The wines of Fekete, Somló, Hungary
Great wines from a rather special terroir

Bela Fekete

Somló is a very special Hungarian wine region. It’s a small one, too: a volcano formed on a sea bed, with the basalt cap sticking out, it has 600 hectares of vines located solely on the hill. The basalt soils here are unique, and gives a distinctive character to the wines. As well as basalt, the lower reaches of the hill have soils that are more loamy/alluvial.

I haven’t visited Somló (pronounced shomlo), but from pictures it looks like a wonderful region: a single hill, fringed at the top with woodland, but planted all around with vineyards. It’s called ‘witness mountain’, in Hungary.

Béla Fekete, aged 86, is regarded as one of the legendary winegrowers on the hill. He has 4 hectares on the southern side, and I tasted these traditionally made wines with him.

Fekete’s wines are available in the UK from www.empirewines.co.uk/shop/, and fall into the mid-teens price wise, which is very good value for the quality.

THE WINES

Fekete Juhfark 2008 Somló, Hungary
Deep yellow colour. Lovely rich-textured wine with notes of melon and herb. Nicely ripe with a lovely rounded texture and some peachiness. Good complexity and a mineral, acid backbone. 92/100

Fekete Olaszrizling 2007 Somló, Hungary
Aromatic. Taut flavours of melon, pear and citrus. Fresh, ripe and textured with lovely depth of flavour, ripe stone fruits and good weight, as well as a mineral dimension. 92/100

Fekete Furmint 2007 Somló, Hungary
Deep coloured. Lovely peppery, spicy edge to the fresh citrus, pear and peach fruit. Lovely precision and minerality here. Complex, broad and fine. 94/100

Fekete Harslevelű 2007 Somló, Hungary
Deep yellow colour. Intense and taut with textured citrus fruit, minerals and good acidity. Pithy, taut and fresh with a nice savoury, mineral dimension. 93/100

See also:

My blog posts on Hungarian wines

Wines tasted 05/12  
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

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