Thirst-Quenching Greatness from Spain, Plus Hungary’s Wine Renaissance: Weekly Tasting Report (June 1-7)

Local Galician heroes were among the highlights of the 695 wines we tasted over the past week, including some extremely well-made mencias that displayed all the Atlantic freshness that the Ribeira Sacra region in Northern Spain is known for and reflected the character of the steep, terraced vineyards they come from.

We also experienced even more of the Iberian Peninsula’s vibrant Mediterranean sensibility from grapes such as garnacha, which has moved past the heavy, plush, and extracted styles that often marred the grape to more precise, pure and spicy renditions accentuated by red fruit, herbs and spices. Rioja winery Arizcuren makes a tiny batch of wines from old-vine garnacha in its 0.32-hectare Barranco del Prado vineyard that are excellent examples of the more delicate, essential, and linear sensibilities of the wines of Rioja Baja.

In Calatayud, in Spain’s northwest near Zaragoza, Bodega Virgen de la Sierra produced some more great-value single-parcel expressions of garnacha grown at 900 meters, all accentuated by  freshness, elegance and fragrance. Wines from its Albada range, such as the Finca Gemelo 2019 and Finca Santos 2019, are worth seeking out despite a small production of just over 1,000 bottles each. The fresh, juicy red and blue fruit with a streamlined palate full of resolved tannins make them a joy to taste and drink.

Some less-revered Spanish varieties also appeared on our radar this week. A few producers from the Utiel-Requena region of Valencia, such as Bodegas Vegalfaro and Finca San Blas, contributed some excellent bobal, garnacha tintorera, garnacha tinta and syrah wines.

The Finca San Blas Bobal Utiel-Requena La Senda del Caballo 2018 is a juicy, tight, and peppery expression of the bold, tannic workhorse grape bobal – Spain's third-most-planted red variety that few people outside the country have even heard of. Coming from a 750-meter-high vineyard rich in calcareous clay soil and gravels, this is a fresh, tangy and refined delivery of bobal that comes with black and blue fruit and some wild blue flowers.

Thirst-quenching greatness also came our way from one of Spain's most exciting and aspirational projects, Envinate, which was started by four college friends in 2005 and aims to make wines that reflect the zeitgeist of the contemporary Spanish wine scene, which is all about drinkability, originality and locality.

Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and Jose Martinez come from different places in Spain, but they share the same vision and philosophy. Santana told us that they want to bring out the personality of their wines, which are made in both Ribeira Sacra and Tenerife of the Canary Islands, through soil and terroir, putting staid recipe winemaking to the side and instead drawing on the unique character of each harvest.

Their red wines, from local grapes such as mencia in Ribeira Sacra and a myriad of varietals in Tenerife, were ethereal and nervy, and full of life and energy. The purity of expression in these wines was enhanced by the natural process that went into their making: no commercial yeast was used, and there was plenty of gentle extraction, including foot-treading. A minimal amount of sulfur was added just before bottling. But Santana said they were not dogmatic in their winemaking philosophy – they just wanted to make quality wine that speaks to place.

READ MORE: TOP 100 VALUE WINES OF 2021

Out of many small-volume wines from Envinate, one of our favorite reds is the Envínate Vinos Atlánticos Migan 2020, which is a sensational expression of mainly listan negro coming from two parcels of wild and braided 100-year-old-plus vines. It’s an intense and focused yet effortless red with a translucent ruby color and effusive notes of tangy white pepper whose nimble, wild red berry fruit, agave and minerality knit together the expressive nose and silky palate with a twist of saline freshness. But at its core is its tremendous drinkability – pop the cork and let it flow.

From the white spectrum, don’t miss the Envínate Vinos Atlánticos Palo Blanco 2020. It’s a rare, brilliant expression of listan blanco from the best parcel for the grape grown on old vines at an altitude of 600 meters. If the reds of Tenerife are more comparable to the top Etna Rosso or a cerebral mencia or gamay, then this complex, flinty Palo Blanco with a hint of white sesame might fall somewhere between a top Etna Bianco and a wonderful Puligny Montrachet.

In our Hong Kong tasting office, we joined a vertical tasting of Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent, delving into the aging potential of fine Beaujolais. The vertical included 10 vintages from 2010 to 2019 and clearly showed the promise of gamay when it is treated seriously.

We picked the 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2018 as our favorite vintages, followed by 2015, a distinctively warm, dry and early vintage that enhanced the generally austere style of Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent with a bit more flesh and extra ripeness. The one minor disappointment was the 2017, which had too much dried leaf and sweet-sour character of the fruit.

The highlight of the tasting was the Château du Moulin-à-Vent Les Grands Savarins 2018, a serious Beaujolais showing ethereal character and complexity, with an intensity and focus softened by a touch of perfume.

REDEFINING HUNGARY'S WINE SCENE

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott also finished up his tastings of Hungarian wines over the past week. Among the high points were the wines from Villa Tolnay on the northern shore of Lake Balaton, in the country’s northwest.

“Owner Philipp Oser is one of the new generation of winemakers that are driving the Hungarian wine renaissance," Stuart said of Villa Tolnay’s bottlings.

Stuart said every one of Villa Tolnay’s wines impressed him, with the Villa Tolnay Rajnai Rizling Badascony Csobáncz 2020, a dry riesling, and the red Villa Tolnay Cabernet Franc Badascony Csobáncz 2019 standing out because of their expressiveness and vitality that redefine what's possible with these grape varieties in Hungary.

The other remarkable wines were those from the Szepsy winery in Tokaj, at the northeastern end of Hungary, now run by the founder's son, Istvan Szepsy Jr.

"Although Tokaj is most famous for its Aszu dessert wines, their lineup of dry whites from the furmint grape was already enough to guarantee him star winemaker status,” Stuart said. "Each of the Szepsy dry wines, all made exclusively from the Furmint grape, has a very distinct personality, but it was the Szepsy Furmint Tokaji Szent Tamás 46 2017 that wowed me most."

He compared its richness and complexity to a Grand Cru white burgundy, although the aromas and flavors are very different. It comes from a parcel in the Szent Tamas vineyard site planted in 1938.

"Then came Szepsy's incredibly concentrated and refined dessert wines, four of which are world-class," Stuart added. The highest rated of them was the mind-boggling Szepsy Tokaji Aszu Betsek 6 Puttonyos 2017. "This is a limited production  wine that's hard to find, but the Szepsy Tokaji Szamarodni 2016 is also stunning and much easier to find. Use as you would a Sauternes,” Stuart advised.

Meantime, James and his team, including Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt, were in New York City all week for Great Wines of the World, which attracted 150 wineries and 2,000 participants – but the large numbers didn't stop them from doing some very cool tastings. One was a vertical tasting of Argentine winery Monteviejo's La Violeta vintages with winemaker Marcelo Pelleriti. James was impressed with the longevity of the wine, but he was even more amazed by the ageablity. Moreover, the new vintages are even better as the winery moves away from over-concentrated wines for balance and finesse. A small percentage of cabernet franc to the wine helps, which was 100 percent malbec in the past.

“People don’t want to drink heavy wines and we focus more on wines that show our terroir,” said Pelleriti.

We had the same sense of “somewhereness” when we visited the Finger Lakes region of New York with the team the day after Great Wines of the World. James and the team flew up to the area for the day to better understand why the top producers are making reisling to compete with the best in the world. We visited Red Newt Cellars and Hillick & Hobbs. The latter is owned partially by the Californian visionary Paul Hobbs, and the wines reflect his foresight and precision in the vineyard and winemaking. Check it out!

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

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.