Last month I had the pleasure in attending two tastings - Georgian wine tasting and Hungarian wine tasting. The first one was quite small organised at the Royal Horticultural Conference Centre in London, a short walk from Victoria. The second one was at One London Wall, Plasterers Hall. Both these tastings have been organised with some sort of government support as far as I understood from the winemakers and interestingly enough, they were just a few days apart from each over. Hard work these wine tastings are I must say and that is not a joke. I cant imagine the professional judges and wine masters that have to taste a lot of wines every day. For a few days after each tasting my palate was destroyed - everything just didn’t taste as it should have tasted.

Oh well, I probably shouldn’t complain that much, but lay down my impressions of the tastings themselves.

The Georgian wine tasting had about 8 different producers and the majority of them represented indigenous grape variety wines - with a focus on Saperavi for the reds and Tsinandali for the whites. Tsinandali is a cuvée of Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane. I cant say that I am a big fan of Saperavi though as its a bit too peppery for my taste, yet that is just my personal opinion. The Tsindali or even the pure Mtsvane are more interesting and I could have them on any sunny day - floral and aromatic. Rkatsiteli is an interesting grape that grows well in Moldova too, out of which is made the Cricova Gratiesti dessert wine that is getting increasingly more and more attention. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so no pictures from the event, but if I am to describe in a few words it as a whole - it could have been organised better.

The Hungarian wine tasting on the other hand was a much bigger and very well organised event with seminars and talks by experts, including Caroline Gilby MW.

Luckily this time, I was armed with my camera, so I took a few shots as you can see below.

Some of you may recognise some faces (Great to see you there Warren and Kevin) and on overall was a breath of fresh air of an experience. All winemakers with a humble, yet enthusiastic attitude were just eager to talk to you about their wines and passion. There were local grape varieties like Furmint and Kékfrancos as well as classical ones and of course Tokaji dessert wines. From the whole lot, I think their Reds are the strongest point, yet there were some whites that I liked too. A enthusiastic young man - Zoltan (pictured above in the last picture), the son of the Heimann winemakers, student of Oenology in Germany, has not hesitated to take the opportunity to talk me though their traditions of wine-making and history and when the tasting show has ended he gave me a bottle of their Cuvée Cerves 2006. When I tasted this wine at the event, my palate being overwhelmed by the whites couldn’t appreciate its true nobility, yet a few days later, when I opened it at home, it just shocked me with its pure quality of an outstanding wine that could give a good run for the money to a lot of famous and Parker-rated ones. I wont go into describing it with those fancy words as I cant do that, yet it is a wine that you don’t want to just taste - you want to savour and enjoy it. Gentle fruity bitterness followed by a balanced cherry-berry long flavour is as far as I will go in describing it. Attractive, yet simple label and I guess the retail price would be under £10 (if available in retail) makes this wine a true gem which I would happily add to my portfolio is the circumstances will permit.

There also were a few more winemakers that I thought it a big shame their wines are not available in the UK (will hopefully change that soon) and I also liked very much a very refreshingly fruity and delicious dessert wine from Tokaji Kereskedonaz Zrt called Tokaji Premium Cuvée. Probably it may be too sweet for some, nonetheless its a very interesting wine.

All in all - well done to Hungarians for organising such an event and for raising their quality standards as high! Only if other Eastern European countries could follow the same spirit now…