Lou Wine Shop

I was shocked this week, shocked, I tell you, after I spent some time scrutinizing Eric’s website: although I’ve known and worked with Eric for years, I hadn’t grasped how many Hungarian producers he’s now working with—32 at last count, each with a unique story to tell, and each representing nuances of the highly varied terroir of the country. In a nutshell (and the same tale might be told for all the wine-producing countries that were once in the Soviet bloc), the story of Hungarian wine is despite a long tradition of winegrowing dating back to the Roman era, just how massively fucked things became during the Soviet era of central planning when only the most productive and “acceptable” grapes were permitted. Wines were grown and produced using the most thoroughly modern industrial methods, producing oceans of dull, taste-alike wines—but at least there was plenty of it (sadly, the same might be said about our post-war wine industry, but for different reasons). Eric’s focus is on growers who have arisen phoenix-like from the ashes of the former Soviet Union, smaller producers who are motivated by the desire to reclaim their viticultural heritage by returning to traditional winemaking techniques and revitalizing their traditional grape varieties (of which there are a plethora) whilst eschewing the trappings of modern, technical winemaking (native yeast ferments, no adjuvants, etc.).

We’re starting with a dry, crisp sparkling wine made from furmint, the crown jewel of Hungarian grape varieties. Furmint is the primary foil that Hungarian winegrowers employ for making the famous, fabulous, and long-lived sweet wine Tokaji Aszú (and impossible to sell, though we’ll certainly stock some for your holiday delectation in the next few weeks), but equally at home making bone dry wines, of which this is a splendid example. Just as in Austria (of course, Austria and Hungary were the same polity until the early 20th century), there’s a long tradition in Hungary of making co-fermented field blend wines, and we’re tasting five very different wines made up of blends of a small sampling of some of the other traditional Hungarian varieties, including hárslevelű, juhfark, olaszrizling, királyleányka, and kékfrankos. Some of the white wines are given short maceration; some longer, and at least one is partially refined in terracotta amphora.