Oremus Furmint - Hungary's not so little secret

For those of you that are not in the industry the idea of going to work and tasting wines for an hour seems like the dream job (and it is) but it also performs a couple of very important tasks.

The tastings gives us a chance to check how the wine is performing and to see if it's improving or maybe hitting the end of its life and they also gives us the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with some of the wines we take for granted. In the tasting we held the other day it was actually the first time I had tried one of our unique Hungarian fine wines.

Ok, granted, Hungary is not the first country that comes to mind when you mention fine wine. The wines they are most renown for are their delightful Tokaji desert wines and it's likely that you have never heard of the Furmint grape.

The wine we were tasting was the 2004 Oremus Furmint Dry Mandolas a variety pioneered by Oremus. Now the first thing that you will notice is a very dark and rich colour that you would normally associate with a desert wine. Don't let this put you off as nothing could be further from the truth.

The nose is full of tropical fruit and rich lychee with a touch of honey hidden at the end. The tropical fruits greet the palate again but this time I found passionfruit, complete with seeds, showing through and the fresh acidity left my mouth clean and refreshed. Being aged in Oak I expected this wine to be a bit heavier but it is definitely a medium weight wine.

I found it very interesting that everyone at the tasting immediately thought of food and in particular Asian food. Don't get me wrong, the wine would be great by itself but we realised how well it would complement the food.

For me I wished for a Thai Papaya Salad with the tang of lime juice and the heat of the chilies and that's exactly what I'll be pairing it with this weekend.

SALES PITCH WARNING: this wine is available in 2003, 2004 and 2005 for only $140. If you are interested in trying it let me know.

Dean