Kadarka, the wine of freedom?

Dániel Kézdy, the powerhouse behind Furmint February and many other initiatives connected to Tokaj’s flagship variety is now turning his attention to another traditional Hungarian grape. This time he has set his sights on the oft-maligned Kadarka.

On 15 March, the Hungarian national holiday celebrating the 1948 revolution, Dániel launched his new project in the Kálvária Pince in Budakalász, dubbing the variety ’the wine of freedom’. However, quips were soon made saying that Kadarka was perhaps just the opposite for winemakers as the variety is notoriously difficult to work with, thin-skinned and susceptible to just about any vineyard hazard, probably only produces decent wine three or four times every decade and requires the continual attention in the vineyard. But, that aside…

Creating new traditions with Kadarka

Dániel believes the wine does not get enough attention, which I certainly agree with. In the right hands, and in the right vintage, Kadarka produces some beautifully elegant, light red wines. But, why the wine of freedom? Dániel thinks that the variety could be connected to this national holiday celebrating the Hungarians bid for freedom from the Austrians: spring is on its way, hopefully, although it was rather chilly this year, and Easter is just around the corner. It’s the perfect time to promote and drink a lighter red wine.

He gets lots of foreign visitors to the cellar, many of whom, especially the Scandinavians, considered Kadarka something really special and interesting. They particularly liked the light, elegant fruity versions. He feels that this is something that we should pursue. He’d like to create some new traditions with Kadarka on 15 March, to organise events around the variety, perhaps with open cellars and workshops.

We started the tradition this year with a press tasting. Two winemakers from Szekszárd and Hájos-Baja, both strongholds of the variety, presented three wines each and then we tasted an additional flight of ten Kadarkas blind.

Sziegl Családi Pince

Balázs Sziegl, presented three of his wines and told us something of his background and philosophy.

His is a classic family winery based in the Hájos-Pincefalu – a village full of traditional old cellars – although he also has plots in three other villages. Kadarka is very close to his heart, he says, as their first place was in Kadarka utca and he also wrote his university thesis on Kadarka. This area was traditionally a Kadarka production area in the past, before the post-war planned economy put paid to it. In the sixties, pretty much everything ended up in state hands, which nearly led to the death of Kadarka. Previously around two-thirds of Hungary’s black wine grapes were actually Kadarka; it’s now less than 1%. Fussy thin-skinned Kadarka naturally didn’t react well to efforts to train it high and try to make it produce high yields.

Kadarka from Hájos

The area’s soils are loess and clay, with lots of limestone and sand on the surface. Kadarka was generally planted on thin sandy soils with around 80% quartz content, which reflects the sunlight, helping the grapes to ripen fully.

They have Kadarka on two plots – the Herreberg dűlő, which was planted in 2010, and the Kolostor-domb. This an intriguing hillock with cellars built around it, dug into the loess. On the top, the Sziegls found some old vines that were presumably so difficult to get to and work that they were left alone and not grubbed up during the years of communism. They were in pretty bad shape, but they managed to save two vines that are around 70-80 years old. They’re not really entirely sure of their age, but a neighbour of theirs who’s around 80 said they were already there when he arrived in the village.

Balázs and his wife Petra, who he met in Villány, have been involved in wine since 2012. Their hearts took them back to Hájos in 2015 and they are now both working full time in their winery. They work with minimal intervention, open vat fermentation, seven to eight months in oak and just a touch of sulphur before bottling. They are also in the process of converting to organic cultivation.

People who put too much emphasis on Kadarka must be mad!

Balázs had always wanted to work with Kadarka, but his wife was against it as the variety demands so much work – you always have to be there to tend to it. However, he seems to have won her over, or perhaps worn her down, as they are planting some more Kadarka next week – Pécsi clones as well as one of their own – and are slowly increasing the number of Kadarka vines. He had attended a Kadarka round table a few years ago, where Péter Vida Snr from Szekszárd had stated that if more than 10% of your vines were Kadarka, then you must be mad! The Sziegls now have more than that and their six to seven years’ experience so far has proved the ratio of when you can produce good Kadarka – they have managed it only three or four times so far.

Producers from Szekszárd and two from Hájos (himself and Csaba Koch) had participated in the round table as well as Géza Balla from across the border in Romania, Frigyes Bott from Slovakia and Ernst Sagmeister from Serbia. It seems that they all had totally different philosophies and couldn’t really say what the common picture should be for Kadarka, i.e. what they were striving for with the variety. The only thing they could agree on is that it should be light, spicy and elegant.

Péter Vida

Péter Vida Jnr now takes over the reins from Balázs, telling us that Kadarka is an important vine for them too, like for many in Szekszárd. They truly believe in it, which is why it is one of the wine region’s main wines, along with Kékfrankos and Bikavér. They even have some old vines from 1920, which only yield about two to three bunches per vine, which they use for their Bonsai Kadarka.  The roots go down about ten metres and of course, they find a different range of minerals at that level. The Pécs University Research Institute selected vine material from this vineyard for their gene pool. There will be three or four new clones from these vines.

