Beyond Pinot Noir: Discovering Its Hungarian Alter Ego
Written by Darby Wagner
Illustration by Nikki Scioscia
According to most wine professionals, Pinot Noir is the world’s most popular light-bodied red wine. Fact, or unspoken truth aside, it begs the literal - and existential - question: why? Why is there a most popular grape, and who dictates such things? What makes it so popular? Is it Pinot Noir’s historical cachet masquerading as pop cultural panache? Or is it its nonchalant versatility from region to region, perhaps furthered by its global familiarity—a matter of supply and demand?
Subjective as the art of wine may be, the business of wine is a different story — it’s a numbers game, a euphemistic way of saying: wine is indeed political. In order to understand this dichotomy — the art versus the business of wine — it behooves the wine enthusiast to familiarize themself with the negative space: that amorphous terrain where popular grapes’ alter egos go to thrive, despite their ostensible obscurity.
Alter Egos is a series that introduces alternative grape varietals to the more popular ones, providing a new perspective on similar but lesser-known grapes. The aim is to encourage wine enthusiasts to confidently venture beyond their comfort zones and explore new wines.
Pinot Noir, akin to Chardonnay, exists in both hemispheres; it’s a grape grown across numerous continents, in a multitude of micro climates and geographical terrains; it is consumed across a wealth of environments, from fine dining restaurants to airplanes and cramped apartments to ephemeral ‘empires’ like Burning Man. (Ugh.) And yet, despite its ubiquity, Pinot Noir is not always readily available just because some place sells or offers “red wine”. It may be the world’s most popular light-bodied red, but that doesn’t mean the plethora of other light-bodied reds can’t stand up to the prominence of Pinot Noir. And that’s where ‘Alter Egos’ come in: Let them be your friends.
Today, we dive into one of Pinot Noir’s Hungarian Alter Egos from two regions:
KÉKFRANKOS [cake-fraynk-auche] from Sopron and Szekszárd.
To begin, we’ll zip through two regions of Old World Pinot Noir; and from there, we’ll zoom in on a small section of Pinot Noir’s negative space: home to its many alter egos.
Old World Pinot Noir
Common Pinot Noir Descriptors: calcareous (clay and limestone), mineral, earthy, floral, spice, tart red fruits, umami, black currant; dry, higher acid, lithe, age-worthy.
Burgundy: Côte de Nuits
Shaped like a long, thin handful of wavy hair, this region, just south of Dijon, and beginning in Marsannay, is known as the mecca of Pinot Noir. However, Côte de Nuit’s world class reputation was no overnight sensation. Whereas Bordeaux’s prestige has given off a more rococo, aristocratic flair, what with its châteaux and grandiose big-bodied reds and opulent whites, Burgundy’s distinction is much less flamboyant, more subtle, just like the prolific singularity and litheness of its wines. A historically pastoral region, largely bereft of large châteaux, we can tip our hats off to the Cistercan monks who reigned the territory during the Middle Ages, and whose agricultural foresight fostered a rather timeless success story for centuries to follow. Responsible for planting and shepherding Côte de Nuit’s original vines, it was under their attentive eyes and care that Burgundy rose to international fame. After surviving several eras of feudalism, these vines were eventually returned to the people after the French revolution. Composed of over 100 Premier Cru vineyards, and 24 impressively diverse Grand Cru vineyards, the Pinot Noir’s of this expanse effuse aromas of fresh red fruit, earth, floral and spice. Winemakers typically ferment grapes whole-cluster to increase tannins, thus lending to a more age-worthy and complex Pinot Noir than some of the lighter-bodied and more delicate ‘vin de table’ Pinot Noirs of less prestigious appellations.
Noteworthy sub-appellations: Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, and Nuit-St-Georges
Germany: Baden
If Burgundy is Pinot Noir’s primary residence, Baden is its romantic refuge. Locally known as spätburgunder [shpaht-bur-goon-dur], Baden provides an ideal array of terrain for Pinot Noir to express its most poetic and unassuming self. But, unlike Burgundy, Baden’s rise to fame has only come in the last thirty to forty years. After France and the U.S., it's the third largest Pinot Noir producing region in the world. And the third-largest wine producing region in Germany, in terms of area under vine. Baden forms a giant "L" shape and is composed of a wide heterogeneity of soils ranging from dark, rich volcanic soils to keuper, loess, clay, sand and limestone. If you thought Burgundy provided the richest diversity of high end Pinot Noir’s, think again…Baden offers so much more than meets the eye.
Noteworthy sub-regions: Kaiserstuhl, Ortenau and Kraichgau
Pinot Noir’s Hungarian Alter Ego: Kékfrankos
Common Kékfrankos Descriptors: black forest fruits, plum, cherry, spice, volcanic, mineraly, earthy; plush, velvety, bold, age-worthy.
Sopron, Hungary
The story of Kékfrankos is perhaps an apt metaphor for the Sopron wine region itself. Resilient underdog, late bloomer, local hero: some of the tropes one may associate with both the grape and the northwestern, sub-Alpine region. A region that persevered through a century’s worth of strife — the blight of 1890’s phylloxera epidemic, the political affronts surrounding World War I and II, the degrading Communist rule from 1948 to 1989 — Sopron, despite its relative global obscurity, prides itself in being the “capital of Kékfrankos”. In fact, no other country plants more of the grape than Hungary, despite its stronger recognition just across the border in Burgenland, Austria (where it is known as Blaufränkisch). Once a mediocre peon of Communist-era bulk wine, Kékfrankos is finally catching up to its Austrian counterpart; evolving into a well regarded, and rather versatile variety, it is grown in similar cool-climate conditions and soils as Burgundian and Baden Pinot Noirs. Late bloomers, too, can be elegant, focused, and age-worthy.
Bottle Recommendations:
Steigler ‘Kékfrankos’ 2019 $22.96 @ Astor Wines, Manhattan, NY
Weininger ‘Steiner’ 2017 $39.99 @ Flatiron Wines & Spirits, Manhattan, NY
Szekszárd, Hungary
Think of Szekszard (‘sex-szard’) as an eclectic boarding school where both classic and alternative “egos” co-exist, sometimes even commingle, to a surprisingly singular effect of taste and typicity. Unlike Sopron, Szekszárd is hundreds of miles away from the nearest sea, lending to its highly continental climate and strong diurnal shifts (i.e. warm, sunny days and cool, dry nights). Additionally, the soils here are instead characterized by a thick layer of loess and terra rosa: iron rich, red clay soils. These differences alone give Szekszardi kékfrankos a different taste profile than that of Sopron: typically lighter in body, albeit fruitier and richer in style and one that is often balanced out by its refreshing acidity.
Bottle Recommendations:
Tamas Duszi Kékfrankos Roze 2020 $15 @ Fiasco! Wine & Spirits, Crown Heights, BK
Heimann & Fiai Kekfrankos 2018 $11 by the glass @ Jadis Wine Bar, Manhattan, NY