Sebestyén, 2017 Porkoláb-Völgyi Cabernet Franc, Szekszárd, Pannon, Hungary
Established in 1998, Sebestyén Winery is run by brother and sister team, Csaba and Csilla Sebestyén. They farm 12.5 hectares of vineyards in the region of Szekszárd in southern Hungary. They have 1.5 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines planted across three different vineyard sites. And while Kékfrankos remains the most important variety of the estate, in a short period of time they have promising results from their Cabernet Franc plantings, particularly as a single varietal expression from their vineyards.
When it comes to Hungarian wine, Cabernet Franc may not be the first grape that comes to mind, but the grape is slowing gaining an interesting identity across multiple regions in Hungary. Actually, many might be surprised to learn that even though 70% of Hungary's wine production is white, the #1 planted grape in the country the black skinned grape Kékfrankos, which is known as Blaufrankish in Austria and Lemberger in Germany. There are currently around 8000ha of Kékfrankos planted, and as a point of comparison, there are about 1450ha of Cabernet Franc planted, and Cabernet Franc is the 5th most planted red grape variety in the country, ahead of many local and international varieties.
And when it comes to the wine regions of Hungary themselves, as wine professionals and wine students, the vast majority of our education focuses on the region of Tokaj. But there is a lot more to Hungarian wine than just Tokaj. The country has 6 principle wine regions, which can then be divided into 22 wine districts. Today's wine is coming from the Szekszárd wine district which is one of four districts, along with Pecs, Tolna and Villány, that make up the Pannon region, which is in southern Hungary and is one of the most important region's in Hungary for red wine production.
The Szekszárd region has a very long history of viticulture that dates back to Roman times. Historically, the most important variety here was Kadarka, which plays a supporting role in the wine style that the region is best know for which is Bikavér, a Kékfrankos-based red blend. Bikaver translates to 'bull's blood' and is likely Hungary's most famous wine after Tokaji. And Szekszárd, along with Eger, are the only two region's who are permitted to use the term Bikaver on the label. And Cabernet Franc plays an important role even here, where it is one of the 5 principle grape varieties in Szekszárdi Bikaver.
Located at a latitude similar to that of Northern Beaujolais, the Szekszárd wine district is a long, relatively narrow wine growing region that encompasses a chain of 12 villages in Southern Hungary. It starts just north of the village of Szekszárd, which is around 280km southwest of Tokaj, and stretches about 25km south to the village of Batá. And for those that might be familiar with the region of Villány, Szekszárd is about 50km northeast of Villány. We are bordered to the east by the Danube River and the Danube flood plain, and we are bordered to the west by the Tolna-Baranya Hills, which are part of the Transdanubian hills.
Generally speaking, the region's climate would be characterized as continental with Mediterranean influences. But we do have to remember we are at a more northerly latitude, so despite the warmer temperatures during the summer months and the relatively low rainfall in the autumn, things start to cool down quite a bit into mid-October, which can make it challenging in some vintages to ripen some longer season varieties like Kadarka and Cabernet Sauvignon, but varieties like Kékfrankos, Cabernet Franc and Merlot will ripen consistently every vintage.
Now, having said that, the nature of the topography and how the vineyards are laid out makes the climate of the Szekszárd region a little more complex to define. The majority of the vineyards are found on the slopes of a complex series of 98 interconnected, criss-crossing valleys and hills that wind their way down this stretch of about 25km. Because of the layout of these hills, the vineyards can have any number of exposures, north, south, east and west-facing exposures, and everything in between. Though the best, and most favourable sites will generally have south, southeast, or southwest exposures in order to maximize the sunshine and aid ripening.
The vineyards that are furthest east will generally have the strongest influence of the warm, westerly winds that come in off of the Great Hungarian Plain to the east. And as you move west, the influence from the cooler breezes coming in from the Transdanubian mountains to the northwest is a bit more evident. And whether your vineyard is more concave shaped or convex shaped, this will impact how much or little of these influences your site will receive, as well as the intensity of the sun exposure.
The elevation of the vineyards ranges from around 150m to 250m, and this contributes to the wider diurnal range in temperatures during the summer months so the warmer daytime temperatures are offset by cooler nighttime temperatures, which will help to preserve acidities. In terms of soils, the dominant soil throughout the region is loess, which is a wind-derived soil. But depending on where you are in the region, the depth of the loess varies and it may also have a certain percentage of limestone, sand, and/or red clay.
Because of this more northerly latitude, coupled with variability in altitude, exposures, and soil composition, there is a lot of variability in the microclimates from vineyard to vineyard. And this makes site selection quite critical.
Looking at today's wine, this is coming from a single-vineyard site, Porkoláb-Völgy, the word "völgy" meaning valley in Hungarian. And I use the term "vineyard" loosely, because it is not one large, contiguous site like we traditionally think of a vineyard, but more how the cadastre system defines this area of Porkolab-Volgy, which contains dozens of parcels within the cadastre borders. So the Porkolab-Völgy is located in the village of Szekszárd, approximately 16km west of the Danube River, and it is about 1500m from north to south and 600m from east to west, and even just within the one area we have a number of different exposures and elevations.
The Sebestyén winery has 2.65ha here, of which 0.8 ha are planted with Cabernet Franc. Their Cabernet Franc parcels are on a southwest facing slope at around 150m above sea level. The soil here is loess with limestone and iron-rich red clay. The vines were planted in 2012. And in my conservation with Csilla Sebestyén, this spot is proving to be a nice Goldilocks spot for Cabernet Franc, not too far north or west where it might be too cool, not so far east that it would be considered a 'hot' site, and the southwest exposure give ample sunshine to help minimize the pyrzaines.
For the 2017, this is coming from a selection of 0.6ha from the top of the slope, and the fruit was all hand-harvested and destemmed. A portion of the fruit is crushed. The fermentation is in open top tanks with selected yeast. The total time on skins is about 2 weeks, and they will do punch downs daily during the fermentation as well as post-fermentation maceration. The wine ages for about 18 months in Hungarian oak barrels, about 40% of which is new.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Sebestyén Pincészet
Region: Pannon
Wine District: Szekszárd
Village: Szekszárd
Vineyard: Porkoláb-Völgy
Soil: Loess/löss, with limestone and red clay
Alcohol: 14.0%
