Budapest, Hungary
Here is Vinopiano, this wine bar made its debut on the other side of the Danube on Bartók Béla út and was transfered here because from what I understand the investor behind the venue found another location on Pest side along Tűzoltó utca on
premises large enough so that they could fit both a kert
(or Biergarten with a ruin pub touch) on the surface and the wine bar in a basement. Wine bars (usually doubling as wine shops) dealing with natural wine have been opening here and there in Budapest in the last few years but this one gets this relaxed approach that makes it more familiar for those of us used to the bohemian laidback atmosphere of the French natural wine bars.
The easygoing feel may also have to do with the location, Tűzoltó utca is off the beaten track, a bit off-center it's not the classy (but rather cold) 5th kerület nor the crowded 7th' party district in the former Jewish Ghetto. It is certainly closer to where young Hungarians live and thus more neighborhoody, but still at easy reach for an ousider : take tramway 4 or 6 to Corvin Negyed and from there a short walk along Tűzoltó utca 22.
The street view of the building shows a nondescript facade but with the backlit stencil signs you immediately feel there's more than that underground. This visit took place in the evening of the 23rd of february, in the night when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, we live through very dangerous times and hope it stops...
Here are the bottles displayed in the first room along the wall, all natural wines from the region, this makes it an utmost interesting place to visit for a foreigner because we're not aware (in Western Europe in particular) of the growing number of artisan producers doing a great job at bring life back to the winemaking scene here. I understand that the wine portfolio here is changing regularly, with new names and/or new cuvées being offered.
Here for example you have on the left two cuvées from Vaskapu, a domaine in Mohács (southern Hungary) run by Géza Galán. Read this profile in English. and (on the right) a cuvée from Oszkar Maurer, a Hungarian who makes wine in Serbia near the border, they all vinify naturally from organic vineyards and working with central-European varieties.
We happened to have decided with András Kovács to meet there that evening to discuss wine issues while sipping good wine, and our good fortune was that this was precisely when
the wine bar had scheduled a tasting event with a visiting vigneron (we still managed to exchange before the thing began) like they do now and then, the invited winemaker that evening was Tamás Kaibinger. These tasting evenings cost something like 7000 HUF (about 20 €) and for a few hours you taste the producer's wines while listening him (or her) explain his work and the different cuvées. András Kovács himself works in IT in Budapest but he is also one of the wine writers behind Borrajongo, a mine of informations on Hungarian wines.
And András has been making wine in the Matra region for a few years, his production is not on the market yet, and he drives to his cellar and parcels on weekends to fulfill his passion. He gave me that evenig a bottle of Pinot Noir from his first vintage, 2014. The conditions were awfull that year and he had to do lots of sorting in order to keep only good grapes, so he wasn't sure of what it'd give but the wine turned out to be very nice. This is one of the last bottles he had (7 maybe) and I'm grateful to him for giving one to me. I brought it back to Paris and we opened it with excitement. The color hinted at some evolution with the years but this Pinot Noir was delicious, with a suave, harmonious substance and almond aromas. This first trial had a bit of SO2 added but was otherwise naturally vinified. András told me the malolactic somehow took place in the bottle and this created some CO2 which certainly helped the wine stand these years. He said that while he did some vineyard work himself, the sprayings were made by a local help and they weren't fully organic at this point. I'll visit him there as soon as possible in a warm season.
Vinopiano's underground room is a typical long cellar, with walls lines with tables with spartan, if any, decoration. You can see here the invited winemaker, Tamás Kaibinger of Unger Bormanufaktúra who is making wine with associate Ervin Stampf in Kőszeg, a small wine region along the Austrian border in western Hungary (map). Tamás is a lawyer in Budapest but he's born in Kőszeg and wanted to do something with the historic terroirs there. He farms biodynamic and vinifies naturally without filtration, his first vintage was 2020.
The world is small and the guy on the left, Attila Földvári is a caviste in the wine shop of whom I bought several bottles recently. Borfalu Bortéka is located at the corner of Bajza utca and Szondi utca, at walking distance from where I'm staying when I'm in town. The wineshop has a good balance of wines from commercial family wineries and artisan natural wines, and on top of that an unpretentious old school feel for a wine shop (many of them nowadays make you feel you're buying jewelry, not bottles of wine). In addition, Attila was years ago one of the main writers behind A Művelt Alkoholista, another blog which is a rich resource on everything wine in Hungary.
