Wine Review: Szent Tamas Mád Furmint Tokaji, Hungary

This dry white wine has tannins that ride the swift current roiling the surface with tension and grit.

Furmint for most of its history was one of the grapes blended to make Tokaj, the highly regarded sweet wine from Hungary.  It is now making waves as a dry wine as well, largely through the efforts of Istvan Szepsy, Sr. the father of Mád’s current winemaker Istvan Szepsy, Jr. As a dry wine it’s similar to Chablis although the sandy texture from firm tannins (for a white wine) give it a unique mouthfeel.

Aromas are a fragrant field of focused, vivid wet stone and lime underscored by honey and ginger, and a faint leesy aroma in the background. In the mouth it hints at juicy, round peach but quickly accelerates with angular, forward momentum and expansive, basso breadth showing mineral and bitter lemon as it peaks with very high acidity. Light weight but spacious and textured it dances a front to back to front rhythm before embarking on a medium length quite bitter finish.

Bright, animated and fiery, it matches the thrust and delivery of this excellent new voice Jade Bird on Uh Huh

Technical Notes: Grapes were grown in volcanic soils. The wine was aged in Hungarian oak for 8—10 months. Mád is the name of the village that anchors this region.

Score: 90

Price: $20

Alc: 13%