Red Hungary over £10

DWWA Reguional Trophy

(Image credit: DWWA Reguional Trophy)

Find out who won this year's regional trophy...

Sauska Cuvee 7 Villány 2007

Villány has long had pride of place in Hungary as the “go to” region for top red wines, but this trophy winner clearly shows that the region’s best wines are not just good for Hungary – but really are world class. Christian Sauska’s eponymous winery only made its first vintage in 2006 but sheer attention to every possible detail shows through in its impressively sleek and beautifully balanced wines.

Christian himself is a Hungarian ex-pat, who made his money in super high tech lighting in the US and decided to follow his passion for wine back to his roots and settled on as Villány as the closest wine region to the village where he was born.

Cabernet Franc is the buzz grape variety in Villány and it plays a key role in this gorgeous Bordeaux blend. Readers may wonder if the world needs another Bordeaux blend, though this answer is clearly yes when it’s as thrilling as this. Sauska has recruited a young and bright winemaking and viticultural team, and there’s not even a leaf out of place in the vineyards, in the evocatively named Ördögárok or Devil’s Trench.

In the winery, everything is all about rigorous fruit selection by hand and then letting nature get on with it – natural yeast ferments and as little intervention as possible. As winemaker László Latorczai says, “it’s about caring and sensitive winemaking with a strong focus on expressing the pure Villány-terroir instead of thinking in trends, beliefs or misbeliefs.”

Ex cellars 24.00 Euros

Written by Caroline Gilby MW

Caroline Gilby MW is a freelance writer and consultant, specialising in Central and Eastern Europe. Among others, she currently contributes to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, The Oxford Companion to Wine, and the World Atlas of Wine, and has previously written for Dorling Kindersley’s Wines of the World, The Wine Opus, and Tom Stevenson’s Wine Report. Prior to her career as a writer, Gilby spent seven years as a senior wine buyer at Augustus Barnet off-licences, where she became the first major buyer to import Hungarian wines to the UK. She initially studied plant biology, in which she holds a doctorate, but abandoned life behind the microscope for a career in wine soon after winning the Decanter-Macallan Malt Whisky Taster of the Year Award while still a student. Gilby passed her MW in 1992 and has been visiting and tasting the wines of Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania for over 20 years.