Nádas Borműhely, Pinot Brut Nature Sparkling Wine, 2020

Nádas Borműhely, Etyek-Buda Region

Pinot Gris is known as Szürkebarát in Hungarian, but many Hungarian winemakers are still hesitant to call their Pinot Gris wines by the local name due to its bad reputation as a bulk wine during Communist times. Whatever its name, this wine has no need to worry about any Szürkebarát baggage from the past. This is a wonderful sparkler, from a region which keeps getting better and better with its sparkling wines. Sparkling wine has been produced in this region since the first half of the 19th century, pioneered by Törley. At the beginning of the 20th century Hungary was second only to France in sparkling wine production, and Hungarian pezsgő (sparkling wine) was exported all over Europe. In recent years producers in the Etyek region have gone all in on making sparkling wine of the highest quality, and they have achieved getting Etyeki sparkling wine named as Hungary’s first designated PDO for sparkling wines. So, Etyek is at the same time an old sparkling wine region, and an up-and-coming region! The area is one of Hungary’s coldest climate wine regions, and limestone soil is more predominant here than anywhere else in the country (similar to Champagne). This results in wines that are perfectly suited for sparkling wine, with fresh crisp acidity, chalky minerality, and restrained fruit. ​​Pinot Gris is a color mutation of the Pinot Noir grape—which explains why its berries can look more like red grapes than white ones, ranging in color from pink to red—and this wine marries the two. It is a blend of 98 percent Pinot Gris and two percent Pinot Noir, from 40 year-old vineyards. It was fermented half in steel tanks and half in oak barrels, before being bottled with zero dosage (brut nature), and then two years of bottle aging before release. It is an extremely elegant wine, with lively bubbles, fresh fruitiness, and a lingering toasty finish. Nádas only produces vintage sparkling wines, since his aim is to produce different wines every year, rather than following a template. Enjoy this wine with salty snacks, oysters, sushi, or charcuterie. Only 448 bottles made.

Read About The Etyek-Buda Region

Nádas Borműhely 

Winemaker Szilárd Nádas and his wife, Veronika Rajnai, both horticultural engineers, are the team behind Nádas Borműhely (“Wine Workshop”). They both worked in Bordeaux, Yarra Valley, and Okanagan Valley, before starting their own winery. In 2011 they bought a crumbling 19th-century press house on Etyek’s Öreghegy (“Old Hill”), and they now have six hectares of vineyards—mainly the white varieties typical to Etyek, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris), Királyleányka, and Zöldveltelíni (Grüner Veltliner), as well as some PInot Noir. With their newest plantation (finished in 2019), they also have some rarities, such as Viktória Gyöngye (Pearl of Victoria), Pinot Meunier, and Chenin Blanc. They produce up to 14,000 bottles annually, and receive many visitors. They like to experiment with local varieties, while also showing their international grape varieties in a different light, unique to the Etyek region.