Article by Sergey Smolin

Sergey Smolin Russian wine writer has just released his book on Hungarian wineries. It is available in Russian, in digital format, but hopefully it will be printed and translated into other languages as well. Sergey has recently conducted a tasting in a Moscow wine bar called Drinks, the Juhfark line up (see below) was a huge success. We asked him to write a few words about Tornai Juhfark – this is what Sergey means by a few words:)

 

By Sergey Smolin

There are a lot of people in wine industry or just amateurs who think that “smaller is better”, which means they always prefer boutique artisanal wineries to bigger ones. Somló is a land of such tiny estates, with an average size of about 0,5 hectares. Tornai pince is one of the very few exceptions: a vineyard size of about 70 ha would be considered average (or even small) by worldwide standards, but here in Somló this is really huge, as this size represents 1/7 of all vineyards of the region (484 ha in 2021).

I remember talking to a manager of a small distillery in Scotland and asking him what were his thoughts about one of the industry giants, the largest producer of single malt whisky. He answered me that without such giants they could never even exist. In the world of wine, we have a lot of such examples as well, with one or several key estates representing the backbone, the foundation of the whole region. Tornai is definitely one of such estates, Somló’s brand ambassadors.

In January 2022 I was collecting a set of Juhfark wines for a tasting. Even in Budapest it was not an easy task: I had to visit over 20 wine boutiques, some wines were available only on the Internet. That’s no surprise as some of these wines were made in tiny quantities like 200 – 300 bottles. The vast majority of wine amateurs do not even know such names exist. Tornai, however, was easy to find, and there was even a choice of several Juhfarks. I should say that Tornai has the widest selection of wines made from this rare and precious local grape, a true hungaricum that, without any doubt, should be saved and promoted.

Sergey Smolin reports

Russian wine writer Sergey Smolin (see photo below) is working on the most comprehensive book ever written on Hungarian wineries. Apart from writing, he acts as an ambassador of our wines with deeds as well – he conducts tastings for professionals frequently. The last one was held for 12 participants, some of them were members of the wine trade while others were winelovers. The location was Bigati Bar, a popular meeting place of Moscow winelovers. The bar is open for Hungarian wines, they have Heimann & Sons wines on the wine list and recently Heimann Kadarka was available by the glass. The wines of this latest tasting are not available yet, they were all provided by Sergey himself (he bought some of them at his latest visit in Hungary, at Franc & Franc Forum in Villány.

The following short notes come from Sergey.

• Everyone loved the wines, especially both Merlot wines: Jammertal Cassiopeia 2015 and Bock Magnifico 2011.
• Malatinszky Cabernoir 2006 is a rarity even in Hungary, as Csaba Malatinszky does not make this wine any more. It was totally different from all other wines, and from the wines Csaba makes now as well.
• Gere Tamás & Zsolt Aureus 2012 had very firm tannins, it seemed that the wine had just reached its optimum maturity.
• Teleki Villanyi Franc Kopár 2015 needs more bottle ageing, but the wine opened very nicely after 1 hour in decanter.
• Dúzsi Görögszó 2012 had a very pronounced aroma of tomato juice and tomato leaves at the beginning, but then it opened with berry jam, sweet tobacco and spices.
• Vylyan Duennium 2012 was perfectly balanced. and delicate (especially for a “hot climate” wine with 14,38% alcohol). Villány builds the image of the region on Cabernet Franc and this is great, but I find it really awesome that many top wineries do not forget about premium blended wines.
• St Andrea was there just for comparison as a relatively cool climate wine, and it was much cheaper than all other wines, but it was great as well.

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