BOLYKI | Egri Bikavér | 2016
blaufränkisch | cabernet franc | merlot | zweigelt | blauburger | portugieser

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Today we are going to review a very interesting wine – Egri Bikavér 2016 by Bolyki. This wine is a blend of no fewer than 6 grape varieties: blaufränkisch (an old austrian variety, known also as kékfrankos in Hungary and burgund mare in Romania), cabernet franc, merlot, zweigelt (Austria’s most planted red grape), blauburger (austrian crossing of portugieser and blaufränkisch) and portugieser (a high-yielding, early-ripening grape variety planted widely in Austria and Germany, commonly known as kékoporto in Hungary). The wine comes from the Eger region in the north of Hungary, and its name translates as ‘Bull’s Blood of Eger‘, which is the best-known hungarian red wine abroad. Based on kékfrankos (blaufränkisch), Bull’s Blood is a blend of three or more grape varieties, aged in oak barrels for at least 12 months. This particular wine is made out of grapes that were sourced from vines planted on brown forest soils and has been aged for 18 months in hungarian oak barrels, from which 30% are new and the other 70% used (at second and third use). 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-deep ruby color
clarity: hazy garnet hues at the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & woody
fruit profile: black fruits
__black fruits: black cherry | black plum | blackcurrant | blackberry | aronia berry
fruit character: overripe & dried

//Flavor
non fruit: oak | sweet | savory | earthy
__oak: roasted oakwood | tree bark | black tea | charcoal | charred wood
__sweet: dried black plum | dried black cherry
__savory: iron | blood | hints of leather
__earthy: soil dust | dried leafs
primary layer: oak

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: medium+
alcohol: medium+
tannin: medium+
__grip: firm
balance: fair
__dominant: alcohol
body: rough | medium+

//Taste
fruit profile: black fruits
fruit character: overripe
non fruit: oak
finish: medium+
aftertaste: bitter-seedy

//Scoring
BOLYKI | Egri Bikavér | 2016
variety: blaufränkisch | cabernet franc | merlot | zweigelt | blauburger | portugieser
country: Hungary
region: Eger
rating: 91.1

//Conclusion
maturity: developing | age for 2-3 years
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Hungary and, with a total of 91.1 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 nice wine blend – fruity-oaky, bitter-seedy and quite angular, with well integrated acidity, overwhelming alcohol and a quite rough and green tannic grip on the plate, which leads to a very nuanced, bitter-seedy finale. This wine definitely needs more time in the bottle (at least 2 to 3 years), as in its current state it tastes slightly green, rough and austere. What this wine lacks today is definitely some harmony and finesse on the palate, as the alcohol is clearly dominating, which in turn makes the wine taste unbalanced. On the nose the wine delivers ripe and overripe black fruits, mixed with some very pronounced oaky-woody flavours in the foreground, supported by subtle earthy hints in the background. All in all this is a quite appealing wine, yet we cannot shake off the feeling that it is too complicated, as all those layers of charred wood, charcoal and roasted oakwood are clearly dominating over the fruit, making it difficult to distinguish between grape’s varietal aromatics and those imbued by the place of their origin.

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