Castor Membership May 2024: From the Fur-ma-mint and The Bearable Lightness of Drinking
The Gyertyanos vineyard of Carpinus Family Winery, producing both Harslevelu and the famed Furmint grapes.
“From the Fur-ma-mint”
Carpinus Family Winery Tokaji Dry Furmint, Tokaj, Hungary 2022
In the vineyards and wine regions of Hungary, religion appears inescapable. While certainly not unique to Hungary (the “vines to chapels” ratio in France, for example, is high indeed), it is perhaps to be expected that a country where 61% of the country is baptized in the Catholic faith has forged a connection between the firmament and terra firma.
And if there is one place in Hungary where the wines have been historically viewed as celestial, it would have to be two and a half hours driving northeast of the capital Budapest, and the name synonymous with a town, region, and wine style: Tokaj.
A cross above forest, vineyard, and nature preserve in the Tokaj region. Carpinus is located in the small town of Bodrogkisfalud and has vineyards in Tarcal, Bodrogkerezstur, and Mad that have been historically classified as grand and premier cru.
Sauternes. The Mosel. Tokaj. Of the wine regions most associated with the magic of botrytis cinerea (“noble rot”, where grapes hang on the vine past normal harvest time and are afflicted with the fungus botrytis, shriveling the skins and robbing the grape of its water, thus concentrating the sugars) this area of northeast Hungary has had arguably the bumpiest ride. Tokaj (prounounced “Tow-kai”) is both the name for the overall region and the town at the confluence of its two rivers, the Bodrog and the Tisza-the wine produced there is given the adjectival name Tokaji ("To-kah-gee”).
Shielded from moisture by the Carpathian mountains and armed with a continental climate that guarantees warm and humid summers and autumns, Tokaj is a perfect breeding ground for the botrytis that has made its wines world-famous and royalty-endorsed for centuries. The town of Tokaj was first mentioned in a document in 1074, an incredible testament to the history of this place. The sweet wines (“Aszu”) produced in Tokaj were favored by Louis XVI, Catherine the Great (who maintained a guard in the area to monitor her stock and shipping route), and seemingly everyone in between. The source of this nectar is the light-colored Furmint grape, indigenous to the area. I was first exposed to Tokaji Aszu (sweet wine) in the mid-2000s, and of course its place on dessert lists in my subsequent restaurant work was assured (at Citronelle we featured an example of the rare and expensive Esszencia, a tiny amount of free-run juice that is allowed to settle out of the already-fermented must; as viscous as oil but with a sweetness that was dark rather than cloying, it was a bargain at $100 for a 100ml bottle), but what was not in vogue at the outset of my career was seeing what this heavenly grape could do if brought down from the sky and placed on earth, as a plain dry table wine.
The Bai family at their Carpinus winery, founded in 2013. Istvan, left of center, is the primary winemaker, along with his sister, Edit (right of center).
The uniqueness of Furmint is on full display as a dry wine; equipped with the racy acidity you’d expect in a varietal that can produce botrytis-derived sweet wines, what Furmint features that other botryized grapes (Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon) lack is its weight-the grape is decidedly full-bodied when vinified to dryness, and the combination of structure, acidity, tropical fruit, and varietal spice notes is hard to beat. The best areas in the Tokaj region have been recognized for their dry wines for at least as long-if not longer-than the sweet versions, and it is gratifying as a grizzled wine vet to finally see well-made examples of these wines finding their niche in our marketplace. To vinify Furmint to dryness well, it helps to have exceptional terroir and a historical place in the Tokaj, and the Bai (Baji) family of Carpinus certainly have the bona fides.
