Kékfrankos And Family (6-Pack)

What is known today as Burgenland was the western border of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the 11th and 16th centuries and was later part of the Habsburg Empire as Royal Hungary. But most of its population—a melting pot including Croatians and Hungarians—were predominantly German-speaking. The area was officially reunited with Austria in 1921, although Ödenburg, today’s Sopron, and eight other villages voted in a plebiscite to return to Hungary. After the construction of the Iron Curtain, this area also became the buffer zone between East and West. Thankfully the Iron Curtain was torn down almost three decades ago and Austrians and Hungarians are free to come and go again as they please, to visit relatives previously cut off by the border, and to rediscover common cultural values. Burgenland has regained its traditional role as a bridge, rather than as a perimeter fence between Western and Eastern Europe.

The Burgenland area is also a rich wine producing region, on both sides of the border (the Sopron region lies on the Hungarian side). Spicy Grüner Veltliner is Austria’s most prominent grape variety, but the vineyards around the picturesque small town of Rust were traditionally famous for their Furmint grapes, but today Welschriesling and Neuburger are more likely to be planted. Ruster Ausbruch, a naturally sweet wine, is the prized wine in this region, and the shallow lake provides just the right humid conditions to enable botrytis to develop. Blauer Zweigelt dominates the eastern shores, producing spicy reds, and mineral-toned Blaufränkisch (know as Kékfrankos on the Hungarian side). Chardonnay and Weissburgunder are making their mark in the Leithaberg DAC and in the southern reaches of Burgenland.

One of Hungary’s red wine bastions, Eger, the home of Bikavér (aka Bull’s Blood), also boasts a diverse geological make-up which includes rhyolite tuff. It is also Hungary’s northernmost red-wine-producing region. Historic vineyards planted on these volcanic rocks make some of the biggest, fieriest wines in the region. As in Tokaj, this tuff lends itself perfectly to the carving of cellars. It hosts 99 percent of Eger’s cellars, including networks of passages dozens of miles long and the famous cellars under the city’s fortified castle.

Although historically a white wine land like its volcanic counterparts, red varieties displaced the whites and finally after the blight of phylloxera, Eger’s flagship red blend, Egri Bikavér, attained a worldwide reputation at the start of the 20th century. Winemakers here take this traditional blend seriously.
It has improved tremendously and has little in common with those past Bikavér’s which were exported to the West during the Communist-era of mass-produced wine. Varietals that find their way into Bikavér are Kékfrankos (Blaufrankish), Pinot Noir, Portugieser, Merlot, and Kadarka, and all of these are also bottled as single varietal wines.

At the start of the 21st century, Bikavér gained a white partner, Egri Csillag (‘Star of Eger’). Approximately 50 percent of the region’s vineyards are planted with white grapes and as no one variety dominates, so it was logical to make Egri Csillag a blend, in keeping with the region’s traditions. It is a very variable blend based on Carpathian-basin varieties, such as Olaszrizling, Hárslevelű, Leányka, Királyleányka, Zengő, Zenit and some Hungarian crossings. A minimum of four of these varieties must be included and make up at least 50 percent of the blend and each must represent a minimum of 5 percent. The blend may also include up to 30 percent of fragrant Muscat varieties, such as Cserszegi Füszeres, Zefír, Irsai Oliver, Tramini and Muscat Ottonel. With their blend of history, volcanic minerality, and native varietals, there’s a lot to explore in Eger’s cellars.

Winemaking in Slovakia is concentrated heavily along the southern border that it shares with northern Hungary. Three large regions span from west to east along that border. They are: Southern Slovakia, Central Slovakia, and Eastern Slovakia. The South Slovakian wine region is situated north of the Danube across the river from Hungary’s wine region of Neszmély. It is the warmest part of Slovakia and, as such, this part of Slovakia has the best conditions for the cultivation of red grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Kékfrankos. However, Grüner Veltliner and Olaszrizling remain the first and second most planted grapes, respectively. Centered directly north of Budapest and across the border, the Central Slovakian wine region consists of mostly small single vineyard plots that produce wines that tend to be more aromatic and with an elevated level of acidity. White grapes (Grüner Veltliner, Olaszrizling, Riesling, Pinot Blanc) dominate the plantings significantly, but around 10% of the vines in the area are the most planted red grape in Hungary, Kékfrankos. The Eastern Slovakian wine region is situated north of Hungary’s Bükk, Eger, and Tokaj regions. As a result, it also shares the same mineral-rich volcanic soil that its Hungarian counterparts benefit from. Olaszrizling makes up about one third of the total plantings in Eastern Slovakia, and is followed by Kékfrankos which accounts for around 10 percent. Beyond that, white grape varietals such as Müller Thurgau, Riesling, and Traminer are commonly cultivated.

In 1700 Tokaj developed one of the world’s earliest vineyard classification systems, and Tokaj is most famous for being the birthplace of Tokaji Aszú—one of the world’s oldest sweet wines.

Located in northeastern Hungary—which historically has been the crossroads of Central Europe—the region is framed by natural borders: the town of Tokaj in the southwest corner where the Bodrog and the Tisza rivers meet, the Bodrog river to the southeast, and the Zemplén hills to the northwest. The Tokaj region has 5,500 hectares of vineyards and 27 towns and villages. Wines from the different vineyards can all be quite different, and winemakers here love to experiment with single vineyard wines.

On top of its long and fascinating history, the Tokaj region has so much for wine-lover’s to discover. It is rich in a variety of volcanic soils; has a microclimate ideal for bringing on noble rot (botrytis); grows some really interesting indigenous grape varieties; and has a truly enchanting subterranean labyrinth of mould-covered cellars where the wines age. Though Tokaj is best known for its sweet Aszú wines, which are made from botrytized grapes, more than half of the wine it produces is dry.

Six official grape varieties grow in Tokaj. The superstars are the indigenous varieties Furmint and Hárslevelű, with Furmint being the high profile grape that tends to steal the show. Other varieties grown in smaller quantities are Sárga Muskotály, Kövérszölö, Zéta (a crossing of Furmint and Bouvier), and Kabar (a crossing of Hárslevelű and Bouvier). All of these wines are being increasingly made in dry styles, which winemakers are embracing because they are more marketable.

But it’s the sweet wines which make the region so unlike any other. They rely on the development of botrytis, which comes with the right weather conditions. The harvest here is a long, labor-intensive process which starts with the dry wine harvests, and continues with the harvesting of the botrytized grapes, which is done by hand.

In addition to Aszú (which is made with botryized grapes which are selectively harvested by hand, one berry at a time), other styles include late harvest wines, sweet and dry versions of Szamorodni (made with whole clusters of grapes containing a mixture of both botrytized and healthy grapes), Forditás (made from the second pressing after Aszú is made), Máslás (made from the second pressing after Aszú is made), and Eszencia (made from the free-run juice of Aszú berries, so thick and concentrated that it only reaches about four percent alcohol).