While most people have Kadarka P9 clones as that was probably what was available, they have none. Their clones are different, generally with looser bunches. Balázs had told us earlier that one problem with P9 clones was that they have both big berries and bunches, so the grapes are tightly pressed together and may easily burst.

Although Kadarka is important to them, they still feel it’s really risky to have more than 10% Kadarka, so of their 23 hectares, only two are Kadaraka. Some also say a touch of botrytis is good for the wine, but they disagree and think purity is the most important. They also always pick early so there is no chance of the grapes drying out. This was helpful in 2015 too when the weather was extremely changeable and there was a big storm on 18 September and only those who had harvested beforehand had any Kadarka that year. They had picked the day before – it was as if his dad had felt something!

Ageing and vineyard selection

Péter feels that Kadarka has more to offer than many people believe. They are sending cases to the UK, where it is also listed in Michelin-starred restaurants. Also, as concerns Kadarka’s ageing ability, he has more faith than most. Although most think that you should drink it within two or three years, he recently tried one from 2003 that was still in good shape and he particularly likes their 2008 at the moment too.

There are also vineyard-selected Kadarkas in the pipeline from Szekszárd’s various meso and microclimates. They have also planted Kadarka in Barnya-völgy and Virághegy.

They have regular varietal tastings in Szekszárd and recently, he says, there was one were there were over 40! He gave up and went home to his family halfway. Those who remained said they were a rather mixed big and that only around 20 were any good. Some say that deeper, richer ones always score better in competitions, so we see plenty of unnaturally dark, tannic Kadarakas, but they are not interested in this. They prefer to produce fresh, light Kadarka, that is like Kadarka. They also prefer it unoaked, as did a British MW, Liz Gabay who had visited and tasted both oaked and unoaked versions. Kadarka should be light in colour, so if it’s dark, it’s most likely got something added to it (you are legally allowed to add 15% of something else without declaring it on the label).

Although the older generation are prejudiced about Kadarka due to the past, similarly to the Brits with German wine thanks to horrors like Blue Nun and Black Tower, the younger generation are not so negatively influenced and Kadarka is fast becoming quite trendy with them. Let’s hope more people pick up on its lovely quaffable, light character.

Blind tasting of ten Kadarkas

Our blind tasting of wines from various regions very much bore out what we had previously been discussing. That there is no clear style – some are more (too) oaky, some clearly have had something added to them to add colour and structure, some older Kadarkas still had nice freshness, although some were also rather past their peak, and the lighter, fruitier versions generally went down better.

So, is Kadarka worth bothering with despite its fickleness? Most definitely! I’m looking forward to Dániel’s further initiatives and our next ’Wine of Freedom’ masterclass next year.

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Bikavér – a work in progress

Every year, the winemakers of Szekszárd and Eger present their Bikavérs in a joint tasting in Budapest. This year saw its sixth edition with winemakers from both regions presenting their current and, in some cases older, vintages of this regional speciality. The two regions are working together to promote this most Hungarian brand and the Bikavér Párbaj is a good opportunity to taste wines from the two regions side by side.

What is Bikavér anyway?

Now, if you’re not from Hungary, your first question might be ’What is Bikavér anyway?’ And how can it be the regional speciality of two distinct wine regions which are not even located next to each other?

Both regions lay claim to the term Bikavér for their full-bodied, fiery red blends based on Kékfrankos (aka Blaufränkisch). Naturally, they argue, hopefully good naturedly nowadays, about who used the name first.

What’s in a name?

Eger have an appealing tale about how their wine got its name based on a story in which defenders of its citadel drank up the citadel’s red wine stores when they feared they were about to be overrun by the Turks. Legend has it that the soldiers were so emboldened by the wine, i.e. drunk, that they fought with surprising aggression and saw off the Turks, who reported that the Hungarians had been mixing bull’s blood with their wine to give them courage. Bikavér is the Hungarian for bull’s blood – the name that the wine was marketed with in English-speaking countries in the past.

Szeskszárd’s story is a little less romantic, simply that János Garai, an eminent Hungarian poet praised the colour of Szekszárd’s red wine in one of his verses, likening it to bull’s blood.

So, both regions still use the name for their red blends. It’s a blend based on Kékfrankos (minimum 40% in Szekszárd, and between 30 and 60% in Eger). Szekszárd also requires minimum 5% Kadarka. The rest of the blend in both regions is then made up of a combination of other permitted black varieties. This tends to be a bit more rational and restricted in Szekszárd, the smaller of the two regions, and is generally Bordeaux varieties, such as Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Heimann winery also add a dash of Sagrantino to theirs! Eger, however, has a huge range of permitted varieties and hence Bikavér here could contain Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Blauburger, Turan, Syrah and Menoir, to name but a few.

