Gyöngyöspata, Mátra (Hungary)
Here we are again in the village of Gyöngyöspata in the Mátra wine region, and it was a short stroll from one cellar street to another and we reached this haven of
quietness where Mátyás Páger, his wife Judit and
his brother's family were finishing their picnic outside one of his cellars (this is the one where he readies and labels his bottles). I had met Mátyás a couple months ago in Budapest at Vinopiano, an excellent wine bar with rebel wines. His day job is working in real estate in the big city but his passion is to make wine here in Matra from a small surface mostly located in the prized terroir of Gereg. His farming is fully organic and in the cellar he doesn't use additives, doesn't filter his reds and uses minimum so2 if any.
Mátyás Páger's yearly production is around 6000 bottles, mostly Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch) but also Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Gris, Rajnai rizling (Rhein Riesling). Mátyás also uses this tunnel cellar (which has the typical size of old artisan facilities in this country) to age the wine in bottle before shipping. Even for his small production it's a pretty small storage place (happily, part of the bottles were already shipped and we could walk through the place) and he'll use an additional cellar nearby to complement room. the cellar front shack seems to be standing alone on this picture on left but in fact this cellar street overgrown with trees and greenery is also lined with cellars (some like this one having a small building in front, some not), most of these cellars being unused by villagers.
Actually Mátyás had the chance to find other cellars nearby (this one is just a few meters from the other (in the background here) and also the chance that owners accepted to sell [I know places in the Loire where even if locals haven't used their family cellar for decades, they're reluctant to let an outsider use it, even less buy it...]. He uses this one as a chai at harvest time, its front building is barely larger than the other one but all the availing space is used efficiently.
Walking inside you already feel a cooler temperature than outside thanks to the breathing from the cellar. It's really a miniature chai with a basket press in a corner, a cement tank and the stairs going down to the cellar tunnel proper. These cellars were certainly still used during the years under soviet occupation, as the socialist government had allowed villagers to keep on making wine for family needs from their individual parcel. As I understand, this appeasement measure was mostly granted in order to sweeten the pill of agricultural collectivization which was a hard blow on freedom-loving farmers here.
This is a two-hectoliter press and the fermentation takes place indeed in the cement vat (see other picture above) the old-time way, there's a tap outside the vat to let the juice flow when needed, and there's a metal grid inside to retain the gross lees when you do that. I see many of these cement fermenters also in abandoned cellars in the Loire (see this one for example) and I think they're pertinent even nowadays (when the cement is in good condition) beause of their excellent temperature inertia.
We walk down the few stairs to the cellar, it's really cool in there, there are different types of vessels, plastic tanks and Kadar Hungarian-oak barrels (which he buys new), large-capactity (500 liters and 300), and he usually blends the wine from neutral and oak together. I ask Mátyás about his start and vineyard surface, he started 4 years ago (he went through 3 vintages already), he has two hectares right now and has planted two more hectares which will give way to a total surface of 4 hectares when the latter will be fully productive. At the beginning he used to just buy grapes but today he relies more on his own fruit, and buying grapes helped him know better the varieties he likes to work with and it guided him to choose his plantings.
__ Mátyás fills a glass from a barrel, this is Grüner Veltliner 2021, a variety which he likes a lot for its very good acidity, he keeps it on its lees without sulfites, adding some (just a little bit) only before bottling. What we're tasting is sulfites-free, the color and appearance is very limpid and clear. The parcel makes 0,3 hectare (it's located at a lower area compared to the Gereg terroir) and he can rent an additional of the same surface, this will allow him to make two barrels of it instead of one. Speaking of the farming it's organic, he only uses sulfur and orange oil in the vineyard. This variety is sensitive to fungi but his other parcels (located on the Gereg) don't have this issue.
__ From a tank : Gewürztraminer 2021, macerated 2 weeks on skins, orange wine. Very nice and expressive wine : fresh, bitterness and acidity in a beautiful balance of the whole feel. Judit joins us at this point, Mátyás says they've been together for 2 years and she takes part to this wine venture (she has also a cuvée of hers in a barrel in another cellar). Speaking of the Gewürz, in 2020 he vinified it half with skin contact then barrel, half with whole-bunch pressing and then tank, and he blended the two parts later.
__ Pinot Gris 2021 from a barrel. Skin contact also (2 weeks), on its lees right now. Turbid white. Mouth : structured white with what looks like a stonny, rocky feel, love it ! The mouth is generous and it goes down the throat quite beautifully. Asked where he sells his wines he says in restaurants, first in Budapest, then also in Berlin and Prag.
