WINES
Riesling is highly ‘terroir-expressive’ meaning a riesling wine’s character is greatly influenced by its place of origin. In Győrszemere, our riesling (Geisenheimer Gm 239-34 on 5BB/ Fercal) tends to exhibit notes of ripe fruit, including apricots, white peaches, pineapples, mangos and limes with an elegant minerality and noticeable levels of acidity that are balanced with residual sugar. Our white wine is produced in two versions: dry and with residual sugar, often called ‘off-dry.’ The grapes are more acidic and somewhat more restrained in their aroma if we have to harvest early due to the weather, which is an excellent basis for a riesling sparkling wine like the one we produced from the 2022 vintage.
Our grapes grow on young vines in a mineral-rich soil of loess and limestone. Our vineyard was originally 0.4 ha and has expanded to more than 1 ha over time. We harvest by hand relatively late in the season. The fruit is pressed as a whole grape and fermented with Mosel yeast for more than nine months. We do not use wooden barrels; rather, the wine emerges fresh and crisp from steel tanks. CZURDA Riesling’s naturally high acidity and pronounced fruity flavours give our wines exceptional ageing potential and favourable vintages taking on a ‘petrol’ character. Some call it ‘spring water’ because it consciously contains a low level of alcohol.
We do not call our wine ‘organic’ and will not be applying for bio-certification. However, we use plant-protection products minimally, and only those normally recognised to obtain a bio-certificate. We are committed to producing our wine naturally and sustainably with the highest respect for the environment and climate. We work manually as much as possible to respect our natural products and to be authentic.
In winemaking, the delicate nature of our riesling grape requires special handling during handpicked harvesting. The grapes and juice must be chilled throughout the vinification process. First, to preserve the grapes’ more delicate flavours straight after picking, and second, after the wine has been processed through a press just before fermentation. During fermentation, the wine is cooled in temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks at between 10 and 18 °C. Our riesling does not undergo malolactic fermentation. This helps preserve the wine’s acidic character, which gives CZURDA Riesling its elegant, ‘thirst-quenching’ quality.
Eight reasons why you will love my riesling
Elegance
This is kind of a composite quality and difficult to pin down. All the words in this section are, essentially, metaphors. Rieslings have a cut, a kind of crystalline quality. They are light and refreshing, while simultaneously significant and deep. There is nothing in the world of wine quite like a great riesling.
Low alcohol
On average, cooler climates yield the lowest-alcohol wines in the world. There’s many a good riesling with a little sweetness that registers 10% to 11% alcohol. This helps give them their light and appealing nature. Among the many charms of my riesling is that it doesn’t rattle your brain, and lets you enjoy the next day!
Minerals
For me, one of riesling’s greatest attributes is the stony mineral scent and flavour it so often carries. My vinous love affair has long been driven by other elements; however, when a wine starts speaking rocks, earth, and underground, I become really interested. Riesling speaks this language most eloquently.
Ageing
And now we’ve reached the best of all… well, almost. I love the way riesling smells and tastes when it reaches five to ten years old. This is when those bewitching aromas and aged flavours continue to develop for another 20 or 30 years or more. Of which aromas do I speak? We call it “petrol” or rimethyl-dihydronaphthalene (TDN).
Acidity
Oh yeah! Probably the single component that most makes riesling sing is its electric acidity. The result for the drinker? A freshness unique in all the world, and like lemon juice, it can cut through a feast of foods, including smoked salmon, picnic meats, creamy fish dishes, cooked pork, and so on…
Fruit
Grapes are fruit, so every wine contains some. When riesling, brings forth its fruit, usually in its youth, I like it, despite my innate fruit prejudice. It’s like white peach, citrus, and mango when the young, pure fruit excels. That fruit meshes with the brilliant acidity to form something truly mouth-watering.
Transparency
There is no grape that better translates its immediate environment into in-the-glass flavours and essences as perfectly as riesling. Wine people often expound about terroir, but if you focus on what the soil contributes to a wine, no grape sucks up the essence of its local soil as readily as riesling does.
Food matching
Last but not least, food matching is riesling’s greatest attribute. For me, wine is for food. A wine may be great, but if it doesn’t taste delicious with food, I am not interested. This is one reason that sommeliers are going crazy over riesling these days. It marries with a million different ingredient and cuisine combinations!
