VILLANY WINE REGION

It is hard to believe that Villany, this small village of about 2,500 tucked away in the southwest corner of Hungary, is the epicenter of probably the most important of the 22 wine regions in Hungary.

There are so many wineries here you would think everyone is employed in one capacity or another in some phase of wine production.

After the Russians left in 1989-1990, several dedicated winemakers began to reclaim their vineyards and return the vines to the quality necessary to produce fine wines.  Prominent among them was Josef Bock.  Over the past couple of decades, the quality of his and other wines in the region has improved in stature, regularly garnering medals in national and international competition.

I am staying at the four star Bock Hotel Ermitage which adjoins the modern winery.  Here are a couple of photos that you will see if you visit the Bock Hotel web page.

(http://hotel.bock.hu/en/)

 I spent two nights in the hotel’s restaurant tasting Bock wines.  There are about 30 available for tasting.  I have only gone through about a dozen or so.  It seems that six or seven at a sitting is about my limit.  That adds up to about a bottle of wine.

I’ll include my tasting notes from the first night here.  In the next posting I’ll tell you about my second night’s tasting, the restaurant, and what the wineries here do with grape seeds.

Bock First Night Tasting

Harslevelu 2013

Bouquet: a slight whiff of linden leaf

Color: light honey

Taste: Several flavors, a little soil.  Slightly citrus, well rounded with only a slight hint of tannin and acidity.

Kekfrankos 2015

Wine served cool.  Needs to warm.  

Medium red color

Bouquet: cherries as the wine comes to temperature.  Also alcohol and the rawness of new wine.  Spicy but considerable tannin. Peppery.

Grape skins.  A little chewy.

Ermitage 2013

Blend of 7 wines

Bouquet: even cool it has a nice understated nose. Slight alcohol.

Taste: slight cherry, very dry and slightly tannic. I drank a bottle of 2012 in Gyor which was much better than the 2013.  However, given the vagaries of Mother Nature each year, that is understandable.  

Pinot Noir 2009

Not much bouquet

Definite chocolate flavor.  Montmorency cherry flavor.  A really good pinot noir.

Dry finish.

Royal Cuvée 2011

Even cool, the wine lives up to its name.  Royal! Such deep rich aromas!  

Cabernet merlot pinot blend

You only experience the rich flavors promised in the bouquet for an instant, and the wine quickly fades to dry.

Lovely flavors going quickly dry.  They go dry so quickly you have to chase after them to gain full enjoyment of the wine. The lovely flavors cannot be savored because they flee so quickly.  They are gone, and you are left with a dry sensation and wanting to recapture that fleeting gem of flavor.  Only one solution:  drink some more.

Bock Pince Villany Cabernet Franc 2011

Decanter award 95 points

Cabernet sauvignon is a cross between two varietals, cabernet franc being one of them.  Sauvignon blanc is the other.  In the United States, one seldom has the opportunity to experience a 100% cabernet franc, especially one in all of its glory. Enter stage right: Bock Pince Cabernet Franc 2011.

If you want to understand the cabernet franc's interrelationship with cabernet sauvignon, taste this wine.  You will gain insight into how the cabernet franc provides the underpinning for what we routinely take for granted in the cabernet sauvignon of today.