The Bai family have been landowners and wine growers in Tokaj for decades, owners of some of the most prestigious vines in the area: their Deak vineyard was first mentioned in a document in 1283, and their Gyertyanos plot (Hungarian for “hornbeam”, the plant whose Latin name the winery took as their own) was written about as far back as 1760-the prestigious piece of land was owned entirely by nobility from that time until the Iron Curtain in the mid-20th century, and was acquired by the Bai family in 2004. The rise of industrial levels of winemaking brought about by Communism caused the Bai patriarch (grandfather of current owners Edit and Istvan) to pull his commercial practice entirely, preferring to create wines solely for family and friends. This commitment to artisanal quality and production levels was instilled in the family, and upon the fall of Communism in Hungary in the 1990s the family set about rejuvenating their methods and improving upon them. In 2013, the same year that landmark new regulations came about regarding the labeling of Tokaji Aszu and Tokaj sparkling wines (Pezsgő), the Bai family founded Carpinus, intending to carry their traditions forward but with an eye towards innovation in terms of farming and cellar technology. Organically farming the region’s famed volcanic soil, the family’s wines are delicious and long-lived out of the bottle; a recent tasting of the dry Furmint revealed a wine that held up in the refrigerator for nearly a week.
Sauternes has become a hotbed for dry, refreshing Sauvignon/Semillon whites at more affordable pricepoints than Chateau d’Yquem’s famed “Ygritte”, Germany has more “Trocken” bottlings sold internationally than ever before, and so it is with great joy that we see Tokaj follow suit, placing an emphasis on wineries like Carpinus. No longer does the “Furmint firmament” have to exist, with sweet wines above and dry below; while there is no question that Tokaji Aszu is still one of wine’s great luxuries, dry Furmint can now be one of our greatest essentials-D.
Carpinus Family Winery Tokaji Dry Furmint, Tokaj 2022
Country of Origin: Hungary.
Places and People: The Bai family have roots in Tokaj dating back centuries and own some of the most prestigious plots in the region, with vineyard names like Daek and Gyertyanos mentioned in documents from the 13th and 18th centuries, respectively. Raised on visions of artisanal winemaking from their grandfather (who turned his back on commercial production during the Communist reign), the current generation of the family founded Carpinus in 2013. The fruit for the dry Furmint comes from the aforementioned Daek and Gyertyanos vineyards, along with Lapis and Veresek. The vine ages range from 29-34 years.
Soil: The famous volcanic soil of the Tokaj region is here represented by loess which has eroded and is mixed with andesite and dacite at the surface.
Grape Varieties: 100% Furmint.
Winemaking: The 2022 Carpinus is hand-harvested and the Bai family’s vineyards are certified organic. Fermentation is conducted in stainless steel tanks.
Aging: The Carpinus dry Furmint is aged in the same stainless-steel vessels for a period of 8-12 months depending on the vintage.
Flavors and Foods: The 2022 Carpinus Furmint is one of those wines whose nose and palate vary rather widely-when first opened, the Carpinus smells of yellow apple and mild white flowers, and my nose is wondering whether the wine would be better suited to an autumnal table. The palate of the 2022 Furmint, however, is late spring incarnate: lemon preserve, ripe mango and pineapple, and even hints of the season’s first strawberries (an odd note for a white wine, I know, but they’re, well, there). The texture is juicy overall but with a great acidic verve that recalls fleshier New World examples of Riesling. There is enough roundness to be conscious of lees contact and stirring, but it falls well short of the off-putting “stale wheat beer” character that some overmanipulated whites possess. The Carpinus is, in the end, a stellar example of what the Furmint grape can be if vinified to dryness, and its mild finish (12% abv) prompts both easy enjoyment and versatile pairing (goat cheeses, pan-roasted steelhead trout, Dutch oven-roasted chicken with tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes).
Service and Cellar: Keep the Carpinus on the warmer side of white wine cellar temperature (50-52 degrees F). The aromatics and mild tropical citrus (mango) come to the fore easily and the wine’s texture allows for this temperature without the acidity becoming too astringent. Enjoy the 2022 Carpinus in the next 2-3 years.
Sister and brother winemaking team Csilla and Csaba Sebastyen.
