We – #winelovers – are all the time thinking about ways to improve our appreciation for wine, aren’t we? So, what can we do to make it better? Taste, taste… and then taste again!

My friends and I thought about how we could do it, after a long time of studies and university courses, outside of the walls of the student’s hostel…

The answer is easy! In the #wine bars of #Budapest, not just the capital city of Hungary, a country that gains even more attention because of the amazing quality of the wines that are produced there these days and are available on the market, but also one of the most interesting cities concerning culture, life and history.

After checking wines on the internet, all the locations we could taste wines, we found a lot of interesting places and we decided to check them just for you – our fellow #winelover. I believe we will be able to give you some advice of which place is worth to visit and why… To make sure we can find the proper spot for the next #winelover’s hangout in March while many of our friends will be attending Vince (http://vincebudapest.com/) .

Our first stop was the so famous and busy place, especially for the younger generation. DiVino. We had already heard so much of it, so we decided to go there to experience it for ourselves.

 

http://player.hu/gasztro-utazas/helyszinek-gyors-uzleti-talalkozokhoz/

In the heart of the city center, in front of St. István basilica you can find this wine bar that can be considered heaven for Junibor members (a community of young Hungarian winemakers designed for professional development, as well as their generation’s outreach on behalf of making good wine). There is no wine list at all.  One needs to sit at the bar and look at the wall for the daily offers to make a choice. You can exclusively get the wines of the member wineries, but the good news is that you can get any wine you want by the glass! And most Hungarian wine regions are represented… You don’t find this kind of opportunities in many other places and this fact alone is a good reason for a visit.

The ambience is simple and quite youthful, with a modern style. The type of place that motivates you to have a nice chat with your friends in front of the bar.

DiVino is located at the St. István square and this is their slogan (an open translation from Hungarian): “Let’s have just a nice quick drink, my friend!”

We thought: We are here… so let’s taste some wines!

The first one was the 2011 Furmint from Szepsy Junior from Mad, a district of Tokaj. This wine is the perfect start, fruity character on the nose. It is made with reductive technology (no oxygen please!) and it is released on the market in spring after the harvest. Clean and straight forward. It has a medium intensity on the nose with “green hints” and aromas of acacia. On the palate you can feel a fresh, crispy and lovely acid structure, besides its minerality. On the finish a nice apple flavour, that rounds up the pleasant mouthfeel of this wine.

After this nice white wine to get started, we decided it was time for a red wine: Bukoly Marcell`s, a 2011 Kékfrankos. On the nose it is a bowl of black fruits of the forest, black cherry and chocolate with nice spiciness. By tasting it, it shows a lot of gamy flavours, lovely fruit, with the soft tannins and a vital acidity well integrated. Yellow peach and almond notes appear in the after taste. Very harmonious.

To end up the evening a 2008 Gere Kopár was served. Wow! A journey of all your senses! Such a complexity already on the nose: dark raspberries, plum, menthol, little spiciness combined with mushroom, leather aromas. By tasting it, the fruity character is what dominates the palate. Its elegant body and some tannins that are still a little harsh wine tells us that this is a wine with a real potential for aging.

If you don’t really want to spend a lot of time in a wine bar, or just want to have a sip with a friend (or maybe two) at the end of the day, this is the place to go. DiVino is highly recommended (from a #winelover to another). Check it out and I’m sure you will not be disappointed.

Cheers!!

Lotte Karolina Gabrovits, #winelover