Tamlyn Currin on JancisRobinson.com

As we reported earlier, Tamlyn Currin, the brilliant wine expert at JancisRobinson.com, took part in a cross-border tasting event of Furmint, Olaszrizling (Welschriesling) and Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch) wines, held in the Slovenian village of Kog. The participants tasted 105 wines from 10 countries. Earlier we introduced one of the best Hungarian Furmint wines, and today let us introduce Csetvei Kő-Papír-Olló “Kő” Olaszrizling 2019 from Somló.
The event was organized by the Kog 25 Pannonia association, which consists of local winemakers and an Irish couple who are wine merchants and cultivate a small area of land in Slovenia. The blind tasting included a workshop dedicated to each variety.

Italian Riesling from Italy – and other countries

The Hungarian Olaszrizling word literally means Italian Riesling, and the same term is used in Italy, even though the grape originates in the Carpathian Basin (though there is research claiming Italian origin). The German Welschriesling means “other Riesling”, while the Croatian-Slovenian name Grasevina does not have any special literal meaning.
GROW is an annual Grasevina-Olaszrizling-Welschriesling competition – hence the abbreviation as the name of the contest –, and GROW is also an official, recently accepted name for the grape variety.

A white grape showing well in barrel

As for Olaszrizling, Tamlyn Currin mentions that this variety is still underrated, even though it can produce wonders when yield is properly restricted. In his opinion, the finest Olaszrizling wines are richly fruity and spicy, and their complexity is enhanced by spontaneous fermentation, lees ageing, skin contact, and barrel ageing.
The highest score here was 18, achieved by an Italian and a Slovenian wine, while 6 wines received 17.5 points, 4 Austrian and 2 Slovenian. Among the 17-point wines, we finally see a Hungarian Olaszrizling, the 2023 Olaszrizling from Somlói Vándor. Among the seven 16.5-point wines, there is also a Hungarian wine, also from Somló, namely Krisztina Csetvei’s 2019 Olaszrizling from Kő-Papír-Olló Kő.

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Csetvei Kő-Papír-Olló “Kő” Olaszrizling 2019, Somló

Tamlyn Currin’s wine review:
“Waxy and paraffin-smoky. Terse. Juddering with the slam of gravel and powerful. Stinky and volcanic in nature. Bitter and chiselled into grooves. Dramatic and almost shocking. I was not remotely surprised when this ferocious wine turned out to be from Somló!”

Rock-Paper-Scissors – Rock!

Krisztina Csetvei is utterly creative and her ideas in reflected in names, labels, events and several projects. The name of the wine, Kő-Papír-Olló refers to the popular children’s game, in English it is called Rock-Paper-Scissors. Krisztina Csetvei has a whole line with the same name, and the winner is obviously the maturing vessel – in case of this Somló Olaszrizling the winner is the rock, referring to the volcanic soil of Somló mountain, a feature dominating the character of the wine.

Csetvei Cellar is located in Mór wine region, but they have vineyards in Somló as well.

More about Csetvei Cellar

The 2019 vintage of the wine is not available any more, the recent vintage 2023, here the name RAW / KA Kő is used, since with RAW / KA line the cellar introduced the natural wines with spontaneous fermentation, without fining and filtering.

More about RAW / KA KŐ 2023