Our Study Tour in Szekszárd and Villány

Szekszárd and Villány are the southest wine regions of Hungary. The soil and the climate, for instant, favour red varieties in both regions. Wines from these regions are very popular not only in Hungary, but among in European customers as well. However, at the moment, Villány maybe more world-known than Szekszárd, we are convinced that Szekszárd is on the right way to join up to the world famous position and probably we will hear a lot about Szekszarder wines in the next years.

In the microclimate of Szekszárd the Mediterranean influence remains strong favouring so the special and declared autochthonous Hungarian grape variety, the Kadarka. Kadarka was largely responsible for the worldwide fame of Szekszárd wines in the 19th century. "Such wines were enthusiastically endorsed by the great musicians Franz Schubert and Ferenc Liszt, whose popularity in 19th-century-Europe was equivalent to that of modern pop stars." So we try not to forget this interesting variety and popularise among our customers and friends. Hey, I have something special for you. Come and drink something new. ;)

But going back to the point, this time, for instant, we were interested in finding great Szekszarder Kadarkas, but we have also found great cuvée-s, white Kadarka, Blauburger and Kékfrankos of the region. (so when we go on study tour we are ready to discover always everything what we can.... :))

Looking at our photos it is not more a secret that we were shortly in Villány as well, and we visited our new-found winery, Heumann.
For the first time, we met the Heumann family at the Prowein (international wine fair) in Düsseldorf, and already that time it was decided that we would like to keep in touch with them and their wines.


The Heumann family - as a german man and a swiss wife - arrived to Villány in 1995 with a great intention to make wines as hobby vintners but as the time was going on and their international results are coming, we can see that the hobby winemaking time turned into a very serious and high quality wine producing process, and however they are not so well known and famous in Hungary yet, the group of their esthusiats are wider and wider on the swiss and the international market. And it is no accident.


Their quality improvements are documented through local and national silver and gold medals as well as with very good scores in well known wine magazines like Decanter, Vinum and others, so we really have to pay attention on their work!


At the moment, four different Heumann wines are available in our webshop, such as Azzurone 2007, Kékfrankos 2007, Cabernet Franc 2007 and the U and I 2008 (which is a very interesting coproduction of the Heumann und the Szekszardian Heimann Family). So in case of interest, you can find not only Kadarkas but Heumann wines as well in our catalogue. :) It is worth tasting!

Home-made Cabernet Franc tasting!

First of all, what do we know about Cabernet Franc? what kind of grape variety is it ? What kind of wine do we taste when we open a bottle of them?

If you can not answer these questions suddenly by heart, it is also not a problem, because here we try to answer all the basic questions of this variety!
:) Starting with a short summary on Franc.

... It is said Cabernet Franc is one of the major red grape varieties worldwide. /so Cabernet Franc is one of the twenty most widely planted grape varieties./
It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux wine style, called Bordeaux cuvées, but can also be vinified alone. (for example, this time we tasted only 100% Cabernet Franc and 2 bottles only from selected grapes and vinyards!)

Cabernet Franc is basicly less pungently aromatic and lighter than the Sauvignon making a bright pale red wine and contributing finesse and a peppery perfume to blends with more robust grapes. In good locations and years it can attain superior depth of flavour (aged for 15 or than 10 years).
And depending on growing region and style of wine, additional aromas can include tobacco, raspberry, and cassis, sometimes even violets or sloe.

It has also slightly less tannin than Sauvignon and tends to produce a wine with a smoother mouthfeel….

So they can be the main information what are suggested to have as a preknowledge about the grape before I start to explain about our homemade blind wine tasting, so let's have a look now what happened at us some days ago....

Telling the truth, I like Franc-s, and I wanted to explore our sortiment and test our tasting abilities how we can make differences between franc-s from different Hungarian wine regions. Well, with this idea, I arranged 4 glasses with 4 different wines for my partner specialist (only I knew which wines we have in which glass :))), and I gave him the task to find out which wines they can be in the glasses, from which regions, from which vintages and from which winemakers.
:))))

You can think now: UHHH...quite a difficult task! and I have to agree with you, because for a specialist is a very hard and comlex work as well to definite wines without any main points...
But I have to declare that our blind taster specialist was not bad, moreover really good in guess!

And what about the results?
Well, I could collect some very interesting conclusions:

1. Even if you know a lot about Cabernet franc, quite difficult to find out in a blind way from 4 different wines that all, what you taste, are franc-s!


2. our Franc-a were totally different from each other, depending on determinants such as wine region, winemaker, vintage and style!

3. very interesting to recognise and describe wines without any preknowledge and prejudice! :)


4. not every wine can be drinkable suddenly (sometimes 1 day later much better their taste!)

so when we drink a good Cabernet Franc, we should give time to the wine! then it can be so thanksful to us!

5. Our opinion is that alone vinified Franc-s can be also so wonderful, so it is great that not only for blends are grown!

6. some cabernet franc can be very funny and can make jokes with us! :)

As it is a very colourful wine and grape variety suggested to taste every time when you have possibility to get in touch with some examples. :))


For us made fun to taste them and somewhen we would like to continue our franc queue with other bottles. :)
But I think, next time, I have to be on the another side.... :))


And finally the wines of our home-made tasting:

1. Bolyki: Cabernet Franc 2006
2. Csányi: Cabernet Franc 2006
3. Takler: Cabernet Franc 2007
4. Tiffán: Cabernet Franc 2007