In the white wine category, the 2022 Sóskút Italian Riesling of Figula Winery in Balatonfüred, and in the field of red wines, the 2019 Syrah of Badacsony 2HA Szőlőbirtok és Pincészet won the 2023 Hungarian Wine Grand Prix awarded by the Circle of Hungarian Borszakírók (MBK). The winner of the Dr. József Kosárka Memorial Award is the St. Andrea Szőlőbirtok and Winery in Eger.
In 2023, the Circle of Hungarian Wine Connoisseurs evaluated the dry and semi-dry wines produced by Hungarian producers in the last five vintages for the eighth time and created the Super 12 list of the best white and red wines. The immersion included wines tasted by the members in 2023 and considered to be of high quality – the professional organization informed MTI on Thursday.
According to their announcement, the list of voted wines was continuously narrowed over several rounds, until finally a field of twelve white wines and twelve red wines was formed. From these, the jury selected the winners of the Hungarian Wine Grand Prix 2023 at a blind tasting held in Budapest at the end of December.
For the first time in the history of the award, the Balatonfüred-Csopak wine region gave a grand prize wine. The Badacsonyi wine region has been among the best several times, but this is the first time that it won the grand prize with a red wine instead of a white one, and it is also the first time that both prize-winning wineries operate in the Balaton wine region.
This time, 13 Hungarian wine regions are represented on the 2023 Super 12 lists: Eger and Szekszárd (4-4) and Villány and Balatonfüred-Csopak (3-3) have the most wines.
In terms of regions, Balaton wines took 7 places out of 24, and the Pannon wine region earned the same number of places. Among the wines, 17 are varietal wines and 7 are blends. The announcement mentions as an interesting fact that Italian Riesling is gaining more and more space in the baskets of consumers and the industry, as this year 5 Italian Rieslings were included among the twelve best whites.
The Hungarian Borszakírók Circle established a special award last year in honor of József Kosárka, the founding executive chairman who passed away at the time. Each year, the recognition can be won by the winery whose members nominate the most different wines in the Super 12 election, i.e. it represents the widest selection of wines in the competition of outstanding Hungarian wines.
The 2023 winner of the award, the St. Andrea Szőlőbirtok és Pincészet in Eger, has been on the Super 12 list of the best in the last eight years with 6 white wines and 8 red wines, and the members nominated 5 different wines for the 2023 competition.
The awards will be presented in the first quarter of 2024 in Budapest.
The Super 12 lists can be read on the website https://magyarborszakirokkore.hu from Thursday.
(MTI)
