20 February 2024 / Ádám Geri
“It is a high-quality variety that can be used to make extremely diverse styles of wine. It has already proven itself as a dry white wine and sparkling base wine, and certainly needs no introduction concerning its role in botrytised noble sweet wines.” According to this description on the winesofhungary.hu website, Furmint is one of our most versatile varieties. Hence, it is a great favourite of both sommeliers and chefs in gastronomy. However, you don’t have to go to a restaurant, you can easily make the most of its great qualities at home, whether pairing Furmint with food or cooking with it.
Thanks to its abovementioned diversity of styles, with a little exaggeration, you can’t go wrong with Furmint for any kind of dish. Among others, this is what Dr József Baranyai suggests by his list published in the Képes 7 newspaper in 1989. “To accompany scrambled eggs or other egg dishes, try a fiery white Olaszrizling from the Balaton, an acidic Furmint from Somló or a Kéknyelű from Badacsony. (…) Heavily spiced fish soup needs a wine rich in flavours and aromas, such as a red from Szekszárd or a Tokaji Furmint. (…) Sautéd liver or steak should be paired with a red from Szekszárd, Tokaji Furmint or a high-acid, dry wine from Somló. (…) A full-bodied, dry white wine, such as Badacsonyi Olaszrizling and Kéknyelű or Tokaji Furmint, goes well with roast duck (…) With stuffed cabbage, Badacsonyi Kéknyelű, Móri Ezerjó or Tokaji Furmint.”
Of course, among the good, there is also the best, that is those Furmint wine and food pairings made in heaven. “Furmint immediately sprang to mind with lamb, venison, quail and pigeon,” says Péter Blazsovszky, highlighting the types of meat that work best with Furmint. Currently working as a food and wine expert and writer, he is one of the top Furmint experts in Hungary. And for good reason, his trademark as a restaurant sommelier was to suggest white wine, very often Furmint, with every course.
Of course, as he says, there is no single universal Furmint. The bottle or style of the variety you should choose depends largely on what ingredients are being used for the dish and how it is prepared. “As an aperitif, with hot and cold starters and with poultry, I’d recommend a sparkling wine or a crisp, very dry, totally unoaked Furmint. The riper the wine is and the more oak spice and residual sugar it has, even up to off dry, the more suitable it becomes for serving with a complex, characterful main course such as venison.”
It is important to distinguish between Somlói Furmint and Tokaji Furmint, even though the volcanic terroir of both may make many people think they will proffer similar characters in a wine and food pairing. “The Somló terroir is even more decisive in the flavour and aromatics of Somlói Furmint wines,” says Péter Blazsovszky. He thinks that Somló wines are so distinctive that they even go well with dishes that you would otherwise instinctively pair with red wines, for example dishes seasoned with paprika.
And to confirm that Furmint really does go with practically anything, here is a quote from a 1989 interview with Dr Sándor Bodnár in the newspaper Észak-Magyarország. According to the chief winemaker of what was at that time still the Tokaj State Winery (Tokajhegyaljai Állami Gazdasági Borkombinát), “the new Furmint is (…)” also excellent “at a barbecue.”
Cooking with Furmint also has a decades-long tradition. In 1991, a recipe for black cherry soup with Tokaji Furmint was published in Kurír, which included 2 kilos of fruit, sugar and lemon juice, as well as a whole bottle of Furmint. And this is just one example of many. There are dozens of recipes on the internet today that are specifically orchestrated for Furmint. In recent years, more and more people are discovering the potential for combining spicy Far Eastern dishes with sweet Tokaji wines (even in the pan). As a rule of thumb, “whatever dish you can imagine pairing with Furmint, you can safely add it to as well,” says Gábor Horváth, training chef at A Séf és a Kértesz. Gábor Horváth was head chef at the Gusteau Restaurant in Mád for many years, and in 2017, he and Ferenc Pallagi published the Furmint cookery book, which includes dozens of Furmint recipes. The chef sees wine, and more specifically Tokaji Furmint, as a liquid spice. As he says, “Furmint’s great acidity and aromas pair well with food in most cases.”
In practice, this means that in vegetable soups, the initial phase, such as the simmering of the vegetables after sautéing, often uses Furmint instead of water. This gives the alcohol the time to evaporate while the aromas of the wine are concentrated in the dish. “It emphasises the good qualities of root vegetables, even bringing beetroot to life,” Of course, this option also applies to meat. “Fresh unoaked Furmint is an option for spring vegetable dishes with fish, lamb or rabbit. On the other hand, although not immediately obvious, a riper, oaked wine is the perfect choice with game and red meat.”
However, the variety is far from only being something to spice up dishes, Tokaji Furmint is also one of the best ingredients for wine-based sauces, wine mousse desserts and wine soups.
