Kadarka for Us
We, winemakers working with Kadarka obviously consider this grape very important. What is more, we adore it, we are passionate about it, even if it is hard to cultivate, even if it is less known and we have to keep explaining about it. If you do not believe us, believe the wine experts below. If you have your own opninion, please, write to us (info@hungarianwines.eu)
“Kadarka is our heritage, but that is not the main reason why we love it. Its grace, delicate tannins and distinctive spicy character make it an excellent match with modern cuisine. Kadarka is a capricious variety, so we have set out to identify and cultivate rare and forgotten clones to improve its consistency. In our experience great precision and low intervention in winemaking are the key to preserving its unique character.”
„For me Kadarka is one of the most exciting grape varieties. A lot of childhood memories are attached to this grape, our family made Kadarka every year, it used to be our everyday wine. In our wine region, Hajós–Baja the variety has amazing examples, the “black soil of Bácska” gives ruby coloured, juicy, velvety Kadarka wines. They pair well with all dishes seasoned with paprika, especially with our cherished traditional food, the fish soup of Baja.”
“What I love about Kadarka is the sheer joy-in-a-glass a well made one can offer. Increasingly I’m seeing enlightened producers rediscovering its potential to make delicate, refined reds (best thought of as a gently spicy, red-fruited, pale red, more in the style of Pinot Noir than structured like Cabernet Sauvignon). And of course, it can also add a touch of spicy local character to Bikavér blends. Always a grape I look forward to trying.”
“Kadarka – although originating from Serbia – for me is my grape synonym for Hungary. The perfect wine with pörkölt from open wood fire, as well as with halászlé, spicy kolbasz sausage or with slowly cooked sarma…”
“Kadarka, to me, has the transparency of a child, the soul of a poet, the strength of a survivor, the beauty of hands worn by work and love, the quietness of dawn, the wildness of craggy rocks, the earth-rootedness of tree trunks and the sweetness of lark song. It’s a grape of contrast and contradiction: simple-complex, sad-happy, bright-shadowed. It’s one of the most underestimated grape varieties in the world!”
“I’ve been tasting Kadarka ever since the mid-1990s, when I fell completely in love with versions from Hungary’s Szekszard region, especially those from producers such as Vesztergombi, Takler and Heimann. In fact, I would even bring some of their Kadarka wines with me to the United States for the Christmas holidays, when I visited my parents there. Kadarka, with its gorgeous, streamlined red fruitiness and wonderfully integrated spiciness, fit so perfectly to the holiday turkey and ham dishes – and even more so on cosy, snow-covered winter evenings. Now, I still adore Kadarka because, in addition to that harmonious red fruit & spice expression, it oozes such seductive, palate-pleasing finesse; true individuality that wine lovers really seek today.”
“Kadarka is one of the variety that, by far, put more to the test the Hungarian wine producers. That’s why the result, in the glass, can be so different: easy and banal wines, against complex and (also) durable ones (another big discriminant is the weather / phenological development of the grapes before the harvest). Kadarka requests both agronomical and oenological (deep) knowledge, as much as savoir-faire. That’s why is so amazing (sometimes)”
