Fresh as Furmint

If you’re just back from holiday, then you’ll already be painfully aware that the Pound doesn’t buy as much as did a couple of years ago. Brexit is mostly to blame, of course, but I shall park the politics there, for the time being. Whatever you think of our decision to take back control/drive off a cliff (delete as appropriate), then it is at least driving a few wine trends, increasingly in evidence at the major retailers’ wine tastings.

The first noticeable shift is upwards – in price. Hardly surprising, although it has taken a while to feed through as supply deals are struck quite a long time in advance. The second one is more interesting – it’s outwards. There are more wines coming onto the market from Eastern Europe. Britain’s biggest wine specialist, Majestic, is today reporting a 400% uplift (albeit from a pretty low base) in sales of wines from Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Hungary. As you’ll know if you’ve been to any of those countries recently, the increasingly-humble Pound goes quite a lot further there.

As wine buyers head further afield in pursuit of the price points that are so important to British consumers (the average price of a bottle of wine in the UK is now £5.55, nearly half of which is tax), we get to sample some new grape varieties in the ‘mass market’. One such variety that I am really excited about is Furmint. This fresh, flavoursome grape is one of the building blocks of Hungary’s noble sweet wine, Tokaji, but it’s as a dry white wine that it is slowly finding fashion.

Rather randomly, I was first introduced to Furmint by a New York wine blogger, on a press trip to the Napa Valley (check out http://www.rachelsigner.com ) and I was hugely impressed. The nose is fresh and racy, with a mix of citrus (more lime than lemon, I reckon), fabulous floral notes and some crisp green apple. On the palate it delivers all that freshness you’ve been teed up for, with high acidity and a really clean, smooth mouthfeel that reminds me of a nice Gruner Veltliner, or even – dare I say it – a young Chablis. Of these, the latter costs a lot more, obviously, and Austria’s GV is heading in the same direction, now it’s firmly in vogue. From the examples I have sampled, I think Furmint has definitely earned its place as the grape variety talked about as ‘the next big thing’.

Tempted? Well, my research found it slightly harder to get hold of than I had initially assumed. A great place to start is Lidl, which has huge buying power and tends to know how to bag a quality bargain, especially for it’s ‘cellar collection’, which varies across the year and, in my ever-so-humble opinion, has much more wow factor than its core wine range. The Dereszla Dry Furmint is absolutely amazing value for money at £5.99. Fresh as a daisy and clean as a whistle, it would be a great alternative to a Sauvignon Blanc, or even a Viognier, for a midweek supper, with robust acidity that would cut through beautifully with fish, or a veggie Cauli’ Cheese. There’s not a huge amount of decent choice at £6 in the UK wine market, so if this one wasn’t a ‘best buy’, it would be a contender for ‘must try’.

That honour goes to Royal Tokaji’s Dry Furmint, at the aforementioned Majestic, which is less of a steal, at £8.99 (if you buy six of anything, £9.99 if you just want the one), but is a really lovely, sophisticated, and quite different wine. They have added in Hárslevelū, which is Furmint’s partner in the Tokaji sweet wines, and brings body and a pinch of spice to the party. This wine has some of the floral notes, plenty of that citrus and apple (more of the baked kind here), but also a Burgundian sense of texture, a delicious creaminess, a gentle cinnamon spiciness, and a long finish to boot. It’s worth every Brexit-bashed penny in my book (and that’s the only return to politics).

If you are yet to sample Furmint, or Hárslevelū for that matter (although I prefer it blended in), then I would highly recommend you skip your regular Sauvignon Blanc or Viognier choice and give it a go.

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