Wine and Food

St. Andrea, Örökke, Egri Feher, 2008, White-wine from Hungary

7 points

St. Andrea as I already wrote once is one of the most interesting and definite best wineries in Hungary.  It is located at the edge of Egerszalók which is a village in the heart of the Hungarian wine area Eger. The person behind of all is even a “doctor”. Dr. Lörincz György. Usually I do not believe too much in Hungarian white wines although there are of course some exceptions. Not really surprising that one of this exception is a wine of the vinery St. Andrea. The (success) story of St. Andrea is quite impressive: nowadays they husband nine vineyards and with 17 different sorts of vines.

One of my really top wines remain St. Andrea’s Merengö; see my review here: https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/03/04/merengo-st-andrea-2006-2/. But there are among others wonderful Pinot Noirs and interesting wise some very special white ones. Forget about the name as not too many human beings will be able to speak out “Örökke” appropriately. It isn’t a Icelandic volcano. No, it is the name of a very good, special wine and where ever you would see the brand of this wine, you certainly can buy it without getting too disappointed.

Made out of five very different and at least some rather seldom vines: Hársevelü, Chardonnay, Olaszrizling, Sauvignon Blanc and Szürekebarát, this is unique wine. Seven years old, I would say ideally to drink now.

Hársevelü, Olasrizling and Szürekebarát are sorts of vine which are very typical Hungarians vines. “Lindenblättriger”, German name of Hársevelü, is also used for Tokay (https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/04/13/tokaji-harslevelu-kassai-2012-kikelet-pince/). Of course Olasrizling is a sort which we can find also in Austria and Slovakia.

The variety of aroma is rich: pineapple, gooseberry and a little bit of kiwi is countered by a wonderful fresh taste of lemon. The creamy flair of a chardonnay is countered by some rare salty and tart herbal notes. This is a great, voluminous wine with a lot of typically Hungarian notes of taste. This said, the quality of this wine is on the same level of many elder Chablis or European Chardonnays. I believe not too many people had a chance to taste this wine since it is regrettably very limited. This wine has a magnificent body with a very pleasant variety of wine flavors.

The colour is golden like the very arty label. Drinking this wine I spontaneously would recommend no food to it at all since the richness of aroma of the wine is enough by itself. In the case of food, it fits to any kind of rather heavier Hungarian style of food as goose lever, paprika and simple but good farmer’s dishes. Any kind of cheese would be suitable too.

Have a look at St. Andrea’s webpage: http://standrea.com/.