I remembered liking a Heidi Schrock dry Furmint I tried last year, so when I
saw the 2001 at an unexpected stop in Astor last week, I picked up a bottle. I
can't find my notes from last year. So thought I'd throw out a question to
Michael (or Emily, or anyone else with an opinion)- what would you serve with
Furmint?
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

amnspam (Dale Williams) wrote in message >...
> I remembered liking a Heidi Schrock dry Furmint I tried last year, so when I
> saw the 2001 at an unexpected stop in Astor last week, I picked up a bottle. I
> can't find my notes from last year. So thought I'd throw out a question to
> Michael (or Emily, or anyone else with an opinion)- what would you serve with
> Furmint?
> Dale

Hi Dale,
Peter Schandl, a vintner in Rust, gave me these recommendations for
dry Furmint pairing: Catfish filet with spinach, celery-cheese
quiche, Wiener schnitzel (which tends to get recommended for most
Austrian wines!), roasted pork with quince chutney, stewed quince, and
pumpkin cake. The flavor of that final one, the pumpkin, is a
favorite pairing of mine- might not be the season for full-on
pumpkin, but if you have a bottle of Kürbiskernöl (that's the pumpkin
seed oil) I would incorporate it into a salad dressing of some sort,
or with your soup. If you don't have a bottle of Kürbiskernöl, get
one! It's magic stuff.
Cheers,
emily

amnspam (Dale Williams) wrote in message >...
> I remembered liking a Heidi Schrock dry Furmint I tried last year, so when I
> saw the 2001 at an unexpected stop in Astor last week, I picked up a bottle. I
> can't find my notes from last year. So thought I'd throw out a question to
> Michael (or Emily, or anyone else with an opinion)- what would you serve with
> Furmint?
> Dale
>

In Austria Furmint is not drunk with food (or at least not recommended
with food). Generally you have a choice of either having it as an
aperitiv at 8 celcius or as an after-food treat at 10 celcius.

Furmint typically shows quite some acid, is heavy (14% is quite
common) and sports forward aromas (hence the aperitif preference). It
will generally be at its best from year 3-5 but can cellar well up to
8 years. Under 100 Oechle this wine will sometimes create mediocre
results which is why this grape is typically more of a dessert wine
varietal. The Hungarian Tokajer and a few of the Austrian dessert
wines (Wenzel in Rust has a high-end version called SAZ) use this
grape predominantly. Not to be confused with the Italian Tokai (its
own grape), the French Tokay D'Alsace (Ruländer) and the Swizz Tokayer
(also Ruländer).

RE choice of stem:- Austrians recommend a chardonnay glass.

Zum Wohl.

Stephan

(Stephan Schindler) wrote in message . com>...
> amnspam (Dale Williams) wrote in message >...
> > I remembered liking a Heidi Schrock dry Furmint I tried last year, so when I
> > saw the 2001 at an unexpected stop in Astor last week, I picked up a bottle. I
> > can't find my notes from last year. So thought I'd throw out a question to
> > Michael (or Emily, or anyone else with an opinion)- what would you serve with
> > Furmint?
> > Dale
> >
>
> In Austria Furmint is not drunk with food (or at least not recommended
> with food). Generally you have a choice of either having it as an
> aperitiv at 8 celcius or as an after-food treat at 10 celcius.
>
> Furmint typically shows quite some acid, is heavy (14% is quite
> common) and sports forward aromas (hence the aperitif preference). It
> will generally be at its best from year 3-5 but can cellar well up to
> 8 years. Under 100 Oechle this wine will sometimes create mediocre
> results which is why this grape is typically more of a dessert wine
> varietal. The Hungarian Tokajer and a few of the Austrian dessert
> wines (Wenzel in Rust has a high-end version called SAZ) use this
> grape predominantly. Not to be confused with the Italian Tokai (its
> own grape), the French Tokay D'Alsace (Ruländer) and the Swizz Tokayer
> (also Ruländer).
>
> RE choice of stem:- Austrians recommend a chardonnay glass.
>
> Zum Wohl.
>
> Stephan


Robin Garr from the winelovers' page must have dropped by here. This
is what he had to say...

//Stephan



Offbeat grapes and wine: Furmint

Let's wrap up the work week with a quick trip down another of wine's
less-traveled byways: Furmint ("Foor-mint"), the white grape
best-known as a major player in Hungary's great dessert wine Tokaji
("Toe-kay"), turns up occasionally as a dry white wine in Hungary and
neighboring parts of Austria.

Unlike its partner in the Tokaji blend, the thoroughly Hungarian
Hárslevelü (which, as far as I know, is never produced as a
single-varietal wine), Furmint traces its linguistic heritage not to
Budapest but Rome: Early vine growers supposedly took its name from
the Latin word "frumentum," meaning "wheat," because of the grape's
golden-tan color. (While we're on the subject of Tokaji, by the way,
let's take a moment to note that the Tocai Friulano of Northeastern
Italy and the Tokay d'Alsace of France are unrelated to Tokaji except
by name, a source of linguistic confusion that the European Union's
regulators intend to clear up by banning the names of the sound-alike
grapes.)

Furmint is an obvious candidate for dessert wine because its thin skin
makes it a receptive host for Botrytis cinerea, the beneficial mold
called "noble rot" that randomly infests some late-harvested grapes,
causing them to shrink and dry so the natural sugars become highly
concentrated, producing intensely sweet wine.

As a dry wine, Furmint is typically full-bodied and acidic (think of a
Chardonnay with muscles), with bold flavors that the British wine
journalist Jancis Robinson describes as "fiery." Robinson, who among
other things is a leading wine-grape expert, also advises that Furmint
be drunk up while it's young and fresh. But I recently ran across a
dusty stash of bottles from the 1999 vintage in a local store - two or
three years behind the current release - and to my pleased surprise
found that it had gained real richness and complexity with a bit of
age, despite presumably having been kept in less than pristine cellar
conditions.

This fairly widely distribruted version from Oremus, a leading Tokaji
producer, is worth seeking out as a wine of very good value; and if
you can't find an older vintage, there'd be no harm in putting a more
recent bottle or two away to sleep for a while. (I had tasted the 1998
vintage of this wine in the autumn of 2000, just two years after the
harvest, and it was pleasant but much more simple and one-dimensional.
Age has served this one well.)

TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE
Have you tasted this or other dry Furmints? Are you a fancier of
Tokaji? You'll find a round-table online discussion about today's
article in our interactive Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, where you're
always welcome to join in the conversations about wine.
http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/foru...570&mid=436972