__ We now taste Rajnai Rizling (Rhein Riesling) from a new barrel (toasting M+), he has also some in a neutral tank and he will samely blend the two parts later. He thinks the wine is still working (it's indeed tickling on the tongue and there must remain something like 20 grams at this stage), the sugar has been going down very slowly, he noticed. At the end of the summer the sugar should be down to 5 grams, he likes to keep it this way. He keeps the door to the chai open now in order to raise the temperature a bit and ease the end of the fermentation.
__ From a big-capacity barrel in the bottom of the cellar we now taste a red, namely Fekete leányka or "Black Girl" [a variety coming from Transylvania, an old Hungarian province now part of Romania].Mátyás bought the grapes from his neighbor but now he really wants to plant next year some of his own. Very concentrated, jammy aromas of strawberry, very interesting red especially to eat with. He kept the grapes 2 weeks on skins in an open-top plastic tank with 2 punchings per day, then pressing. He says it's not as overtly aromatic as Turan, another local variety which is really dark and for him really over the top in terms of aromatic expression.
__ Pinot Noir 2021, from a demi-muid next to the one with Fekete leányka. Also purchased grapes, from the reknown Gereg terroir nearby, he wants also to experiment with Pinot Noir as he doesn't have some on his own parcels. He destemmed the bunches and kept the grapes on skin contact for 4 weeks with two ,punchings a day. Dark-red Pinot in the glass. Tannin feel but lovely ones, well balanced, very nice for what is indeed a very young Pinot Noir, I feel it to be perfect in two years. He plans to bottle at the end of summer maybe, with one-year bottle aging before release.
__ Kékfrankos 2021 from a demi-muid, made from his own grapes (he has 0,7 hectare of this variety, vines are 9 years old). He says Kékfrankos is the best variety in Mátra, adding that it's because there are both volcanic elements and limestone and with also the cool air going down from the hills around, there is a good gap of temperature between the early morning and the afternoon, plus this daily breeze also that keeps the grapes healthy, it all gets this good acidity in the wines. Very nice and inspiring nose ! Superb wine, fresh, silky with chalky tannins, you just can't spit. He made 700 liters, part is in neutral tank. Pro price to restaurants is 4000 HUF (10,31 €), and 7000 HUF (18 €) for private buyers at the cellar.
__ Pinot Gris 2020 from a bottle, the one that is a blend of skin contact and direct press of whole bunches. What a color ! Orange wine indeed. In the mouth it's both creamy and with a vibrant acidity, a wine that is at the same time horizontal and vertical as Mátyás says. I love it !
__ Kékfrankos 2019 in bottle. A bit tighter in the mouth and throat, but you feel the same character from the one tasted minutes ago. Low so2, like 30 mg/liter. Can be found at the much sought-after Borkonyha in Budapest.
__ Kékfrankos 2020 in bottle, here no so2 at all and unfiltered. Bottle with clear uncolored glass. 3 week maceration of whole bunches without punching or pumping over. Such a nose here ! Mouth : super, whole, powerful, fresh, everything. And so easy to drink. Sold out alas. if you come across some remaining bottles somewhere, order them. Can be found in Salt, a restaurant in the classy 5th district in Budapest (link to their wine list).
__ We now taste Judit's own cuvée, it is made from a local grape variety named kiraly leányka (means King's Girl in Hungarian) a grape which also apparently comes from Transylvania. Instead of what the color might induce, this is not an orange wine. Brisk mouth, it awakes you ! Nice balance between acidity and grape skin flavor, it's precise, straight, really good and surprising white (we ought to have more of these unknown varieties) with a tickling thing on the palate and an alive feel ! No sulfites, nothing added ! Price unknown.
Here is a renovated cellar where Mátyás keeps a few cuvées in amphorae, this cellar has an elegant front building with pillars and sheltered porch in the style of the old farms throughout Hungary. Bálint who is on the picture also was Mátyás' classmate in school
__ Grüner Veltliner 2021, from one of the amphorae (which are Italian made). Zero so2 and he will keep it this way, I thought because the skin contact protects the wine, but actually there was no "regular" skin contact here, but instead an infusion of 20 kilograms of grapes in the juice (the berries are still there inside with the wine). Nice texture feel
__ Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 from an amphora, 4-week whole bunch maceration and then pressing, no pigeage, nothing. What an exciting color to begin with ! Like I use to say, it sums up the wine in a glance, such vibrant transparency can't lie... Here is indeed an aeria and fruity Cabernet Sauvignon, very fresh, candy style. The grapes come from the Gereg terroir, indeed a great terroir even if the vinification was a success as well here. Was to be bottled a week later without so2 but sold locally.
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