A kaleidoscope of styles

As you can imagine, this does not lead to a particularly uniform image of the style, especially when you then add in the various quality levels defined in each region. Eger has three – klassikus, superior and grand superior – whereas Szekszárd has two – standard and reserve. Let’s not even mention the sea of substandard, bottom-shelf wine pumped out by many large producers, still churning out the same poor quality wine that got Bull’s Blood a bad name in past decades.

In search of a style

Prominent wine journalists, educators and other experts meet each year prior to the tasting in a panel chaired by Gabriella Mészaros to discuss an aspect relating to Bikavér or one of the wine regions. In the past, we’ve considered how well modern Bikavérs are ageing, styles of Kadarka and rosé. This year, we looked at eight wines from the 2016 vintage (a cool year with lots of rain, but a consistent summer without any severe heatwaves), four from each wine region, to see how much progress is being made with consistency in terms of quality and style.

One of the main issues of our session was brand-building and the fact that to build a brand, you need both reliable quality and consistency. The situation regarding consistency is improving with winemakers tasting together more often. This is naturally easier in Szekszárd where there are fewer winemakers, fewer hectares and fewer varieties, making finding a direction somewhat easier than in Eger. Eger also has a bigger issue with quality as it is home to large producers, some relics of the Communist era, who are responsible for churning out the cheap, poor-quality plonk referred to above. This also creates a problem for the brand as it stretches from bottom-shelf quality up to prestitious, well-crafted wines commanding high prices. Could the lower quality wines be somehow rebranded, e.g. to Óvörös, if some kind of purity and reliability could be guaranteed, posits Gabriella.

Changes for the better

The style of the wines is clearly changing from the tannic, oak bombs of the past, to fruitier, more elegant styles. This is helped by the fact that consumers are also becoming more discerning and their tastes are changing. While there are of course some who still seek the tannin rush, and a number of winemakers who cater to this, more people are looking for fruit-forward wines with some finesse. Progress has clearly been made in this area.

Terroir wine?

Another question which arose was whether Bikavér should be linked to terroir. Of course, there is already clearly a difference in style between the two regions. Egri Bikavérs are generally creamier, more tannic and more structured, despite lying further north. Szekszárdi Bikavérs are typically softer, more textured and leaner thanks to its loess soils and warm. dry summers. Beyond this, vineyard-selected wines come into play too, with three of the wines tasted coming from specified vineyards.

The wines

Our first pair of standard Bikavérs demonstrated the fact that the wines are becoming less oaky and more fruit forward, with a greater focus on good acidity. However, they were very different indeed, with Tibor Gál’s TITI clearly showing its Pinot Noir component. The Takler Bikavér was far more elegant and less heavy-handed with oak than in the past.

The second pair from Szent Gaál and Nimrod Kovács (Rhapsody) were demonstrably more oaky. The lesson here being how the quality of the oak and its integration can come to dominate the wine if there is insufficient fruit behind it or the oak is of poor quality. The fruit in the Szent Gaál wine was unfortunately masked by the grippy tannins of the oak, whereas the fruit concentration of the Rhapsody was able to stand up to the clearly high-quality oak.

The third pair clearly showed how important terroir is for Bikavér with the Péter Vida’s Szekszárdi Bikavér demonstrating the soft, lean elegance of Szekszárd and St Andrea’s Hangács vineyard-selection (Egri Bikavér Superior) showing what Eger, and in particular the Hangács vineyard, is capable in terms of concentration and creaminess.

The final pair was a good illustration of what top Bikavérs aspire to. The Sebestyén Csilla and Csaba Ivan Völgy Szekszárdi Bikavér went head to head with the St Andrea Merengő Egri Bikavér Grand Superior. The Sebestyén Bikavér was felt to come close to representing a Bikavér benchmark – with ripe, spicy fruit, elegance, vibrancy, balance, complexity and great length. The Merengő, on the other hand, was a clear representation that Eger wines generally take longer to be approachable than those from Szekszárd. It also demonstrated the difference between the Hangács and Merengő vineyards, in that the Merengő wines tend to need more time before their optimal drinking window.

The tasting bore out much of what we had discussed at the beginning – that the wines are generally improving in quality and something resembling a style is now beginning to emerge, especially in Szekszárd, that showcases this Kékfrankos-based blend. The wines are becoming more elegant and better-quality oak is being used more intelligently. However, Bikavér is still far away from having a clear enough style and consistent quality (which I saw later in the grand tasting in particular) for it to be considered a brand in its own right, especially internationally.

Bikavér is still very much a work in progress, but progress is being made.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Bikavér’s past, present and future, you can read about it in my WineSofa article from two years ago, based on the 2016 discussions.