In fact this is a fairly light take on Kékfrankos. It’s surprisingly light in colour, and light-medium-bodied with a fair bit of acidity; a profile that was rarely encountered in Hungary before (although it’s becoming more widespread now). Those unfamiliar to Kékfrankos will surely say it tastes like Pinot Noir, and I’d recommend to drink it at 15C. Yet’s it’s a fairly multi-layered wine with reasonable complexity of herby, meaty, earthy notes on the nose and some succulent sweet strawberry fruit on the palate. No oak in sight, very digestible and more elegant than almost any other Hungarian interpretation of the grape. (I’m told Luka wines were formerly much on the oaky and extracted side, but this 2008 is very balanced).

Until recently, Sopron in Western Hungary has been quite a puzzling wine region to me. The potential for serious red wine is obvious, but for too long the region has relied on a single vintner: Franz Weninger Jr. (although it took me some time to accept the amount of oak in his wines). The rest – Jandl, Taschner, Pfneiszl – have been decent but little more. It sorrowed me even more knowing that a few kilometers across the Austrian border, in a patch of land that is historically Hungarian and has almost exactly the same terroir, some terrific wines are being made, red and white, courtesy of such producers as Josef Umathum and Heinz Velich.

Sopron seems to be on the upswing, however, and apart from the increasingly impressive wines of Weninger, it has two great new players: the idiosyncratic Ráspi and the dynamic Luka. The wines of Luka are ambitiously priced – this Kékfrankos at 13€ from the Bortársaság wine shop chain is their cheapest wine – but judging from this bottle, well worth it. Now I’m really curious to taste the other bottlings. 
Source of wine: own purchase.