04 February 2025 / Borbála Kalmár Copy actual URL Facebook share Twitter share

Legendary vintages: wines with great ageing potential

In the following article, winemakers from three Hungarian red wine regions talk about the most outstanding vintages of the last few years and decades. Those that have already shown in the young wines that they offer wines with great ageing potential, wines that will not feel old after many years in the bottle, but on the contrary, will become increasingly lovely.

I'm sure everyone can think of a scene in a film where one of the characters confidently orders, say, a 1983 wine from a prestigious winery, usually in Bordeaux. Seeing such knowledge - even if it only reflects the knowledge of the screenwriter - makes you nod in recognition and realise that you will not be able to do something like this in the near future. But you could not be more wrong.

While today's trends dictate that we seek out and consume wines that are as fresh as possible, our wine regions are also capable of producing wines that you can still enjoy drinking 10, 15 or even 20 years later. Whether you want to dazzle your friends with a scene like in a film, or you're thinking about buying a great wine as a gift for them - or for yourself - it's easy to find your way around the varieties and vintages: here's some guidance on Hungary’s three great red wine regions. Here are the legendary vintages of the last few decades!

 

 

It all depends on the grapes

Villány wine district: Lelovits Tamás Winery

“How well a wine will age is clearly determined first of all by the quality of the grapes. You need good quality grapes to make good wine, so cellar work is also very important," says Tamás Lelovits. “Fuller-bodied wines with good acidity have greater ageing potential. The pH value that influences this has been most ideal in our region in warm, but not extremely warm years: in the Villány wine district, this was the case in 2017, 2018 and 2019.”

“As far as grape varieties are concerned, I would suggest Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah as those you can safely lay down until later - even 20 years - because that is when they will really show their beauty and complexity. Besides those, if you work with the right grapes - as we do - you can even consider Kékfrankos wines.”

 

 

We have a responsibility to educate

Szekszárd wine district: Sebestyén Garage Winery

"In my opinion, the best vintages of the last 20 years have been 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2019. I could also mention 2020, but the wines made that year are still very young. However, we can already see their potential,” recalls Csaba Sebestyén of the greatest red wine vintages of the last two decades. “Generally speaking, wines that are balanced age better. We lay down a lot of wines and taste them regularly, either on their own or in vertical tastings, so personal experience tells us all this. If alcohol, tannins or acidity were already sticking out when they were young, time will not help: the structural defects will not change.”

“For premium wines, which we produce with this approach from the pruning stage, our clear aim would be to get the consumer to think a little bit about the future. Of course, today's world is less and less about this, and we have a great responsibility in this. People don't really come across aged wines at tastings, because everyone is rushing after the market and wants to show what they have to hand, what they are currently working with. But it is also our job to educate, to show how wonderfully a wine can age.”

“Many consumers do not experience the processes that a wine goes through,” adds Csilla Sebestyén. A young wine is dominated by red and black berry fruits and oak spice that is not yet integrated; while at 10-12 years of age, the wine develops a rich composition of flavours, with dried fruits, chocolate and various spices, which are much more pronounced - especially if you let it open in your glass. We are now changing our tasting regime a bit and will be opening up older vintages for our guests, so that they can at least taste them here - although there are a few restaurants that are already looking to list more special wines too.”

 

 

“Our recurring experience is that our wines with Kékfrankos in the blend are much livelier and therefore have better ageing potential than those that don’t. Of course, it doesn't matter what climate, what soil and how old the vines are, there are many things that influence what makes a wine of outstanding quality and longevity, whether it has the balance that Csabi talked about. Certainly 2019 was an outstanding year for us in many ways, but of course there is always a certain variability when you retaste. The wine may not be in great shape on a particular day, and then two months later it's fantastic again - a fresh wine doesn't change as much in a year as it does when you look at, say, a 15-year-old wine.”

 

In Eger, 70 percent of vintages can be considered quite good

Eger wine district: Böjt Winery

We don't have several decades of work behind us, so I can only really talk about the last ten years,” Gergő Böjt begins his analysis. “What I can say is that three vintages of this decade were not particularly good, four were quite good, and three again produced outstanding wines. Of these, the 2018 vintage really stands out in the Eger wine region. The growing season started with a relatively early budbreak, but the summer was not as dry as this year, for example, with the growing season ending in balanced grape growth and ripening. It was also an easy year from a plant protection perspective and produced wines with amazingly good ageing potential. The fruit ripened nicely, but the acidity was retained, and we were able to keep the alcohol in balance. It was our second year of organic cultivation, and I was delighted to see such a beautiful harvest: we harvested delicious, juicy, excellent grapes.”

“I think the problem with Eger red wines in general is that we release them sooner than we should - and of course there are financial reasons for this in most cases. Our current vintage is 2021, which was not a bad year either; however, these wines are still very young, and I can feel that they could do with a few more years of bottle ageing.”

 

 

What else should we look out for?

As we have seen above, the vintage is not only an indicator of how old a wine is, but in many cases, it can also be used to determine its ageing potential. Of course, not all red wines are destined to age for many years, so it's also worth paying attention to how the wine was made. With reds finished in steel tank, the winemaker's goal is not usually to have them gathering dust in the cellar for years; but with wines aged in barrel, it is also possible to think longer term. If you can, buy several bottles of your chosen wine, open one every year and see how it develops over time - wine is a living thing, as we know, and bottled wines, like humans, have their own life cycle.

 

Photos: Hungarian Wine Marketing Agency

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