2018 Roka Furmint

Spontaneous fermentation in an open-top oak fermenter, 42 days’ fermentation, racked into stainless steel and left until May on fine lees without sulphur dioxide. Little bit of lees stirring at beginning. Racked in May and sulphur dioxide added for the first time: total 61 mg, free 31 mg (after bottling). PH 3.24, TA 5.45 g/l, RS 0.9 g/l. Went through spontaneous malo. Bottled end of August 2019. 550 bottles. The deepest colour of the Roka Furmints in this vertical. Creamy, fudge, crème-caramel nose. Smoky! This is gorgeous. Voluptuous, rich, broad, expansive. Nuts and honey and baked pears, all these rich, wide, succulent curves and yet the acidity is thrumming with intention and focus. The richest of the line-up. The most sensuous of all the Roka Furmints. The most umami – seashore salt turning to bacon and creamed hazelnuts along the arcing length of the wine. So much beauty filling every corner, but the finish, oh, the finish… the acidity draws it long and insistent and persistent and spine-tingling. No matter what goes before, this wine packs every molecule of itself into the finish. My whole spine is thrumming, filled with the energy of every sip. In 2019 I described this as a violin solo on a mountain top. I stand by that. (TC)

A straightforward vintage with no heat spikes, enough rain. The first year they’d started working with whey and nettle tea. Picked 1 October 2018. Spontaneous fermentation in an open-top oak fermenter, 42 days’ fermentation, racked into stainless steel and left until May on fine lees without sulphur dioxide. Little bit of lees stirring at beginning. Racked in May and sulphur dioxide added for the first time: total 61 mg, free 31 mg (after bottling). PH 3.24, TA 5.45 g/l, RS 0.9 g/l. Went through spontaneous malo. Bottled end of August 2019. 550 bottles. Deep pear and Reine Claude nose, touch of cotton candy – very Furmint. Acacia blossom. I got goosebumps down my spine on the first sip. Pink grapefruit curd, vineyard mint, lime directness. It fills every corner of your mouth. Presses against you. Lime-peel oil and samphire. Such tingling, direct, racy, fiercely shining minerality that is all at once acidity and flavour and structure, but it’s a spine, a shaft of light, a silver arrow – long and piercing through the mouth-filling breadth. Dawn light and evening light all at once. Seems to shimmer in the mouth. Deeply quenching. Has a kind of taffeta and shot-silk texture, grainy pear skin. Deeply contented, generous wine. The fascinating thing is that the warmer this wine gets, the more salt and texture and depth it seems to gather (we tasted it from about 10 °C (50 °F)through to 20 °C (68 °F) in the glass and it was beautiful from the first sip to the last). Achingly long finish. A violin solo on a mountain top. (TC)