Hungary’s Royal Flush, the Nahe’s Riesling Originality and Complex Pinots from Alto Adige: Weekly Tasting Report (Sept 18-24)

The "Royal Flush" of sweet Aszu Puttonyos wines from Hungary were among our top bottles over the past week out of the 588 wines we rated from eight countries, including stalwarts like Italy, Germany and France to outliers like Lebanon, Belgium and Romania.

Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk tasted the latest Royal Tokaji offerings via Zoom with company director Kovacs Adorjan Zoltan. The wines, from 2018, included five soon-to-be-released bottles from Royal Tokaji’s classified vineyards, collectively referred to as the Royal Flush. These vineyards – Szt. Tamas (First Growth), Betsek (First Growth), Nyulaszo (First Growth), Mezes Maly (Great First Growth) and Birsalmas (Second Growth) – are part of one of the world’s oldest vineyard classification systems, dating back to the mid-18th century. Each vineyard reflects its unique microterroir, with varying types of clay-rich and loess topsoil over volcanic bedrock.

According to Zoltan, 2018’s exceptionally early harvest offered ideal conditions for producing sweet Aszu wines. The season was very warm and dry, he said, but the ample water stored in the soil from previous rains allowed the vines to flourish, resulting in a balanced and uniform harvest. This vintage, generally known for its rich yet fresh and elegant wines, provided Royal Tokaji with unique conditions where each of their five classified vineyards was able to express its true character.

Additionally, larger-than-usual yields of Aszu-quality berries allowed Royal Tokaji to bottle each vineyard separately, which was “a rare occurrence,” Zoltan noted, adding that the last time they bottled all five vineyards in one year was 2008. “For us, 2018 stands out due to the exceptional amount of Aszu berries,” he said. “It’s a complete vintage from a single-vineyard perspective.”

The wines Andrii tasted showed impressive freshness and drinkability alongside elegance and balance, and they also featured delicious fruit, floral notes, and often savory and mineral nuances.

RIESLING ORIGINALITY

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott’s return from Austria was delayed by the terrible floods there mid-month and when he finally got home he found piles of boxes of samples from Germany and Burgundy. This is what the lives of our tasters often look. However, in those anonymous looking boxes were some real gems.

None was more spectacular than the Hees Riesling Nahe Römerstich Trocken 2023, which Stuart considers one of the greatest dry rieslings of this against-all-odds great vintage – one marked by a complicated and challenging weather pattern. Readers who follow us closely will already have heard about Markus Hees, who made this great swirling mass of smoky minerality, citrus and herb aromas, flint and wet stone character.  It’s a big day for a winemaker the first time one of their wines get a spectacular rating from us, and this is Marcus Hees’s big day.

When Stuart first tasted the Hees wines about five years ago, they already stood out with their daring originality. Since then, Marcus Hees has honed his extremely expressive, lees-driven and intensely mineral style. For Stuart, the 2023 vintage is his best so far. What makes his achievement even more impressive is that the Romerstich site of Auen is an unknown vineyard site the potential of which has recently been enhanced by climate change.

If you scroll down through the notes below, you will find other examples of this, in particular Gernot Hain of the Hain winery and Maximilian Ferger of the Dr. H. Thanisch (Erben Müller-Burggraef) both in the Mosel. Ferger’s top 2023 wines are nobly sweet Auslese, BA and TBA wines with limited production. However, that takes nothing away from the very concentrated and unctuous Dr. H. Thanisch (Erben Müller-Burggraef) Riesling Mosel Berncasteler Doctor Trockenbeerenauslese TBA 2023, which smells like someone emptied a whole sack of orange blossoms onto the table.

And perhaps it should surprise us when grand cru red Burgundies from 2021 are stunning, given that the year was extremely challenging and yielded some serious disappointments. The Georges Lignier Burgundy Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2021, though, is in a league of its own with a serious core of fine tannins, deftly combining power and subtlety. This was the first domaine that Stuart ever visited in Burgundy back in 1986 and he’s pleased to see that the wines are way more exciting than back then. Also look out for several excellent wines from Hoffmann-Jayer and Arnaud Baillot

Far more astonishing are the wines from Famille Paquet from Saint-Veran and Pouilly-Fuisse in the Maconnais section of Burgundy. Although there are a number of well-established and renowned producers in southern Burgundy, the first premier cru designations in Pouilly-Fuisse are new still very new. The Domaine Famille Paquet Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru Au Vignerais 2022 is a complete vindication of their introduction. It has stunning apricot and candied orange aromas, and the stony energy on the palate is off the scale. And it is just the best of a wonderful range from this producer who’s new to us. Of course, we will be following winemaker Mathieu Paquet from now on!

ALTO ADIGE'S PINOT NOIR COMPLEXITY

The Italian region of Alto Adige is commonly associated with white wines, bolstered by the Dolomite-rich soils, high altitudes and minerality of the Isarco Valley. But there has been a noticeable shift in the approach taken in making red wines, particularly pinot noir. The region doesn’t lack in dark-skinned international grape varieties like cabernet sauvignon or merlot, or the local vernatsch and spicy lagrein, but it’s in pinot noir wines where a significant change has come.

Alto Adige is known for its precise, fruity pinot noirs – wines that are lightly extracted and highly approachable. Sometimes it's a very technical wine, but one where the innate elegance of the variety is allowed to shine. In the more ambitious examples of the past, complexity often came from the use of new oak. Today, however, the wines are complex starting from the vineyard, with layered fruit, the freshness of whole-cluster fermentation and wood usage that seems linked to aging on fine lees.

Among the most detailed wines Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli tasted over the past week was the Alois Lageder PInot Noir Alto Adige Krafuss 2022, a very classic, layered, complex, tense and concentrated offering. Meanwhile, the Cantina Girlan Alto Adige Flora Riserva 2021, although not an easy pinot noir, can be discovered through the depth it reveals as it breathes in the glass. And the 2021 Riserva from Castel Juval is another unique Alto Adige pinot noir: more mineral and tense alongside a substantial chewiness that makes it a great food wine. Finally, another riserva, the 2021 Puntay from Erste + Neue, shows ambitious character, concentration and clear aging potential.

– Andrii Stetsiuk, Stuart Pigott and Aldo Fiordelli contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.