Talking with István is always a fascinating time and if you understand Hungarian do listen to the full (Part I. and II.) Podcast -on your favourite platform- find below an excerpt of the discussion.
- Path to becoming a winemaker
- Parental rigor is stronger than professional
- The life and death, it’s like Romeo and Juliet
- You may produce wines that are economical incomprehensible
- Reduction; yeast or yeast – same, same but different
- Value the person, not the tools
- Party wine for the 20th birthday…
Path to becoming a winemaker
Did István Jr. as the son of the legendary winemaker István Szepsy would ever have another chance not to be a winemaker? He recalls: „if you are born into a family of circus performers, chances are great that you’ll become one too”. He started to work in the vineyards when he was young mainly for pocket money while going to the Sárospatak Reformate Middle School (short Refi) focusing on mathematics and IT. From the 12 PC, 4 were working at a time, yet he avidly recalls some of his favourite PC games which include Need for Speed. After a time in London, he decided to join the family winery in the spring of 2005. By the time he joined the family business the Szepsy sweet wines, particularly the Aszú wines were already at the top of the game, there was a little argument in the vineyard on how to proceed with those. Yet when it came to dry wines, the whole situation was different, since they all had to go through trial and error.
Parental rigor is stronger than professional
Dry wines have no mercy, recalls István the professional issues are shown without question. The dry wine production wave started back in 2006. He recalls as a 20-year-old youngster that the dry wines will be the top category amongst all the wines. Surely, the revolution of the dry wines did cause some damage to the reputation of the aszú wines, but great aszú cannot be produced every year no matter what. István reckons out of 10 vintages maybe 3 are great for the noble sweet wine.
To highlight the unique character of the origin Furmint is the tool to use. István reckons when it comes to highlighting single-vineyard character only Furmint and Hárslevelű should be allowed. I did highlight a similar concept in another blog post István goes a step further and putting a greater emphasis –especially when you try to characterize the single-vineyard- on Furmint yet it’s an incredibly hard to work variety, yet it gained in popularity across Hungary, today counting for 3604 hectare overall (3rd most popular amongst the white varieties).
The structure of the wine region Tokaj is complicated as well as its history, but looking just at the „players” of the region you could divide them up into 6 categories:
- Small scale producer (mainly owning vineyards only)
- A producer who bottle their own wine
- Grand Tokaj
- Investors
- Grape buyers from the Great Plain area, Alföld
- Landmark Tokaj Community Procurement Nonprofit Ltd.
There is an increase in producers as well; in 2000 roughly 60 wineries were registered, according to the local authority in 2019 registered 227 wineries.
The life and death, it’s like Romeo and Juliet
Tokaji Aszú was first mentioned back in 1867, the annual production compared to the other wine styles of the region is only 3%.
For the development of botrytis, you need the necessary humidity (for a few hours at least), in 2020 it did not go under 94% which meant that the water could not be processed and no aszú was produced, humidity is needed for the reproduction of the botrytis cinerea, but dry air is much needed afterward to get to the point of noble rot. At the beginning is oxidation which happens within the skin, there is a strong difference between vintages as well, in 2008 it took 8 weeks in the vineyard, while in 2013 and 2017 it was only 3 weeks, the redox potential is much influenced by this as well.
The four phases of aszú production which are a true Romeo and Juliet story, since everyone dies at the end:
- ripe berries start to shrivel due to the slow presence of botrytis, strong skin, greenish-yellow colour
- the colour change happens on the berry but the berry is still round
- almost aszú phase, its grey botrytis still lives on
- no water and death happens as the spores, mold has nothing to feed on, complete botrytis has formed
You may produce wines that are economical incomprehensible
To work with Furmint, it’s pretty shitty, says István. It’s a very „hectic” variety, one of the reasons why it has not been widely planted grape variety throughout the world. Furmint works well where it struggles. „We are the owners of the variety,” says István.
It produces some of the most exciting dry wines as well and reflects its origin. And for me, a village designation would make sense in the region of Tokaj. Since the villages show distinct differences when it comes to the soil as well as climate.
Mezőzombor: has perlite, high water content glassy volcanic soil.
Tarcal: loess.
Bodrogkeresztúr: rhyolite tuff
Mád: rhyolite with quarz
Tállya: andesite
There are 418 single vineyards, of which 52 are reckoned as I. class and Mád has six.
Reduction; yeast or yeast – same, same but different
It is a difficult topic. István reckons this may happen during the fermentation phase when at a given moment the yeast does not receive enough nitrogen. During the phase where there is a lack of nitrogen, there are more than 10 different sulphur compounds and not just mercaptan and hydrogen sulphite.
Since 2015 they produce a kind of ferment or yeast prep with so-called pre-harvest spores which are pressed out. These cannot finish the fermentation but for the purpose of pre-fermentation in a cool environment up to 6-8% slowing down the fermentation they are perfects indeed, the smaller the barrel the slower the fermentation speed as well. The must goes into the 100% new barrel (Hungarian barrel M toast 300 L), malolactic fermentation (conversation) goes only until fermentation happens as well with the low pH it will not kick-off. Furmint is neutral as a variety, with virtually zero sugar and very low malic acid there is only very little filtration as this takes much away.
Value the person, not the tools
The newly released single vineyard Aszús will only show their true beauty with time. The sensation of sugar will decrease over time and other things will show up. While 1993 was a great vintage but the modern age came with 2000. You need 12-15 years of age with the top aszú wines to discover their inner beauty. The value is held by the person and not the tool, it’s how something can be considered over generations.
Party wine for the 20th birthday…
I recall one of the sweet wines which we tasted back at Borkollégium with Gábor Rohály at my first wine course it was a Szepsy Cuvée 1999, a wonderful sticky which resembled a super concentred late harvest wine, lively, fresh but superbly layered. István recalls the same wine for his 20th birthday yet the 190 g of natural sweetness put a lid on the party, as one couldn’t drink too much of it. It was a very vibrant and incredibly well-to-drink wine, but the almost 200 g of sugar tempers your mood no matter what…
Tasting notes and other thoughts from tastings with István will follow…
