".

This special wine of Tokaj is made

without sorting out the "aszú" berries.

So the aszú-berries and healthy berries

are mixed and pressed at the same time.

.

Tokaji Fordítás:

("turning over")

The base wine will be poured on the "aszú" dough

which has already been used to make aszú wine,

so that residual sugar and flavouring agents

can be still released.

So the aszú berries are pressed twice.

.

Tokaji Aszú:

Aszú is called after the aszú-process,

that means that the grapes get to be noble rotted.

This process provides a special quality,

but it needs a long and warm autumn.

The berries burst because of the rain,

and then the Botrytis cinerea (the grey mildew)

can work on them.

As the weather changes dry,

also the intact berries get the noble rot.

The affected berries have a much higher sugar level.

During the vintage the aszú berries are individually sorted

and will be used for the production of aszú-dough.

As many puttony of aszú-dough or aszú-berries need to be used as

how many puttonyos of aszú wine one would like to prepare.

A Gönc cask (136l barrel) of wine or must will be added to it,

and then it will be soaked for 12-48 hours, occasionally stired.

After that all the aszú-dough has to be removed.

The aszú will be filled in small barrels,

where it will be matured for the next 3 years before being bottled.

.

Tokaj Wine Region has been declared

a World Heritage Site

by UNESCO in 2002

.

Wine Festival

18th Budapest International Wine Festival

September 9-13.

Buda Castle

- before going to the the wine festival,

skipped the lunch

and wanted to visit

the Chocolate Exhibition

by Cote D'Or:

A Csokoládé lelke kiállitás

.

at Millenáris Park,

Fogadó épület

but the queue was several hundreds meters long!
- didn't want to stay there in all that heat
.
So no chocolate, just wine!
.
15 countries, 250 wineries
.
Concentrated on tasting Pinot Noir wines
Best ones:
Luka Pinot Noir 2007
Pannonhalmi Pinot Noir 2007
Vylyan Pinot Noir 2006
.
Also nice one:
St Andrea Magyalos Kadarka 2007
.
Well organized annual event,
loads of people,
nice atmosphere
.
Light snacks...
.
Performers or just visitors?
.
Budapesti Nemzetközi Bor- és Pezsgőfesztivál
http://www.aborfestiva.hu/
www.bortarsasag.hu
www.standrea.hu
www.lukawine.com
www.apatsagipinceszet.hu
www.vylyan.hu

Boutari winery

Took a taxi to Boutari winery in Skalani on Monday

- showed the taxi driver the name and address of the winery,

wasn't sure if the pronounciation was correct,

the taxi driver said:

"I can't see but I know where Skalani is!"

A bit exciting journey...
.

Nicely made spacious place with a huge window

with a great view to the vineyard

. .

"When avant-garde design meets nature's tranquility

in a historical setting,

you may find it hard to describe the effect.

A stately wine cellar with superb wines maturing in oak barrels."

Tasted 4 wines:

White - Fantaxometocho

Red - Skalani

Sweet - Iouliatiko Spinas

Sweet - VII (July)

- all pretty good ones!

-best one was the white wine,

a bit like the Spanish Vina Sol
. Fantaxometocho means "haunted domain".

Fantaxometocho was named by the former owner of the estate

who wanted to protect it from the pirates' invasions

thus spreading the word

that the estate was haunted by ghosts.
.

This winery is just outside of the city of Heraklion

and app. 4km away from the archaeological site of Knosos
.

.

Place worth to visit!

.

Boutari winery

Skalani, Heraklion, Crete

http://www.boutari.gr/

Nyakas Pince

Saturday started with a visit to Nyakas pince winery

in Etyek/Buda wine region app. 25km to the west of Budapest.

On the back ground there's Nyakas Hill

Winery Nyakas grows wines on 124 ha near Budajenő and Tök villages.

Sometimes the wine needs a shock treatment with ice cold temperature!

The cellar has a capacity of 6.000 hl

for fermentation using cooling technology in stainless stell tanks.

..

..

The cellar was established in 1997.

The place is a historical region for wine growing with age-old traditions.

The lime and mineral concentrations of the soil, and a special microclimate give a unique taste to the dry, fragrant white wines that grow in the area.

..

Wine tasting:

Don Olivér 2007

Budai Müller Thurgau 2006

Budai Kadarka 2007 siller

Budai Sauvingnon blanc 2007

Budai Chardonnay Semi Sweet Selection Barrique 2006

Sauvignon blanc 2006 Sweet - late harvest

Budai Pinot grigio 2007

Budajenői Pinot gris 2005

..

The wines have stylish labels with a head of horse.

..

Possibility to order all Nyakas wines and get them delivered to your door

(when living in Budapest!)

- minimum order 5 cases

1 case = 6 bottles

http://www.nyakas.com/

Special thanks for Péter Nagy who made the touring for us!