35 Shiraz / Syrah wines available in Hungary

The latest panel tasting of the monthly magazine features 35 Shiraz wines from different countries, available in Hungary. The best result is five stars with the so-called Vince Award, and only 5 wines achieved it, 4 of them are New Worldwines (from the USA and Australia), and only one of them is Hungarian: Vylyan Syrah 2020 from Villány wine region.
Cover photo: Vince magazine / Alexander Csomor

Vylyan Syrah 2020, Villány

Vince panel review:
“Dark ruby colour. Mediterranean mood, intense nose with spicy barrel notes and dried fruits. Complex, powerful, full bodied wine with chalky tannins, great acidity, silky texture and exciting flavours: red berry fruits, subtle barrel spices, vanilla and chocolate. Lovely long finish.”

Mónika Debreczeni, founder of the estate about the variety:
“I love Syrah, spicy, exotic, exciting and easy to fall in love with. It may tend to get reductive, but we can forgive that and we have to let them breathe before drinking. Syrah is a good answer to the warming climate.”
More about Vylyan Vineyard and Winery

2020 vintage is not available on Vylyan webshop yet. If you are interested, contact Flóra Debreczeni, the manager of the estate.

Our earlier article about the “Beaujolais” of Vylyan

“Berry Juice” à la Vylyan – the winner label of 2025

KNW red blend with a cauldron dish

While in many parts of the world cauldron is a pot for witches’ potions, in Hungary and the neighbouring countries cauldron is the obligatory equipment for the summer. We can practically cook anything in a cauldron, though goulash and stew are the most traditional meals to be cooked on open fire. Let us introduce a less usual recipe: duck breast & leg with root vegetables and red wine paired with Cool by Kovács Nimród Winery from Eger.

By Ágnes Németh

Varieties in smooth harmony

Kovács Nimród Winery has a whole line of wines “composed” to pair with music. “Jazz is a music of intimacy and spontaneity that is often inspired by a passing idea or feeling, which many times transforms into a blooming masterpiece of complexity, where the journey takes precedence. Just like jazz music: our Dixie, Cool, Blues, Rhapsody and Soul wines inspire you to take a journey through the different varietals that call Eger their stage.” We did so, we bought a bottle of Cool and let it inspire us. In a summer evening we created a dish that probably had not existed before, and certainly music accompanied us from the first step of cooking.

About Cool Nimród Kovács says the following: “This elegant cuvée presents a harmonic balance of the individual grape varieties, very much like the smooth harmony of musical instruments in the Miles Davis’ Cool jazz music.” The blend consists of 45% Syrah, 28% Kékfrankos, 20% Pinot Noir and 7% Cabernet Franc. The Pinot accounts for only 20%, for me it was still quite present in the wine, making it silky, somewhat ethereal. The wine aged in barrique (French, American and Hungarian) for 15 months. Used oak, so the barrel did not overtake the bright fruitiness of the wine. It was obvious that this wine should be paired with something delicate, this is why we decided on duck. We used breast and legs, however, the breast was much better, so good that we ate it all without taking a photo. The cover picture was made the other day with the leftover duck legs – well, cauldron dishes are even better the next day, so finally we were equally happy with the legs – especially because we had another bottle of Cool…

More about KNW Cool

For the recipe scroll down

KNW wines are available in several countries, you can see the partners here. In you are interested in importing KNW wines, contact Nimród Kovács.

 

 

 

Wine of the Weekend

Another gold medal went to Dúzsi Family Winery – but who counts? Tamás Dúzsi junior cannot recall if they have won 37 or 38 gold medals at Vinalies Mondial du Rosé in the past decades. Certainly, enough for the crown of the “Rosé King” as Tamás Dúzsi, the founder of the winery is often called.

“Regulars” at Mondial du Rosé

Vinalies Mondial du Rosé is an OIV competition organized in Montpellier, France annually. This year 264 wines received medals from 20 countries. Hungary received 3 gold and 5 silver medals. Dúzsi Family Winery is one of the gold winners this year, and they were always on the top list of Mondial.
– In 2019 for example they won 3 silver medals (for rosés made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc).
– In 2018 they won gold with Dúzsi Kékfrankos Rosé.
– In 2017 they won 5 silver medals (this year Merlot Rosé entered as well).
And we could go on and on.
More about Vinalies Mondial du Rosé

Wines of the Week? Wines for a year…

Vesztergombi Cellar is a kind of mystery for me, but a most positive mystery. Improving is great, but how can a winery get still better, when they were good at the start? (With Ferenc Vesztergombi being the Winemaker of the Year in 1993). And how can they still go on collecting titles like “the best”, “the most”, “gold winner”, etc? Somehow this winery from Szekszárd has been able to raise the bet constantly, for more than three decades. Let us mention just 5 of the latest great news about the winery.

