Balassa winery in Denmark
Furmint’s success as a sweet wine grape explains its centuries-long success story, as well as how it has become successful in its new life as a dry wine varietal. Furmint is a late-ripening grape resulting in wines with relatively strong tannins, high acidity, and a high alcohol level. These characteristics make it an incredibly versatile grape. Since the 17th-century furmint has been the dominant grape in Tokaj, and the essential ingredient in Tokaji aszú.
this legendary wine region in north-eastern Hungary is named after the town of Tokaj, its former commercial center. Its a relatively small region of around 5,500 hectares of vineyards which encompasses 27 towns and villages. It was declared one of the first appellations in the world in 1737! and has been famous for its Tokaji Aszú, a noble sweet wine, for centuries. Over the last twenty-five years, fresh energy has been pulsing through its veins. This dynamism is bringing exciting wines – both sweet and dry – from the six permitted grape varieties, mainly Furmint and Hárselvelű.
The most respected furmints in this category are single vineyard wines which really show the characteristics of single plots. In Tokaj, it’s important to understand that there are so many different terroirs, and there are great differences between these single-vineyard wines. Since furmint does not have strong aromas or flavors, it’s an excellent grape for making terroir-focused wines
István Balassa starts his winery in 2005 on 0,8 ha in Mézes- Mály vineyard. In 2013 he owns already 11 different terroirs, 47 Parcells, 3 grape variety, and producing 20-25000 bottles per year.
When it is of such a magnitude that a Betsek vineyard produces andesite, quartz and rhyolite produced wines separately, and for wine lovers. Currently, it is located in vineyards Betsek, Bomboly, Donáth, Dorgó, Hangács, Kakas, Mézes-Mály, Nyulászó, Szent Tamás, Thurzó.
His philosophy: to make full use of the opportunities provided by the vintage to achieve the highest possible quality, using artisanal oenological methods, and through this, to present the place of production, the vineyard, and its endowments.
We had a pleasure, to show his sorting, a few weeks ago at the Embassy of Hungary in Copenhagen to the Danish market. It was a great success. We tasted dry-late harvest-Szamorodni as well, luckily we could taste his aged furmint from 2010, which showed us aging potential of furmint.
Basically we had a tour all over Tokaj, where we meet with extremely elegant and varied scent recognizes white flowers, vanilla, lots of tropical fruits, white chocolate and lots and lots of minerals. Wine with a creamy, oily texture and excellent texture. Intense, vibrant, versatile. Its flavors include passion fruit, pineapple, mango, brown sugar, vanilla, lots of minerals, and some earthiness. It is high in alcohol, which also results in some sweet feelings. It is characterized by a long aftertaste. It's still a very young wine. It has great development potential.
