Hummel Winery
2018
Pét Nat Rosa Karašica Sis
Kékfrankos
Villány, Hungary

Successful lawyers rarely have the time or the interest to start a winery. Horst Hummel did it. While traveling to his family's roots in Serbia, he discovered the beauty of the Villány region in Hungary and immediately started to look for vineyards and, whenever he would visit from his native Berlin, buy more. In 1998 he started the winery and farms about 7.5 hectares. Over the years, he moved from organic to biodynamic and now to Natural Synergetic Winegrowing, a method developed by himself and originating from kinesiology. In case you were wondering, he is still running his lawyer business in Berlin on Ku'dammKu'damm and probably isn't done with growing the wine business. At least his Mercedes hasn't failed him for the last 800k kilometers traveling back and forth to Hungary.

This Pet Nat shows how an uncontrolled bottle fermentation can go. It has very little carbonation; nevertheless, with 2 bar pressure, you will still get a very subtle fizz. Even without the bubbles, it would be an outstanding Blaufränkisch rosé (the grape variety name you probably know). After the harvest, it was destemmed and directly pressed and did the initial fermentation in a stainless steel tank. After bottling it with a little sugar left, it continued fermentation and spent another 3 years in the bottle. Horst left it sitting to lose some residual sugar; while still slightly sweet, the aging did some magic to the juice. With strawberry and licorice, it says hello and continues to impress with rhubarb and cranberries in the mouth. This should be good with middle eastern food or on its own as a nightcap.

This wine is part of
 
Volume 37: The Hungary Edition