“The Bearable Lightness of Drinking”
Sebastyen Winery Kadarka, Szekszard, Hungary 2021
If Nietzsche was correct in his assessment that a person will experience everything multiple times during their lives, thus weighing them down with the “heaviest of burdens”, he must have been an afficionado of full-bodied, hedonistic wines. I have certainly experienced multiple occasions where my wine choices were solely of the overwrought, high-octane category, performed on repeat, and so it seems to me that the enjoyment of light-bodied reds, occurring so infrequently for some that they will lose their significance and contribute to the philosopher’s so-called “Unbearable Lightness of Being” (cue the bestselling novel), is an art that is lost on large segments of the wine drinking population. And if, as that 40-year-old novel about the Czech Republic’s Prague Spring teaches us, accepting lightness means acquiescing to a certain lack of ultimate meaning and reveling in the immediate, one could do far worse than to advocate for a lighter, less bombastic red wine, of a kind that would allow for us to enjoy both the wine and be left standing upright at the end of an evening. And yet, at least in our corner of the world, this opportunity to drink red wines that are both captivating and capable are often overlooked.
Sebastyen estate vineyards in the Szekszard.
The predilection for fuller red wines is, I have found, drawn across multiple lines: geographic, generational, economic, and gender. Travel to a metropolitan area in 2024 and you can find a wealth of low-alcohol, light-bodied, often-chilled red wines that are the benchmark for a hipster sommelier’s CV, but show up to a restaurant in the ‘burbs, even a progressively-minded one, and you’re bound to view tables full of high alcohol, heavily-oaked albatrosses, brought in from the cellars of middle and beyond-aged men, sourced from this mailing list or that club offering, sometimes in the name of flavor and quality but more often in the guise of status, or even…masculinity? Indeed, it is so interesting that the same client who will readily extol the virtues of a “session” beer because it can be drank early and often will turn up his nose at the same values in a red wine. I would happily identify this as a uniquely American phenomenon, but my experiences both visiting and speaking to wine drinkers from other parts of the world (Asia, the UK, wine regions in Europe where full-bodied wines are the cultural norm, etc.) don’t support the idea that light-bodied reds only die domestically.
Now, does all this mean that I’m ready to endorse, source, and sell every 10.5% abv red thrown out into the market? A hard no. But the question continues to (fascinatingly) remain: why do we put ourselves through Nietzsche’s “heavy burden” time and again without appreciating what light-bodied reds can offer? Perhaps one (not the, I’m not that pretentious) answer lies in a small appellation due south of Budapest in Hungary, where a grape variety that is centuries older than those full-bodied reds we cling to makes its mark, while seeking to tear down the adage that a light-bodied wine cannot possess full-bodied traits.
Map with the Southern Hungarian region of Szekszard highlighted in red; the capital of Budapest is north and slightly east along the main E 73 highway.
The wine industry is currently experiencing an influx of dilettantism; the idea of starting a career in wine from the enthusiast or hobbyist side is not new, but rarely is it accomplished so successfully that the wine drinker turned winemaker in question is now viewed as an authority. In Southern Hungary’s Szekszard region, with brother and sister Csaba and Csilla Sebastyen, that is exactly what has taken place at their family’s namesake winery. The estate’s beginnings in the early 2000s read like a dreamer’s vision fulfilled; from an unrefined operation bottling 7,000 bottles annually for family and friends, the Sebastyens have nurtured their vision so well that they now produce 7,500 cases each year, a still-artisanal amount that nevertheless takes advantage of the family’s estate holdings on three separate vineyard sites, many of which feature easterly exposure that enables daylong ripening. This fact alone would seem to alleviate any concerns about light-bodied red wines, but the fascinating example is not the other, arguably more popular varietals that go into their sought-after Hungarian red blend, the Bikaver, but rather a grape whose roots were planted in the 1500s: Kadarka.
These are slightly obvious generalizations, but lighter bodied red wines check off several useful boxes in the grand scheme of consumption: They often sport lower alcohol levels along with their ethereal structure notes, making them easier to metabolize and enjoy with more frequency. Lighter-bodied reds tend to possess elevated acidity levels, which in turn can make them more compatible with food, and a wider variety of cuisine at that. Light and medium red wines can have greater warm weather seasonality, and having the ability to serve a red wine at a cooler temperature on a typical DC/NOVA summer day is a must. And finally, some of the best “lighter” reds can possess a surprisingly unexpected tannic grip, particularly in the front palate, that can serve to give a wine drinker who will typically crave bigger things a reminder of what they believe they’re missing.
