Fekete Bela Somlói Hárslevelű 2015
A personal story
Why This Wine?
There are very few wines I’ve had that I will never forget. I taste a lot of them, and while I very often enjoy great and memorable wines it is a simple numbers game. Eventually I will forget the particular vineyard of that spectacular 1985 Grand Cru, or the vintage of that one Eyrie Pinot Noir (not quite yet: it was 2001). Even great memories fade over time, even though it’s essentially my job to remember this sort of thing. There is only a very small set of wines that will never go away. Aromas I will never forget and stories I will always be able to tell. I will probably always remember Arpepe’s 2002 vintage Sassella Riserva because I drank it while camping in the Sierras three hours after getting engaged. I will never forget the 1959 Jean Bourdy Vin Jaune because that was my first Vin Jaune and there’s just nothing else like it. And I will never forget the first time I tried the 2013 Fekete Bela Harslevelu. That was the moment I realized that rediscovering eastern European wine wasn’t just interesting, it was important.
About the Winery
Fekete Bela retired and sold his property on Somló’s steep, volcanic slopes in 2014, by then in his mid-nineties and known on the hill as Bélabácsi, or ‘Uncle Bela’. He first came to Somló in the early 1980s, already in his 60s and looking for a quiet ‘retirement’ in an obscure wine region so remote that there were no paved roads in the area at the time. He had to learn farming and winemaking essentially from scratch, relying on the advice of his neighbors, but even from the beginning he eschewed chemical fertilizers and allowed beneficial ‘weeds’ to grow among the vines decades before Polyculture was an accepted practice in vineyards. His philosophy has always been simple. Let the vines find their own balance, and harvest late (often waiting until the wines show botrytis) to let the basalt soil reach its greatest potential in the wine. Gabor Riesz took over the estate in 2014, and works to maintain the legacy of Somlo’s most important domaine.
A Special Place
Somló was first planted to vines by the Romans, and it began showing up in official documents in the 11th century. Laws regarding the purity and provenance of the region were written in the 1750s. If you were found making counterfeit Somló from vines somewhere else you were banned from making wine forever, and often lost your property too. The Hungarian monarchy owned vineyards on the hill, and it was a favorite wedding night wine for the Hapsburgs for centuries. Despite the enduring fame, Somló is a small and remote appellation. All wine regions suffered under Soviet rule, but Somló escaped the intentional destruction of wine traditions that occurred in Kakheti, Moldova, and Tokaji, since it was simply too small and remote to attract the attention of the authorities. Thus, when Fekete Belá began farming his small vineyard, he was able to join an unbroken winemaking tradition, and preserve it for future generations.
Wine Details
Appellation
Somló is a striking feature rising up out of the Magyar plain. The area for miles in every direction is flat, ancient sea bed. Even Lake Balaton to the south, Europe’s largest lake by surface area, is so shallow you can nearly wade across it in places. So you can see Somló for some distance, a small Volcanic pimple rising sharply, and covered on all four slopes with vineyards. Almost all farming is done by hand since the slopes are too steep to allow mechanization. There are three main grape varieties that each show a different face of the volcanic soil. Furmint maximizes the stone-ground minerality. Juhfark takes on a smoky lilt, and Harslevelu has aromatic heft.
The Wine
The first time I had this wine, I didn’t know quite what to think. Pungent, ripe apricot and orange fruit, lush texture with clean cut acidity. Olives? Hay? Salt-cured pork? When Sardine Head (RIP) put it on their menu, the tag-line was “Chicken drippings”. This wine is something difficult to describe and pin down. As it opens in the glass over an evening, it changes several times. This wine is a journey with no set destination.