Béres Vineyard and Winery has recently celebrated its 15th birthday. The estate is located in the picturesque village of Erdőbénye, a fairy tale like place well worth visiting. The winery makes stunning, single vineyard Furmint and Hárslevelű wines, an outstanding bottle fermented sparkling wine made of Hárslevelű, and of course late harvest, Szamorodni, Tokaji Aszú and Esszencia wines.

As part of a recent development the website of the estate has been enriched with food recommendations and complete recipes for each wines. It is worth browsing al the recipes, you can find several easy to make, yet amazingly delicious dishes. Let us give an example.

Béres Omlás Furmint 2009

You might think that for a dry white this vintage is rather old, but not in Tokaj! The 6.9 g/l acidity keeps it young along with the 2.9 g/l sugar and the 14.5 alcohol. Omlás is a vineyard in Erdőbénye with great potential of wines to age. “A mineral wine of great balance from the Omlás vineyard of rhyolite clay terroir. Its fragrance combines almond with the smoke and vanilla as the result of ageing in new wooden casks. Its youthful, dynamic acidity and rich aromas render a lasting and marked taste.”
More about Béres Vineyard and Winery and other Béres wines

 Country potato soup with mangalitza sausage

For Omlás Furmint Béres team recommends two dishes: woodcutter’s roast (a pork plate) and a simple, yet superb potato soup. We pick the soup, it is suitable for beginner cooks and most delicious.

Ingredients for 4

500 g potatoes, 300 g dry, smoked mangalitza sausage, 100 lard, 50 g flour, 175 g sour cream, salt, black pepper, ground red pepper, onion, garlic

Preparation

Peel and cube potatoes boil in salty water. When half cooked, add sausage cut into thin slices. Make a thin spicy roux from the lard, flour and pepper and add to soup to thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Add sour cream before serving.

Hilltop Neszmély estate introduced a series of gastro videos during the spring lockdown to please their followers. The chef, Evelin Fazekas cooked mouth watering and quick meals – these recipes were really popular because they helped many housewifes who had to work online, help their school children with online learning and do household duties at the same time. Shrimps & Tagliatelle is one our favourite.

The recipe – quicker than a wink

Towards the end of the festive season most of us are a little fed up with big meals and cooking those big meals. Something light and refreshing can bring some change, so let us share chef Evelin Fazekas’s recipe, which is as quick as she is explaining it.

– Cook the tagliatelle in abundant water (with a pinch of salt). When it is ready, the shrimps are ready, too.

– Put a spoon of oil and a little butter in a frying pan.

– Add the cleaned shrimps, salt and pepper, fry them a little.

– Add a clove of chopped garlic and some chopped coctail tomatoes.

– Add a handful of fresh baby spinach and pour some cream onto it.

– After five minutes add the tagliatelle, cook it together for a minute and you can serve it.

Watch the video (in Hungarian)

 

 

Királyleányka – an indigenous majesty

Chef Evely recommeds two wines to go with the meal: Hilltop Chardonnay – the acidity of the wine nicely balances the fatty cream of the pasta –, and Hilltop Királyleányka, which has lovely floral notes matching the flavours of the shrimps.

Királyleányka (literally ‘Little Princess’) is originally from Tranyslvania, the formerly Hungarian western part of Romania. Now it is often referred to as Hungarian indigenous grape variety. It is grown all over Hungary, typically in Mátra, Ászár–Neszmély, Eger, Mór, Pannonhalma, South Balaton and Pécs wine regions. It’s often used in blends, for exapmle in the popular white blend of Eger wine regon, Egri Csillag.

The wine made of Királyleányka has light yellow colour with greenish taint. It is slightly aromatic, delicate. It has a significant, but pleasant acidity. Its fresh acidity makes it a good blending partner for other, softer aromatic varieties. On the nose and palate it is full of fresh fruits and flowers.

More about Hilltop wines

 

Aszú Day is – 10th of December – is coming closer, but you still have 4 days to order a bottle or pop in the nearest wine store. We will recommend a Tokaji Aszú every day until THE day and we will share a golden drop of information as well. Today our tip is the IWC gold winner Patricius Tokaji Aszú 6 puttonyos from 2016!

 

Pure Tokaj in your glass

This gold winner wine is a blend of Furmint, Hárslevelű, Zéta and Kövérszőlő. The maceration of the botrytized berries took place in fermenting wine for 24 hours. Then it matured for in 220 L oak barrel for 2.5 years. It was bottled in July, 2019. The residual sugar is 194 g/l, perfectly balanced with the 11.5 g/l acidity. “Nicest aromas of botrytized berries followed by enormous, high structure and full body. Long, smooth, endless taste and exceptional deepness of peach, apricot and fig character.  Full of Tokaj.” Patricius wines are available in the UK, in Poland, in the United States and in some other countries. If you need help finding them, contact us!
Cover photo: cheese foam with date, peach and walnut crumbs (by chef Frigyes Vomberg)

More about Patricius Winery

Something you never knew about Tokaj

Step outside your gastro comfort zone (by Wineglass Communication)
With its high residual sugar content Tokaj aszú is an excellent dessert wine, and actually it can even function as a dessert in itself at the end of meals. But there is so much more to aszú then just accompanying confections. Classical food matches include foie gras or strong, savoury cheeses like Stilton or Roquefort. Any chicken, duck or pheasant dish made with some fruit is likely to work well with aszús and even sweet toned vegetables – like squash, sweet potatoes or carrots – are good matches. No wonder that aszú is so popular in Asia, as it is taylor-made to accompany their sweet and spicy dishes.