Kerékhegy Cabernet Franc: The Best Red Wine in Hungary

Winelovers 100 annual print publication lists the 100 best Hungarian wines based on a wine contest, in 2021 with 603 wines. Vesztergombi Kerékhegy Cabernet Franc 2017 was selected the best of the red wines (and also the 3rd best wine altogether, preceded by only two Tokaji Aszú wines).

“Pronounced spiciness, dried tomato, ripened red berry fruits, mainly strawberry – a unique aroma profile. Complex, spicy wine with masculine tannins. Decent, long finish with dark chocolate. Serious body, yet balanced and easy to drink.”

Kétvölgy Kékfrankos with 91 points by Decanter

A review from Decanter magazine is one of the most recent accolades for a single vineyard Kékfrankos (Blaufrankisch) wine: Kétvölgy Kékfrankos 2018

“Kékfrankos from the valleys of Hungary’s warmest region. It expresses spiced strawberry, red plum and dried cherry hints on the nose and palate. Quite Pinot-like, with lovely intensity of sweet strawberry and typical spicy notes. Refined tannins and a fresh backbone” (Decanter, Caroline Gilby MW)

Kerékhegy Shiraz – one of the Super 12

The Circle of Wine Writers have selected the so called Super 12 white and red wines for the 6th time. Vesztergombi is a “usual” player on the list of the supers, this year their Kerékhegy Shiraz 2017 was selected among the best ones. This wine also won gold medal at the latest Mundus Vini wine contest in Germany.

2017 Vesztergombi Kerékhegy Shiraz is a single vineyard wine from grapes from Kerékhegy (‘Wheel Mountain’) vineyard of 280–290 metres above sea level. The soil is mainly loess, rich in red clay and contains smaller bits of limestone. Vines were planted in 2007, 4500 vines / hectare, the training system is medium high cordon. Harvest took place at the end of September, the wine aged in 300 L and 500 L oak barrels for 24 months and 6 months in bottle.

The only red winner Hungarian wine

Sand in the gears

The famously precise German wine contest is not that precise this time – the search function does not work properly, does we cannot state the exact number of medal winning Hungarian wines (if you enter Hungary in the search field, the appearing list does not contain the below mentioned gold winner wines). We contacted Mundus Vini team and received answer quickly – with a link that still does not function properly. We requested a full list of Hungarian medal winning wines, when we receive it, we will update this post.

What we know now is that there are (at least) 5 Hungarian gold medals: 2 sweet white wines by Varga Winery, 1 still and 1 sparkling white by Törley and 1 red wine by Vesztergombi Cellar. Altogether “more than 4,500 wines from 35 wine-growing nations around the world were tasted and evaluated at the 29th MUNDUS VINI Grand International Wine Award.”

More

Is it Bill Clinton, because he once met Nimród Kovács, the owner of Kovács Nimród Winery? Sure, but Nimród Kovács also considers himself the luckiest man. He has had an adventurous life: in the Communist era he escaped from Hungary swimming (!) from the former Yugoslavia to Italy. He made a career in the United States, then he came back, went on creating business in Central Europe and Hungary (for example he brought HBO to us). On top of all, he became the owner of a winery in Eger wine region. He has one aim: to create world class wines in the wonderful vineyards of Eger, especially on the slopes Nagy Eged.

In his recent short video he introduces two of his top wines, NJK, a blend of Shiraz and Kékfrankos, and Sky – a gorgeous Furmint from Nagy Eged.

Kovács Nimród wines are available in several countries from the United States to China, you can see all the importers / distributors here.

As Nimród says in the video: if an American wine tourist falls in love with any of his wines in the cellar in Eger, by the time the traveller arrives home, his wine will be delivered, too, via his American partner company.
The cover photo is from Nimród Kovács’s private collection. The lady in the middle is Dorottya Szalay, Nimród’s wife.

More about KNW wines

Watch this short video, but be careful, you will be thirsty…