As Decanter is a prestigious magazine of wine trade, Sauska’s accomplishment can perhaps boost the chances of other Hungarian winemakers.

Contest among upmarket Bordeaux blended red wines is always tough. This year the flagship of the Sauska Winery: Cuvée 5 2009 was the Hungarian entrant. It is a blend of Cuvée, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes. In 2009 hail and storms battered vineyards three times but grapes still matured.

Cuvée 5 2009 is characterized on the website of the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) as follows: “Lovely black fruit definition to classy aromas of chocolate and minty tobacco. Very peppery with a good sweet, ripe middle, cassis and inky, iodine notes. Intense and velvety with supple, elegant tannins and a long finish.”

The Sauska Winery [http://sauska.hu/en/] had its first harvest of grapes in Villány in 2006. In 2007 one of their blended wines took a regional trophy of DWWA. Only winners of a regional medal may enter DWWA proper – which Krisztián Sauska calls the Oscar contest among wines. At DWWA wineries of the world compete in 32 categories. Sauska puts the number of Hungarian entrants to hundreds and some Hungarian wineries have already earned some appreciation.

Sauska’s winery took part in DWWA’s contest twice before. In recent decades wines from Chile, Australia, South Africa and the United States have been posing tough competition to wines from France and Italy in the category of expensive Bordeaux blended red wines.

Ildikó Markó, a winemaker in Sauska’s team in Villány, has told this paper that only 1900 bottles have been filled with Cuvée 5 2009, which means profit is not a dominant consideration in the case of this product. “Making such a wine involves an unending series of tasting, blending and analyses until the team finds it satisfactory,” she explains.

Krisztián Sauska emigrated from Hungary in 1970 to resettle in the United States. He learned English, graduated in engineering and found a job in the production of lamps. Nowadays he is sharing his time between the United States and Hungary and manages a winery each in Villány and Tokaj.

He has told this paper that “The gold medal of Cuvée 5 2009 has proved that Villány does have the climate and soil to make wines in the Bordeaux category reach world standard.” “We have a team of young, dedicated and apt people: estate manager Péter Pohl and winemakers László Latorczai and Ildikó Markó. This gold medal has put Villány and the rest of Hungarian winemaking on the map.”

There are several ways to success though. Take the example of Austrians: when they enter international contests, they focus on two types of grapes: Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos) and Grüner Veltliner (Zöldtevelin), which have been fetching them praise for several years. In a similar manner Kadarka and Furmit can have bright prospects. The Tokaj winery of Sauska follows another route: they blend internationally acknowledged types with Hungarian grape types: Furmint, Lindenblättriger (Hárslevelű) and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grain (Sárgamuskotály). Cuvée 5 2009 has already won other prizes abroad.

We asked if this gold medal can increase demand for Hungarian wines abroad. Sauska told us that “As Decanter is perhaps the most widely read wine magazine in the world, this gold medal has perhaps earned us international recognition. When a foreigner buys a bottle of wine in Villány in the future, he will perhaps wonder if his bottle comes from the same vineyard as the medal-winning one, and that is a positive factor.”

Sauska says consumers in the United States know little of Hungary or Hungarian wines, apart from Tokay and Bull’s Blood of Eger (Egri Bikavér). “Our task now is to demonstrate to the Americans that we have several quality wines. Such a task is too big for winemakers alone. Let me mention the example of Austrians. Magazines of the winemaking industry in the United States regularly carry Austrian advertisements that advertise state-supported wine regions rather than individual wineries. Those advertisements describe the characteristics and beauties of local Austrian grape types. (Besides, Hungarians think that better wine can be made of Furmint than Grüner Veltliner.) Even if the Tokaj region has unique characteristics, winemakers cannot build their international image without state support,” Krisztián Sauska argues.

Translated by Budapest Telegraph

Source: Magyar Nemzet