Zenit, a grape to watch

‘Zenith’ (in Hungarian ‘zenit’) is “the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the nadir and vertically above the observer”. And also, Zenit is a Hungarian white grape with a potential to give refreshing yet complex wines. Taschner Zenit 2024 from Sopron is one of the 127 Hungarian gold medal winners from the latest edition of Berliner Wine Trophy.
The cover photo was taken by Kurt István Taschner in his vineyard.

Hungary is among the top 5 medal winner countries

Berliner Wine Trophy calls itself “the largest international competition”, but actually it is not. According to the website the organizer holds 4 different wine contest sessions (Asian Wine Trophy, Portugal Wine Trophy and two sessions of Berliner Wine Trophy with altogether 14 000 entered wines, while Decanter World Wine Awards received more than 18 000 samples last year.

Nevertheless, Berliner Wine Trophy is one of the most popular wine contests among Hungarian winemakers. This year 34 countries entered wines in the Winter Tasting, and Hungary is the country with 4th most medals after Italy (421 medals), Spain (335) and Germany (190). The 5th is France with 177 medals.

There are 5 Hungarian Grand Gold winners, all of them Tokaji Aszú wines. As for the dry whites, it is good to see that there are so many gold winner wines made of indigenous grapes, like Rózsakő by Borbély(Badacsony), Cserszegi Fűszeres by Frittmann (Kunság), Furmint by Tornai (Somló) and the star of our cover photo, Zenit by Taschner (Sopron).
See Berliner Wine Trophy results
Our article is to be continued with medal winner red wines of the contest from Hungary

Have you heard about Zenit?

Zenit is a crossing between Bouvier and Ezerjó grapes created in Pécs Research Centre in Hungary by Ferenc Király in 1951, but it was officially recognized only in 1976. Thanks to its good abilities Zenit is getting more and more popular. In Bükk wine region some young pioneer winemakers take Zenit very seriously.

Although Zenit is widely dispersed around Hungary, particularly in higher sites in Mátra, Eger and around Lake Balaton, the total area in 2008 was just 560 hectares. However, recently there has been an increase, in 2024 there were 660 hectares planted with Zenit. More and more wineries realize the potential of this grape, and the Research Centre in Pécs helps a lot – they even created a bottle fermented sparkling wine made of Zenit to show what it is capable of.

“Wines are crisp with flavours of apple and citrus but not overly aromatic; the best examples are potentially long-lived and subtle with a mineral edge.” (Excerpt From: Robinson, Jancis; Harding, Julia; Vouillamoz, Jose. “Wine Grapes”)

Tascher Zenit is a great and easy-to-fall-in-love example of the variety. The grapes for the wine came from Ranisch vineyard, one of the best plots of the estate. It was matured in stainless steel tank. The nose is abundant in notes of sugarmelon, apricot, a flowering meadow, but we can also detect some hints of of pear and citrus fruits and a touch of white pepper. The palate is dominated by white flesh fruit, with a pinch of bitterness of the grapefruit and some saltiness. A perfect partner of grilled vegetables and chicken dishes. The alcohol is rather high, 13.5%, but the juicy flavours balance it nicely.
Taschner won another gold medal with his Chardonnay Premium 2023.
More about Taschner Winery and Sparkling Wine Cellar

Our earlier article about Kurt István Taschner and his passion to take photos

Taschner – a winemaker obsessed by beauty