Summer White - Sorted!

Hungary!

 

Do you like wines from Hungary?

Have you ever had wine from Hungary?

 

Hungarian wine is one of the wine world’s best kept secrets!

You may not see masses of Hungarian wine in most wine merchants or retailers; like you would with France or Australia. You may not be able to pronounce the grape varieties but great wines are made there. In fact Hungary has been making wine since 5AD!  

 

The 100% Balaton is made by the Homola-Homonna team. Szabolcs Homola (the owner) and wine maker Attila Homonna (from Tokaj) have a much more casual approach to making quality wine. Their aim was to produce a wine that could be used as an ‘everyday’ wine. This is about quality without the stuffiness and pretension.

 

The 100% is a salute from the H-H team to display their commitment to the Balaton way of life. The wine has had a flurry of social media attention recently and has been hailed as an up and coming star and you can certainly see why! This wine will definitely be a summer hit. Forget ‘making hay while the sun shines’, grab yourself a bottle of 100% Balaton instead!

 

The wine is made in the mountains on the northern side of Lake Balaton in western Hungary. The blend used for this wine has some varieties I’ve never tried before! The 100% Balaton is a blend of Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris….obviously!), Tramini and Olaszrizling. The first thing that strikes you about the wine is the simple, clean, no fuss label. There’s no ornate, complicated images – all that energy has been put into crafting the wine instead. The label just says what it is with no hesitation or regret.

 

In the glass, the wine has a beautiful, pure, clean straw colour.

The nose immediately opens with a duet of zingy, freshly cut green apples with lemon and lime sherbet. The wine continues to develop in the glass with aromas of cream soda (never had that before in a wine!), candied clementine and lime, Turkish delight and a hint of nettle.

This is a beautifully fragrant wine. The top of the nose is enchanted by a wonderful perfume of juicy nectarine, jasmine, honeysuckle and Madagascan vanilla.

On the palate, the wine continues with the lime sherbet, nectarine and honeysuckle themes from the nose. However, it’s now joined by the faintest hint of wild honey. The wine has bracing, zippy acidity which helps to dry the wine as well as provide structure and balance. The wine has a persistent length which keeps pulling me back for more and makes me long for summer to last as long as possible!

 

As a piano teacher, one of the things I do, is rather than pairing wine with food, I pair wine with classical music! I know….I’m a geek!

For this wine, I’d choose the third movement (Rondo Vivace) from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 in G major. This is an energetic vibrant piece of music with a few twists and turns but it always comes back to its primary theme. Likewise, this wine offers a lot of aromas and flavours but keeps coming back to its primary theme of juicy fruit flavours with vanilla and lime.

 

 

There is still time to get yourself a few bottles of 100% Balaton for sitting on the patio in the sun, picnics, BBQ’s or whatever you’re doing this summer!

 

Actually we ran out of stock at the moment but here is something else from the winery, Kekfrankos for the red drinkers. It's great chilled for a summer evening. Click here to order your bottle and we deliver free!

 

Blog posted by Simon - Follow him on Instagram