Bottlehugger Ben and I were very happy to get an invite from Xpatloop.com to attend their wine tasting with Izabella Zwack last night (June 30) at the Radisson SAS Béke Hotel on Terez Krt. Yes, it is Izabella's family that is also responsible for unicum. Their joint wine club is now in its fourth year. I first encountered Zwack wines last year when Izabella provided the wine for her mother's book launch of Diplomatic Corpse. At that time, the Gróf Buttler Történelmi Borászat Egri Pinot Noir 2006 Nagy Eged-hegy she brought was fantastic, probably the only Pinot Noir I have ever liked. Her vineyard also offers people a chance to help with the harvest in October, and quite a few of the guests last night had already participated. Just as with our own Bitch Moan and Wine Club, Izabella Zwack aims to promote lesser-known Hungarian vineyards and "garage" wine makers. This event featured her picks of the following wines:
* Szigligeti Olaszrizling - Szászi Endre
* Tokaji Furmint (dry) - Dobogó, Zwack Izabella
* Szo"lo"skislaki Rosé - Légli Géza
* Egri Indián Nyár (Kékfrankos) - Bolyki János
* Tokaji Furmint Late Harvest - Disznóko" Pincészet

Izabella stated that the first wine, the Szigligeti Olaszrizling, was her favorite of the year. In fact, she likes it so much that she bought 100 bottles. We all have different tastes, and unfortunately, I did not like this one at all.

My tastes seem to be moving back towards dry whites after a long hiatus, and for me, the Tokaji Furmint was the highlight of the evening. I could not put my finger on why I liked it so much, but Rob Smyth of Time Out may have hit on it. It tastes almost like a chardonnay. The wine was so fresh as to be almost neutral, but it really hit the spot last night in all that humidity.

I am a huge fan of Rose wines, and it is very hard to disappoint me. I particularly love the Agancsos, Takler and Sauska roses. However, the Szo"lo"skislaki Rosé was a let down. It had a strange flavour, perhaps grapefruit or watermelon.

It is very difficult to find a Kekfrankos I like, so it was no surprise that I did not like the Egri Indián Nyár. It tasted a bit like gunpowder, or rather gunpowder tea. On the other hand, this was Bottlehugger Ben's favorite of the evening, and he likes Kekfrankos. If I am going to drink Kekfrankos, I prefer the Maltinszky. However, Legli's Per Egy is a great dry white if you can still find a bottle.

Lastly, we sampled the Tokaji Furmint Late Harvest. This was a very nice sweet, but not too sweet wine. Very enjoyable, and we see again why Disznóko" is arguably currently the best vineyard in Tokaj.

The Radisson Hotel's Olive's Restaurant is due to open in September, and they provided the yummy Mediterranean style finger-food for the event.
* Tramezzini with smoked salmon
* Savoury pastry filled with soft cheese cream
* Hot minced beef and spinach
* Savoury pastry filled with Roquefort cream
* Mini mozzarella with cocktail tomatoes
* Savoury pastry filled with a mousse of duck liver and Tokaji wine
* Apple served with roasted savory walnuts
I only tasted the vegetarian snacks, but they were all nice, and cleaned the pallet well.

It was also announced that Timeout Budapest is now cooperating with Xpatloop.com,

The afterparty moved to Caledonia, our local to watch football. Patrick and Zsuzsa run a good kitchen, offer 140 whiskey's, an extensive cider list, and a bargain Irish whiskey tasting of 4 for 3000 huf. Cider is thankfully finally becoming more popular in Hungary, but it seems that Hungarian law classifies cider as wine, and for that reason, you cannot offer it on tap. What?! A couple more drinks here and we wandered up to Arriba for a quick taco to line our stomachs after-the-fact. Not only does Arriba offer the best Mexican food in town, but it also was the first restaurant in Hungary to serve exclusively Fair Trade coffee (of course, from Treehugger Dan's)

I know I have not reviewed most of these wines positively, but that is irrelevant with regards to the evening. I was happy for the possibility to try some new wines and meet new people. Furthermore, wine tastings are all about tasting new wines and figuring out what you like, as well as good company and conversation. Sometimes its a hit, and sometimes a miss, and out of the five, I really liked two. Without people like Izabella Zwack who goes out of her way to introduce us to her hot picks, and the crew at Xpatloop.com, such opportunities to sample wines from smaller and relatively unknown vineyards would be very infrequent. In this respect, the evening was a great success, and I am looking forward to the next one.

Photos by Sanyi of the event here