Furmint, Balaton, Hungary

A lavish, mineral and textural Hunagrian beauty. For the first time in Ontario, meet GW Imports newest producer, Grand Vin de Barnag! Winemaker Bence Szilágyi makes zero-zero wines in the western Hungarian village of Barnag, near Lake Balaton. Buying land in the area is near impossible (due to tourism trends), and so Bence works with five limestone-stuffed hectares, half being rentals he farms himself, the other half being purchased grapes from a local negociant farmer. These grapes come from the young, limestone-covered vineyard of Király-domb in Pécsely, and were harvested in four rounds to bring balanced expressions of aromatics, acids, and fruit. A mix of whole-cluster carbonic maceration and direct pressing, with one year ageing on the lees locking in superb tactility. Salt on your lip, waiting in the car at a petrol station, spring beeswax, fisherperson's sweater, creamed green skittle, praying mantis on a flowering green pepper plant, marble statue minerality & yellow dragonfruit. Best enjoyed with a PILE of crab legs.