Funky Furmint

I was at Clo earlier last week.  It's a cool wine bar in the Time Warner Center on the 4th floor at the doorstep of PerSe.  They have over 50 wines in an oenomatic machine and you can buy a pre-paid card and get little tastes of this and that.  It's been unacceptably hot out lately, so I sauntered over to the white wine cases.   They had some cool things; Rieslings, Verdicchio, a gorgeous Sancerre, and a little nicely-priced Austrian wine made from the Furmint grape.  It's the Heidi Schrock Furmit from Austria.

Furmint is best known for producing the amazingly complex and sweeet Tokaji wines made in Hungary.  Those are awesome, but Hungary is also producing some dry wines made with Furmint, and so is Austria.   Heidi Schrock was one of the few winemakers that re-introduced Furmint to the Bergenland (borders Hungary anyway), her part of Austria, in the 1990's.  It's name has is from the french word "froment" meaning wheat.  It often makes a wheat colored wine.

They also had some nibbly-bits available at Clo.  I suppose it was Happy Hour after all.  I grabbed a few almonds and a little hunk of Parmesan, and they were the perfect accompaniment to my Furmint!  There is a certain honey and almondy quality about the nose of this wine and a bit of spice.  The palate has more of a quince-like, refreshing zesty quality to it.  It's also not a light bodied wine even though it looks like it might be.  You really get a bit of heft.  I thought it was really cool.  It was the first Furmint that I have tried (outside Tokaji) and I will try one again!

color: straw colored
nose: quince, honey, lanolin, linden flower, spiciness
palate: somewhat weighty for a white, definitely some heft and unctuousness, more quince on palate with a little lemon and pear, lots of minerality.  Great balance - very interesting.