Patrícius Furmint 2006
Posted on 1 June 2009
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You’ll inevitably read more about wines from Tokaj on this blog in the coming weeks, as I digest the grand Tokaj tasting described here. This is my second-last bottle of the 2006 dry Furmint from Patrícius. I was prompted to open it by the lack of the new vintage at the Warsaw tasting (Patrícius showed a dry Muscat instead), and by feedback from a friend who recently tasted this 2006 and found it excellent.
He was right. I’ve had some family for lunch yesterday and as we sat in the garden with some green asparagus vinaigrette, the first glass of this wine was explosively delicious. Especially after my early tasting of it in December 2007, when it was showing malic and sharp and a little charmless. This has now put on some plump weight, and resembles a Viognier perhaps – but with a powerful volcanic extract that Viognier never shows. Consistent with the 2006 in Tokaj in being rich and big (alcohol the only problem) but also showing quite a bit of terroir dimension. Really good, and showing this bottling can even fly higher in more structured vintages like 2007. It’s also really inexpensive, selling for around 7€.