Egri Bikavér (bull's blood wine)

My mother went to Hungary, and guess what she brought me as a present ... some Hungarian wine: two bottles of 2006 Egri Bikavér from Ostorosbor producer. I just received them thus did not open them yet, but you can expect a small note on the taste as soon as I tried it.

This wine region has its own AOC (or DHC, Districtus Hungaricus Controllatus, as they call it locally) that is quite liberal though (at least 3 out of 10 grape varieties are allowed to be used).
This reminds me of Chateuneuf-du-pape that also allows (too?) many varieties to be blended to make the taste more or less predictable.

This particular bottle doesn't seem to be a cuvee of any sort (it was bought in the local supermarket of the place she visited), thus I don't know what to expect. It seems to be a rather unusual(for my limited view on wines that is) blend of Zweigelt, Cabernet and Kékfrankos (aka Blaufränkisch). This means it will actuallybe more like an Austrian wine with some French Cabernet thrown in for making is special.

It doesn't seem to have the more traditional Kadarka grape in it, but the Kékfrankos makes it a typical more modern Egri Bikavér that I will (hopefully :-)) enjoy when the time is right.

Thi

Kekfrankos aka Blaufrankisch

EC is getting smart about rose wine

As announce in this previous article on the blog there were plans of the Eurpean Commission to allow blending of white and red wines to create roses.

Luckily they decided yesterday that it was a bad idea anyway and the proposal was cancelled.

Thanks to all who signed the petition.