KARDOS | Szamorodni | Édes | 2014
furmint | hárslevelű

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Today we are going to review a very special wine, as it’s not only a delicious dessert wine, but a sweet wine from the world’s famous Tokaj region of Hungary – Szamorodni Édes 2014 by Kardos. This wine is a traditional blend of furmint and hárslevelű grape varieties, both fermented and aged in oak barrels. The grapes are harvested around the historic town of Mád in the Tokaj region, and were partially affected by noble rot (also known as botrytis cinerea) – the fungus that shrivels and dehydrate the wine grapes, thus concentrating acids and sugars, which in turn intensifies the sweetness level of the wine and adds flavor complexity, due to higher levels of phenylacetaldehyde (a special aroma compound found mostly in botrytis affected berries), creating some of the most delicious sweet wines of the world. The key grape variety in Tokaj is furmint, whose grapes succumb very well to noble rot, thus making it an ideal material for producing world’s renowned sweet wines, famous for their high natural acidity and huge ageing potential. That said and without further ado, let’s move on straight to our tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
color: bright amber color
clarity: clear gold hues

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & sweet
fruit profile: sweet fruits | citrus fruits | stone fruits
__sweet fruits: white apple | asian pear | quince | candied pear | canned quince
__citrus fruits: sweet lemon | canned pineapple
__stone fruits: apricot | canned apricot
fruit character: overripe & jammy

//Flavor
non fruit: herbal | sweet | other
__herbal: straw grass | hay
__sweet: honey | quince jam | pear jam | apricot jam | raisins | dried figs | dates
__other: petroleum | rubber | hazelnut | penicillin
primary layer: fruit & jam

//Palate
sweetness: sweet
acidity: high
alcohol: medium-
tannin: none
__grip: fine
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
body: oily | medium+

//Taste
fruit profile: sweet fruits
fruit character: overripe & jammy
non fruit: sweet & jam
finish: medium-
aftertaste: crisp & sweet

//Scoring
KARDOS | Szamorodni | Édes | 2014
variety: furmint | hárslevelű
country: Hungary
region: Tokaj | Mád
rating: 91.3

//Conclusion
maturity: past its prime | do not age
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Hungary and with a total of 91.3 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 really delicious dessert wine – one that has just passed the peak of its prime form, thus we would strongly recommend to drink it now and not age it any further. This wine feels more of a summer nectar than an actual wine – crisp, oily and slightly opulent, with a nuanced fruity-jammy profile and a very appealing, creamy aftertaste. The wine is medium+ in body, with mouth-watering acidity and nicely integrated alcohol, which makes it taste round, lean and supple. On the nose it delivers overripe and jammy sweet fruits in the foreground, followed by those delicate, botrytis-derived notes of raisins, honey, petroleum-rubber and medicine. All in all this is a very crisp and refreshing sweet wine that might lack a bit of structure and finesse on the palate – a wine that will do amazingly well if paired with light desserts, like for example some panna cotta or crème brûlée. Cheers!

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