On the right you can recognize András Kovács.
Soon the long cellar room was full and the tasting began, with Tamás Kaibinger explaing his work and his philosophy be it for the biodynbamic farming or the fully natural approach on the cellar side. This was all in Hungarian which I don't speak of course, as I was the only foreigner in the room that day, but András was kind enough to take a few notes for me, which is why you'll have more content in this story.
The first wine to be poured was a blend of Müller-Thurgau and Chardonnay, a very turbid wine with a bright yellow color. In the mouth, some residual sugar and a nice energy, this is actually a pet'nat in the making, so certainly very different from what the end wine will taste like.
From the notes of András I learn that Tamás works from several parcels near Kőszeg on Vashegy, he partly replanted his surface after beforehand taking out bushes and trees. He farms biodynamic, using only preparations and herb tea. For the soil management he uses cover crops and plants. Speaking of sulfur I spoke a bit with him afterwards in English and he told me he uses one third of the authorized amount of sulfur per hectare in biodynamic certification, which is already considerably lower than what the "regular" organic certification allows...
__ Olaszrizling narancsbor [means orange wine] 2020. The second pour was indeed an orange wine, made with Olaszrizling. Beautiful amber color, in the mouth, nice bitterness notes, very gentle tannins, lovely !
Tamás works with a winemaking consultant from the Badacsony region named Ambrus Bakó, there only destemming, no crushing. Two options usually, either cold maceration outside for 7-8 days and then spontaneous fermentation, or no prior cold maceration. The aim is longer skin contact which shows the terroir better, like 3 to 4 weeks long. Then gentle pressing. No adding of press juice. Racking is made in order to avoid mousiness. 35-50 mg SO2 added whenever mousiness is detected.
__ A red now, a Kékfrankos 2021, a sample as the wine is still not bottled. This is a whole-cluster carbonic maceration with 5 grams of residual sugar (not really detectable), this sugar may go away in the coming weeks. Feels whole and fresh even though having warmed up after a while in my glass. Felt some mousiness at first sip. Tamás says that the weather is cool in Kőszeg, he adds that the wine culture of this small area (which like Vaskeresztes is part of the Sopron wine region) is being revitalized. See this map for location (and to aknowledge the big number of wine regions in this small country), Sopron is the small green patch that dents into Austria on the left. Speaking of this parcels, Tamás says that they plan to plant Pinot Noir and Furmint. they brought some Blaufränkisch from Burgenland, sourcing it from old vines there.
__ A darker red now : Kekfrankos Fiatal Kálvária 2020, exposed south, also a vat if I'm right, from a plastic tank with 1/3 of microoxigenation properties of a barrel. Soil is slate base under which bedrock begins 2 meters deep. If the end wine is like this, he'll make a killing : chalky texture, fresh, obviously unfined and unfiltered, gouleyant like we say in France, nice juicy wine ! We're told that Kekfrankos ripens late and wine has to age somle time before being released, and from what I understand because of that local winemakers switched to Blauburger instead.
Another red, Kékfrankos Birtokbor 2020, looks even darker. Inky notes. Waouh... that's majestic, my stomach noisily approves ! Must be good to eat with this wine but that's fine for me just by itself. Same vinification but aging in barrel, vines planted on the highest altitude. Part went to a normal fermentation, part through cold maceration outside, then the two parts were blended. 10 % of whole clusters.
There was also another vigneron present with his girlfriend at this tasting (to taste Tamas' wines), this was Mátyás Páger of Páger Pince who makes wine in the Matra region. From his website I learn that he works on a 2-hectare surface which he farms organic, he vinifies naturally, without additives or tricks and aims at making wines with low sulfur. His reds which are unfiltered go through a 10-month élevage in barrels. I'll visit him gladly when I go to the extinct-volcanoes region of Matra.
__ Kekfrankos Csúcsos 2020, carafed as you can see. Vinified in 500-liter Stockinger. Very nice substance, and will certainly get even better with time (I didn't get if it was also a sample). Quite powerful, well balanced, nice job ! Refined tannins, goes down very easy. The room applauded as this tasting was over, well deserved indeed !
Story by Sue Tolson about a tasting at Vinopiano (with winemakers profiled here)
Video interview of Tamás Kaibinger at Bor Manufaktura
I love how you have explained everything in your blog.
Posted by: Tamara | August 24, 2022 at 07:39 AM