A.GERE | Kopar | Villányi Cuvée | 2016
cabernet franc | merlot | cabernet sauvignon

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Tonight we are going to review a real legend, a masterpiece of a wine from Villány – Hungary’s most famous wine region for red wine blends – Kopar Villányi Cuvée 2016 by Gere Attila Winery. This is the winemaker’s emblematic flagship wine – made only in the best years with selected grapes from the best vineyards (Kopár, Csillagvölgy, Konkoly and Ördögárok) – a blend of cabernet franc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, a part of the blend aged for 16 months in new hungarian oak barriques, while the other part of the blend has been aged for 18 months in used oak barrels. Needless to mention that it has been produced in limited edition, thus the wine is a rarity even in Hungary. That said, let’s skip all that theory and move on, straight to the fun part – the wine tasting!

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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep and noble ruby color, with ripe pomegranate shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe black fruit flavours: black cherry, black plum, blackcurrant, blackberry, black raspberry, black mulberry, dried black plum and dried black cherry. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of roasted oakwood, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, mocha, vanilla, sweet tobacco and some insistent hints of cinnamon.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels extracted, tannic and oaky, with a nuanced new-world style, bitter-seedy accent accent. This is a quite firm, complex and expressive wine blend, as it tastes ripe, rich and full-bodied. This wine is a bit too young at this stage – bitter-crisp and well structured, with overwhelming acidity on the palate, without any nuanced edges or excessive flamboyance on the palate. Overall it has a good balance with plenty of ripe and dried fruits and insistent oak-infused flavours.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a velvety, ripe and seedy aftertaste.
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This is definitely an excellent wine of Hungary and, with a total of 94.4 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Conclusion: this is a wine that is yet too young to be enjoyed, as its acidity and tannins needs to settle down – a wine that has yet to reach the summit of its form (probably in the next 3 to 4 years). Despite its youthfulness, we would recommend to drink it today rather than tomorrow, as it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. We’ve been really impressed by this wine – very well structured, with subtle hints of elegance, a firm tannic grip on the palate and a textured character on the mouthfeel, which make this blend feel like a mixture of ripe fruit and noble wood. Our recommendation is to pair this wine with meaty dishes that are rich in natural umami flavours and slightly spicy accents, like for example a pepper-crusted filet mignon with blue cheese & chive butter or an extra-rare filet mignon with garlic butter. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

A.GERE
Kopar | Villányi Cuvée | 2016

grape: | cabernet franc | merlot | cabernet sauvignon |

region: Hungary | Villány

overall rating: | 94.4 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: excellent | (a must try)

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© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.