INFUSIO has been the name of the wine of special events and feasts on the table of the Archabbey Pannonhalma for centuries. This tradition, reaching back to the Middle Ages, gives even today a contribution to celebrations.
When making the most prestigious red wine of the Abbey Winery, they try to apply several fermentation methods. The destemmed and crushed mash is put both into wooden vats and steel tanks while fermentation and skin contact take 25-40 days. The juice is drawn off into medium-toasted new 225-litre-barriques.
The wine is maturated in wood for 14 months followed by further ageing in bottles. During this time our wine turns into a fiery, thick, characteristic one.
The relatively high alcohol is balanced by the outstanding extract content. Its elegance and deepness is rounded by its mature tannins and pleasant flavours of the new oak. While maturing into wine the characteristics of ripe grapes give a pleasant creamy feeling. Fragrance of ripe bramble and cranberry appear simultaneously, completed by the aroma of vanilla coming from the wood. The balance of extract sweetness, alcohol and mature tannins results in a mellow taste evoking the concentrated notes of parched sour-cherry and plum as well as chocolate.
We recommend this wine to festive occasions matching with game and other dark meat.
And F.Y.I.: The origin of the name INFUSIO goes back to the Benedictine traditions, not referring to medicine.
We have written records already from the beginning of the 18th century that the Benedictine monks of Pannonhalma divided their wines into three categories: the term "servant-wine" meant the wine obtained from the manorial deliveries; the "convent-wine" was used at the holy masses and served onto the table of the fathers at the meals while the "infusio" referred to the prime category.
The latter did not designate a certain variety but the best quality wine consumed by the members of the order during big celebrations and prominent events served from the bottle into the glasses. This custom explains easily the use of the Latin word "infusio" meaning "infuse".
