The month of the Furmint - Furmint February in Budapest

Last Thursday we could paticipate in a very special event in Budapest in the Festetics Palace.
Namely we could taste only Hungarian Furmints from different part of the country, from 30 different wineries for the first time and at the same time.
Well, what can I say? :)

Wonderful place. Elegant wines. New and interesting vintages. That was the furmint tasting in a short way. And moreover professionally well-organised. :)

But what's the Furmint exactly?

Furmint is a variety of wine grape, used for white wines. The name Furmint is taken from the word "froment" for the wheat-gold color of the wine it produces.

While the exact origins of Furmint are not clear, it is generally well established that the grape was introduced to the Austro-Hungarian area in the Middle Ages, so can be declared that the grape is native to Hungary. It is a late variety, usually ripening in the second half of October.

Today, Furmint is most widely grown in Hungary, particularly in the Tokaj-Hegyealja wine region where it is used to produce single-varietal dry wines as well as being the principal grape in the better known Tokaji dessert wines, and where it is often blended with Hárslevelű. But it is also cultivated in the wine region of Somló where producers dedicated to producing dry styles of Furmint have been steadily increasing plantings.

Furmint can be produced in a variety of styles ranging from bone dry to extremely sweet wines afflicted by noble rot.
The grape has the potential to produce wines with naturally high levels of acidity with complex flavors derived from phenolic compounds in the juice and through brief contact with grape skins.

Also Furmint wines, particularly the botrytized dessert wines, that can have immense aging potenial with some well made examples from favorable vintages continuing to age for over a century.
For example, the aszú wines of Tokaj are made from the top 10-15% of Furmint harvested. This potential comes from the balance of acidity and high levels of sugars in the wine.

Dry styles of Furmint are characterized by their aroma notes....what you can recognise suddenly in your glass.