The black-berried Kadarka grape, thought to have been brought to Hungary via the Balkans in the late 16th century. A medium-bodied grape with lower alcohol, elevated, fresh acidity, and still-present tannins, Kadarka used to be a hallmark in the famous “Bulls Blood” red blends of Hungary called “Bikaver”, but its propensity for difficult ripening has led to plantings of the wine decreasing, which makes those aforementioned east-facing slopes of the Sebastyen family’s vineyard plots all the more significant. In the 2021 bottling, this centuries-old grape exhibits qualities that you can recognize-the tender red fruit of Pinot Noir, front-palate tannins that evoke lighter-styled Syrah from the Northern Rhone Valley, and acidity that is marked but still fresh, not oxidative, resembling a youthful Chianti. Somehow, the Kadarka echoes these traits but never imitates them, and to enjoy a glass of the 11.5% abv Sebastyen is to experience something truly unique, and accomplishes that most eloquent of tasks: focusing us not on external, larger worries but on the immediate, the present, the “what’s in front of us”. In that sense, the term “lightness” doesn’t feel so frivolous anymore-D.
Sebastyen Kadarka, Szekszard 2021
Country of Origin: Hungary.
Places and People: Csaba and Csilla Sebastyen are a brother and sister team that didn’t grow up in wine or inherit a vineyard; rather, they simply took a passion and made it their profession, earning accolades along the way for their bottlings produced from three estate vineyard sites in the Southern Hungary region of Szekszard. The vines for their Kadarka are grown on two of those plots; both feature almost complete east-facing exposure, which is important for the Kadarka, a grape that struggles to ripen fully. Their Ivan Valley vineyard contains Kadarka vines that go back over 70 years. The Sebastyens are converting their viticulture to full organic practices and are passionate about education-they lead WSET tasting groups and study sessions at the winery.
Soil: Loess with fossilized limestone in the Ivan Valley vineyard, while their plot in Görögszó, one of the warmest areas in the entire region, contains loess with red clay underpinnings.
Grape Varieties: 100% Kadarka.
Winemaking: Hand harvesting with an assortment in the vineyard to ensure the picking of the ripest bunches. The Kadarka is fermented in open vats, with manual punch-downs to place the thin skins in contact with the juice.
Aging: Following a short maceration period, the Kadarka is aged in a mixture of older oak barrels for 6 months.
Flavors and Foods: The ethereal lightness of the Kadarka grape is evident on sight: the transluscent salmon-pink center fades to a watery rim that evokes youthful Pinot Noir. The nose, however, is quintessentially Hungarian in its ability to provide savoriness in a lighter context; bing cherry, grenadine, and delicate raspberry comingle with a roasted meat character, cream, and mild baking spices-everything is subtle, but with nose to glass at an angle, it’s there, and makes for such an intriguing introduction to this varietal (apologies for the assumption that this isn’t, in fact, the 100th Kadarka youve tried). The Sebastyen’s palate erases any suspicion that just because it’s a lighter wine we’re in for saccharine, sticky-sweet fruit. The bing cherries, cranberry, and pomegranate are fresh and acidic, giving vibrance to the wine’s attack. A beautifully understated mid-palate of underripe strawberries and cured ham follows, and the finish is surprisingly lengthy for a wine of 11.5% alcohol-there is even a soft bed of tannins that giftwrap the palate. The acidity makes you anxious to take another sip, and the 2021 Kadarka proves adept at being that rarest of wine pairings-the red wine aperitif. If you’re like me and tempted to finish this bright and delightful wine by yourself, some ideal accompaniments to keep you upright would include seared ahi tuna, sushi of all types, non-spicy roasted chicken, and richer Indian dishes with the spice kept to a minimum: chana masala or Daal with raisins, ginger, and citrus.
Service and Cellar: Keep the Sebastyen Kadarka 2021 at the lower end of the red wine cellar temperature spectrum (56-58 degrees F). Like a Pinot Noir or Cru Beaujolais, this wine’s inherent freshness will benefit from the slight chill. The wine is meant to be enjoyed in its youth, but I could see that definition spanning the next 2-3 years.