More About Our Wines - French Grape Varieties

I am Sebestyén Nagy, a wine writer and organizer of Borjour events.

In the coming months, I will help you navigate the wine styles, grape varieties, and wine regions of Hungary and the world here on kifli.hu, making it easier to choose from Kifli's wide selection – ensuring every customer ends up purchasing the wine that best suits their taste.

Now, I will introduce the grape varieties that are the most widespread and popular worldwide – and not without reason. They are primarily of French origin but can be found in almost all wine regions, including areas in Hungary. Let's see what Hungarian winemakers can bring out of these immigrant grapes!

After a brief introduction of the grape varieties, I will recommend a great wine from each variety available in the kifli.hu selection!

Chardonnay

Twenty to thirty years ago, there was an incredible Chardonnay craze around the world: everyone ordered Chardonnay to be trendy, and well, everyone wanted to be trendy... The grape variety became so popular that it overflowed: by the end of the '90s, the ABC, or Anything But Chardonnay slogan was born... By now, the grape variety has reclaimed its rightful place. Every wine lover knows deep down that Chardonnay is the uncrowned queen of white grapes, capable of showing its most beautiful side, no matter how the viticulturists and winemakers treat it. So it can be beautiful and exciting, in its fresh, reductive version and in its big, overwhelming, authoritative, barrel-aged, buttery, deep, creamy mood...

A good Hungarian Chardonnay from the kifli.hu selection: Figula Chardonnay, Csopak, 2018

White-fleshed fruits: aromas of apple and peach mingle in this beautifully matured Chardonnay, which still offers great acidity. It has only seen steel tanks, no barrels – it shows great freshness while being full of fine fruit flavors.

Pinot Noir

If you ask a winemaker about their three favorite grape varieties, Pinot Noir is sure to be among them. It produces airy, light, delicate, sensitive, versatile, and refined wines – in skilled hands. It's not easy to handle and it's not simple to bring out the best in it. But if a winemaker finds the key to it, they can work wonders. So it's a big challenge – perhaps that's why winemakers who conquer peaks like it so much – but it's worth it: a good Pinot is different every time we taste it: capricious, multifaceted, never heavy, always a great experience to taste!

A good Hungarian Pinot Noir from the kifli.hu selection: St. Andrea Pinot Noir, Eger, 2018

The St. Andrea Winery in Eger is a great expert on Pinot Noir in Hungary. Their Pinot is always characterized by violet floral notes, charm, and lightness. Their 2018 wine is such that it's impossible not to drink it with a smile.

Syrah

Special, unique, characterful, cool grape variety. How amazing is it that a drink made from grapes has a black pepper and chocolate character?! This is the case with most Syrahs, and it's quite easy to spot them in blind tests due to their intoxicating, spicy aroma. The grape variety has an oriental exoticism, not only because of its spiciness but also due to the fuss around its name and origin: many people are convinced that it is of Persian origin, hence they call it Shiraz. The grape is, of course, French, but it can still be so special to us in terms of aroma and taste that it evokes distant worlds.

A good Hungarian Syrah from the kifli.hu selection: Vinatus Syrah, Villány, 2015

Vinatus is a young, ambitious winery from Villány that started just ten years ago. Their Syrah is dense, big, spicy, and barrel-aged, guaranteed to ignite the taster.