Kiralyudvar Pezsgo Henye Sparkling 2015
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Robert
Parker
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Winemaker Notes
Inspired by Huët’s revered Pétillant, Tony Hwang introduced this fascinating sparkling wine in 2007. Peszsgo is local dialect for "sparkling" and Henye is the name of an historic, lauded vineyard in the area.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Tokaji Pezsgo Henye Brut is a rich, intense, full-bodied blend of 70% Furmint and 30% Hárslevelu, and this recent release combines super ripe, concentrated fruit with mineral depth and structure as well as the refreshing elegance and finesse of a great sparkling wine. It is a mouth-filling and generous wine with power and intensity as well as perfectly balanced, refreshing and refined creamy texture. It's impressively long and salty with refreshing but concentrated fruit. 13% alcohol. Tasted in February 2019. This sparkling wine is completely sourced in the Henye single vineyard and was fermented in 500-liter Hungarian oak. After the second fermentation (with Champagne yeasts), the fizz was kept on the lees for a total of 22 months and disgorged in July 2018 with a dosage of one centiliter of the 2002 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos. The total production is just 200 cases.
Other Vintages
2009-
Wine
Enthusiast
Just a few months after his visit, Tony purchased this estate, which for centuries had supplied Imperial wine to the Hapsburgs. The famed Tokaj winemaker Ivan Szepsy became Tony's partner, helping him rehabilitate the vineyards, while the chateau itself was rebuilt.
With time, Szepsy departed, and Tony assumed the reins full-time. Along the way, he was counseled by Noël Pinguet of the Loire Valley's greatest Vouvray producer, Domaine Huët, of which Tony is also a partner. Noël's collaboration would prove invaluable, particularly his advice to convert the estate to biodynamic viticulture.
Today, Tony is rekindling the legacy of this providential wine region. But he's not stopping there, having recognized, that Tokaj's historic grape varieties, with their viscous intensity and bright acidity, could produce world-class dry, demi-sec, and sparkling wines.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Best known for lusciously sweet dessert wines but also home to distinctive dry whites and reds, Hungary is an exciting country at the crossroads of tradition and innovation. Mostly flat with a continental climate, Hungary is almost perfectly bisected by the Danube River (known here as the Duna), and contains central Europe’s largest lake, Balaton. Soil types vary throughout the country but some of the best vines, particularly in Tokaj, are planted on mineral-rich, volcanic soil.
Tokaj, Hungary’s most famous wine region, is home to the venerated botrytized sweet wine, Tokaji, produced from a blend of Furmint and Hárslevelű. Dry and semi-dry wines are also made in Tokaj, using the same varieties. Other native white varieties include the relatively aromatic and floral, Irsai Olivér, Cserszegi Fűszeres and Királyleányka, as well as the distinctively smoky and savory, Juhfark. Common red varieties include velvety, Pinot Noir-like Kadarka and juicy, easy-drinking Kékfrankos (known elsewhere as Blaufränkisch).