Something a Little Different

I met a friend at Bedales on Saturday, a place I never manage to leave empty-handed. Having already purchased two bottles of white wine from the downstairs shop, I had a good look around the upstairs while I was waiting for my friend. To my surprise, they had a Hungarian sparkling wine - Hungaria Grande Cuvee Brut - something I've never seen before! At £12, I couldn't not buy it, so in my bag it went.

My husband and I opened it with our dinner on Tuesday. For the life of me, I can't remember what we ate, it was one of those 'nothing-special-Tuesday' meals. But I remember the wine : )

It smelled of bubble gum and soda pop in an appealing way, although it raised a little concern that the wine might be too sweet for my taste. Thankfully, it was cold enough that the sweetness came through in more of a dried-pineapple richness, balanced with some depth and a little acidity. As the wine warmed up, the sweetness intensified, but not overwhelmingly so. There's not much structure or finish to this wine, but it's an easy drinker, and completely different to the cavas and proseccos you see at this price point. The bubbles were strong at first, but disappeared by the end of the glass, the only disappointing thing about the wine.

This was worth trying once and an interesting comparator to other sparkling wines. I'm not sure it's something I'd purchase on a regular basis.