2019 Kékfrankos Diófás

Where the loess and sandy soils of the Herreberg near the creek often add some botrytis to the equation, the sandy and lower lying frost prone Diófás vineyard is the acidity payoff without compromising on ripeness. Case in point, they also make a Pét-nat from this same fruit in certain vintages. Having now worked together for a few vintages and been lucky enough to dig into older wines when we visit, we are finally getting our heads around their Kéfkrankos. We also initially sought them out for Kadarka and Siller (Bábel) and perhaps overlooked the other reds as well. To compound things further, the reality of the Hungarian wine market still makes selling Kékfrankos difficult since it was so ubiquitous and often made poorly during the kolkhoz (Soviet COOP) era. Sziegl continues to champion the grape despite this obvious hurdle to our benefit. This 2019 is a wonderful compliment to other Kékfrankos we have from the Mátra, Eger, Sopron, Južnoslovenská, Štajerska, Tolna, and Szekszárd. Open vat fermented and barrel aged, this is classic Kékfrankos through the Sziegl lens: super refreshing, but not losing sight of the grip and structure that the grape excels at.