A.GERE | Portugieser | 2018
portugieser

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The wine we are are going to review today is special and unique in its own way, as this is a single-varietal portugieser wine from the famous Villány region in the south of Hungary – Portugieser 2018 by Gere Attila Winery. Portugieser is a high-yielding, early-ripening grape variety planted widely in Austria and Germany, a crossing between grüner silvaner and blauer zimmettraube. In Hungary it was commonly known as kékoporto, while in Croatia it is called portugizac crni, or portugalkja. Portugieser is a very old variety that originates in the Lower Styria (today’s slovenian Styria) and not in Portugal, as its name might suggest. Known previously as kékoportó (which means ‘blue from Porto‘) or oportó (a name that was implying that it originates from the Porto region in Portugal), the variety was forced to change its name in Hungary when Portugal objected to the use of kékoportó name, as it conflicted with the name of their most famous wine growing area – Porto. By European Union law, the name of the place takes precedence over the name of the variety, therefore kékoportó became portugieser. Although Villány is famous mostly for its robust villányi franc (which is their version of cabernet franc), the new generation of winemakers have chosen the portugieser as a youthful, lighter, more modern sibling for the region’s big gun. But enough theory, that said and without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
colour: medium-pale garnet
clarity: hazy garnet shades

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & meaty
fruit profile: red fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | red currant | wolfberry | rose hips
fruit character: underripe

//Flavor
non fruit: vegetal | spice | oak | savory | earthy
__vegetal: currant leaf | wormwood
__spice: red pepper | thyme | rosemary
__oak: cherry tree wood | lightly roasted oakwood
__savory: iron | veal | cherry tomato | hints of leather
__earthy: loam | clay | compost | forest floor
__wood: used / medium roast

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: med(+)
alcohol: med
tannin: med(-)
__grip: fine
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
body: supple & lean | medium-

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits
fruit character: underripe
non fruit: spicy-vegetal
finish: medium+
aftertaste: crisp

//Scoring
A.GERE | Portugieser | 2018
variety: portugieser
country: Hungary
region: Villány
rating: 92.0

//Conclusion
maturity: close to its prime | age for 1 or 2 more years
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Hungary and, with a total of 92.0 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.

Verdict: this is a very fine and delicate wine indeed: fruity-savory, lean and rustic – a wine that might spend just a bit more time in the bottle (1 or 2 years should suffice) as it is very close to its apogée. It tastes meaty, savory and slightly vegetal, with fine-grained tannins, crispy-tart acidity and just a touch of alcoholic warmth on the mouthfeel. All in all, the wine feels supple, rustic and slightly opulent, light in body (think of pinot noir or rara neagra), with a pleasantly crisp finale. On the nose the wine delivers savory-earthy notes in the foreground, supported by a vegetal-woody background. It has been aged for 4 months in big (500HL) oak barrels and is made of grapes that were sourced from Nagyharsány and Villány vineyards, planted on limestone-rich soils, therefore this is a wine that is truly capable to deliver the much-desired terroir notes of its origin. Egészségére!

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