Browse Tag

furmint

Tokajigoogoo

Királyudvar 2007 Tokaji Furmint Sec (Hungary) – Cold, pale minerality. Almost bony, but the bones are crushed, powdered, then liquefied, and the wet skeletal remains exhibit a sort of swashbuckling confidence. A delicious, utterly reliable wine.  (8/12)

Pajzos Whedon

Pajzos 2009 Tokaji Furmint (Hungary) – There’s an overlay to dry furmint that inhabits an aromatic realm I can’t always pinpoint. Mint? Menthol? Something dry, herbal, and chilly, at least. There’s also whitewashed fruit and thin, repeating layers of brittle minerality. This is blockier than some I’ve tasted, but still nice. (8/12)

Jiggle the Schandl

Schandl 2008 Rust Furmint (Burgenland) – There’s an aroma to furmint that I struggle to identify: herbal, almost tea-like, but far from any vegetal expression thereof. Rather, it’s metallic, and yet the wine’s minerality is a separate issue. Anyway, this has the foil-wrapped brittle herbality I’m talking about, floating in a fulsome bisque of soft liquid sandstone – no, I don’t know how that would happen either – and with some but not quite enough structural acidity. It’s a good wine, but the volume is just a little bit high for the space in which its music is being played. (3/12)

Nókő ónő

Disznókő Tokaji “Late Harvest” (Hungary) – Concentrated sweetness, copper, bronze, brass, molten candle wax, and amber. Some extremely concentrated apricot, as well, perhaps more as a honey flavoring than an actual fruit experience. Very clean, devoid of the style’s typical issues with volatility, and delicious. (3/11)

Nókő Ono

Disznókő 2006 Dry Tokaji (Hungary) – Forbiddingly reduced at first unscrewing, but this does blow off. I’m not sure the wine’s worth the wait, though…under the reduction is a little wan oxidation, a squirt of spritz, some undefined tartness, and a big, flat, horizonless plain of not very much. Nothing wrong, but nothing particularly right. It’s wine. That’s about as far as I’ll praise it. (10/10)

Breath furmint

Királyudvar 2006 Tokaji Sec (Hungary) – Arid and a little muted, blossoming texturally but not as aromatically as I’d expect. That texture is dense, coating, and rich with promise, but other than some waxiness and a minor floral note, there’s not much going on. A strange performance. (5/10)

A bridge udvar

[vineyard]Királyudvar 2005 Tokaji Sec (Hungary) – Broad, waxy, and complicated. There’s a certain fatness here, but it’s a dry fat, expressed more as lingering tactility than plushness. Hues and tones range from brown to tan with streaks of grey, and there’s a hefty dash of mineral salt to the finish. This is awfully good. (5/09)