I first wrote about Hungary’s national grape variety – Furmint – in 2020, which makes me feel like an early adopter of the grape. While I have long been a fan of this variety, in all its iterations, it seems that everyone is now talking about Furmint February. I find these so-called national days and themed months irksome, but in the wine trade they do serve to raise awareness of lesser-known grape varieties, which has to be a good thing in broadening people’s knowledge and, therefore, choices.
London played host this week to its annual “Furmint February” trade and press tasting, organised by Wines of Hungary UK, at Painters’ Hall in the City. A splendid tasting of sparkling and still wines, ranging from dry to lusciously sweet, which perfectly encapsulated the versatility of this grape. While the spotlight was on Furmint, being the nation’s best known, and let’s face it, for those of us in the UK, the most easily pronounceable grape variety, there was an opportunity to try it alongside other indigenous – as well as international – varieties, either in blends or as single varietals. A masterclass was hosted by Caroline Gilby MW, who has been a devotee of Hungarian wines for over 25 years, with an introduction from the Hungarian Ambassador to London, Dr Ferenc Kumin, emphasising the importance of the UK to the Hungarian wine market.
Hungary has a very varied terroir, which includes bedrock of extinct volcanoes and natural thermal spas, covering 22 wine regions and boasting 38 Protected Designations of Origin. Volcanic wines are very much on-trend, spanning grape-growing regions in Sicily, southern Italy and the Canary Islands, to mention but a few examples, where mineral-rich vines produce grapes luxuriant in texture and flavour. With 183 varieties growing in Hungary, from a diverse terroir, wine production is as varied as it is fascinating. Two-thirds of the country’s production is white wine, and the move away from the traditional sweet wines of Tokaj results from a combination of market demand and experimentation. It is often said that Furmint is ‘the next big thing in white wine’. It clearly has so much potential to produce sparkling wine as well as both dry and sweet white wines. Other recognisable grape varieties, including Grüner Veltliner, are also important to the country, but Hungary as a wine-producing country is the largest producer of Furmint, most notably in the Tokaj region. The grape has sibling relationships with Chardonnay, Riesling and Blaufrankisch, and its hallmark property is perhaps its vibrant acidity, enabling it to age, but also to show terroir characteristics and the ability to add extra layers of complexity when blended with other varieties.
Handling of the grape tends to be gentle, with low intervention, and spontaneous fermentation is generally practised. The grape’s versatility is partly due to its relatively neutral flavour characteristics, its ability to age and most importantly for its stock-in-trade profile as a sweet wine grape variety, its thin skin, enabling botrytis to develop in the right conditions. These are the wines that made Hungary famous. My betting is that the exquisite, terroir-expressive dry wines that we are starting to see in the UK will ensure that Hungary (and other central European countries) maintain their credentials as producers of food-friendly, dry, and sparkling wines from Furmint, now that sweet wines are falling out of fashion. With much of the regions’ wine production being in small quantities, this is the antithesis of the industrial scale factory-produced wine coming out of other parts of Europe. But who wants to drink that?