Christian Seiler: “A paradox tasting”
Hier der Originaltext, in Deutsch (PDF): das Magazin N26 2021:
Wine is a luxury food that tells stories.
An interesting one Wine not only expresses the grape variety, it represents its origin: the region where the grapes are grown ideally even the special layers where they grow, the soils, exposures, microclimates.
The distinctive characteristic of wine is what I am most interested in drinking wine. there are wines who are uniform. They are often the result of one in everyone Phase controlled winery.
Do not come Only tasteful models are used - my wine should taste like about a big Bordeaux, one over the whole Flavors scattered around the world – but also technical ones Aids such as pure culture yeasts that ensure that the fermentation of the must in a unique flavor direction is steered. This guidance is often used by exam and evaluation committees supporting these
Consider the uniformity of wine taste to be a quality and cement them with test and quality seals.
Uniform wines interest me less, much more those that depict their origins in a sophisticated way, that are alive, astonishing, often enough puzzling. There are many Ways to get there, after all, requires the manufacture of each Bottle hundreds of choices of the winemaker, from the way
how he cultivates the vineyard, when he harvests, whether he lets the must ferment spontaneously, how long it stays on the mash lies, right down to the crucial hand movements in the Basement, cellar. Interjection: The cool attitude of young natural winegrowers,
who claim that they simply “let their wines come into being », is nonsense. No wine jumps into the bottle by itself, the cultural element, the winemakers contribute, stands at the beginning and end of each year.
I'm getting this far because I'm on a journey through Hungary came across wines that promise filigree cash in spectacularly for originality.
I visited with the Burgenland exceptional winemaker Roland Velich – his Blaufränkisch wines appear under the label Moric and get top ratings of one – two worldwide Farms located in wine-growing regions, their large long ago. The one, Tamás Kis, is located on Mount Somló, an extinct volcano in western Hungary plain, the other in the hills above Balaton, Lake Balaton, also surrounded by volcanic mountains shaped cultural landscape, whose soil from the sediments
of the Pannonian Sea. At the foot of the small volcanic mountain called Csobánc has the Swiss
Oser founded the Villa Tolnay winery in 2004 and has been since constantly expanded. Together with Kis and Oser, Velich established his project «Hidden Treasures», a selection
special wines that have the Pannonian-Hungarian character reflect with particular finesse.
Around Oser's house in the vineyards are located now more than 25 hectares of vineyards on which both Riesling varieties are grown - Rheinriesling and Olaszrizling, like the Hungarian synonym for Welschriesling is called - as well as Furmint, the great autochthonous grape variety
Hungary, and in some smaller plots also greener Veltliner, Sauvignon blanc and various types of red wine. Oser comes from Basel.
He has an entrepreneurial past as an IT service provider – he sold his company Redtoo in 2016 to Vinci Energies – and owner of the gourmet restaurant Viva in Oberwil.
Meanwhile he concentrates on alone the wine. From the cooperation with Roland Velich is an immense finely crafted blend of Furmint and Riesling, whose not yet bottled components we in
bulbous cellar of the Villa Tolnay. It was - and I am well aware of the paradoxical description –
a Fireworks of subtleties.
The wines have a characteristic which eludes the usual attributions. She are fine, bright and have a shiny spectrum of fresh scents and aromas.
On the front of one 1500 liter barrel is the formula according to which the bottling of the next «Hidden Treasures» year.
Until then, the wines are still maturing in the barrel.
Hungary has a great wine tradition that goes back to the World War II was almost wiped out.
For us consumers brings benefits. Wines that – if they came from famous regions – would cost a small fortune, are now available at prices that are, shall we say, fairly accessible are.
And: The 2019 vintage shows the wines in particular good shape.
Hidden Treasures Balaton (feat. Villa Tolnay) and Hidden Treasures Somló (feat. Kis Tamás) can be found at cultivino.ch, wines from Villa Tolnay at wylaade.ch.
CHRISTIAN SEILER is a reporter for "Das Magazin".