As she did last year, Rose Murray Brown Master of Wine will be giving a masterclass on Hungarian wines at the world’s largest wine fair, ProWein in Düsseldorf. We took the opportunity to ask the Scotland-based wine expert about her wine education and her interest in dry Tokaj wines.
After graduating from university, you started working with wine and obtained your Master of Wine qualification in 1998. To what extent has this notoriously rigorous training system transformed your understanding of the world of wine and your tasting routine?
Studying for the Master of Wine exam is an incredibly intensive course – particularly as I was doing it with two very young children based in Scotland – but it is so fulfilling. Not only does it offer you an incredible insight into the world of wine, allow you access to top winemakers helping you to improve your wine knowledge, but it also teaches you how to taste and assess quality in wine at a high level in a very structured way to exam conditions – and this is something that I will never forget. Another element which is often overlooked is that joining the study course – and ultimately passing the exam to become Master of Wine – offers you access to a community and network of wonderful wine industry people around the world.
In your own wine school, you provide comprehensive training and consultancy service. What is your favourite genre when it comes to conveying information about wine? What makes a wine education activity effective and enjoyable?
I offer many types of genre for consumer, trade and corporate events – from in-person to online – including wine tastings, food and wine pairing, fine wine dinners and escorted wine tours abroad. I very much enjoy hosting comparative tastings (eg New Zealand v Oregon; Stellenbosch v Swartland; Chile v France; Argentina v Italy) as I think it can open people’s eyes to the similarities and differences between regions/countries and help them really understand why wines taste different.
However, the best way to convey information about wine is in the vineyard – and my escorted wine tours offer a chance to visit regions and meet winemakers which is the most effective and enjoyable way to learn about wine. My latest wine tours have been to Georgia, Germany, Spain, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay – and my next escorted wine tour will actually be to Hungary in 21-29 September! For this Hungarian trip we will be visiting Somló, Balaton, Szekszárd, Villány, Eger and Tokaj regions – so it will be a very comprehensive wine tour visiting many leading producers.
If someone’s job is to teach, do they still have to learn? If so, how do you train yourself further, what inspires you?
I am always learning – it is a challenge to track the rapid changes in wine regions across the globe – but I need to ensure I keep up to date all the time so that I can convey this information to my students. I actually found the lockdown period was useful for allowing me access to online tastings which are usually just held in London – and I still find these online tastings with winemakers very useful as it allows you to taste wines regularly. However, there is nothing better than visiting regions, tasting the wines and talking to winemakers in situ in their own vineyards.
The topic of Tokaj dry wines is close to your heart, and after last year you will be giving a masterclass on this topic at the ProWein Wines of Hungary stand again this year. Why do you find these wines interesting?
I have been so impressed with the way that the Tokaj region has transformed itself from a sweet wine region to a world class dry white wine region in such a short space of time. I remember when I first visited Tokaj in early 2000s, it was all about sweet wines – and no-one mentioned dry wine. Since then there has been a revolution in terms of quality in its dry white wines and in the last decade these dry white wines have become so elegant and complex. Tokaj is a fascinating region in so many respects – with its own grapes, unique microclimate and complex geology and it can offer such a diverse range of dry white wine styles. Sparkling, aromatic dry whites, varietal wines and blends, unoaked and oaked wines – with their terroir-based single vineyard dry white wines as the flagships.
If you were to compare dry furmint, hárslevelű and yellow muscat to a character, a human trait or another grape variety or wine type, what would it be?
I love dry Furmint for its thrilling natural acidity, steely backbone, vibrancy, ability to convey terroir and its versatility across so many wine styles (sparkling, dry to sweet). In this respect it bears some similarity to Chenin Blanc. However, Furmint often mimicks its half siblings Riesling and Chardonnay – and certainly in some style it can share characteristics with both these grapes.
Harslevelu is a wonderful grape which deserves to be better known – I adore its spicy fruit, salty floral notes. If I had to compare it to another grape it would be Semillon as it shares similarities in terms of honeysuckle and sweet notes, as well as an ability to work well in blends.
Yellow Muscat is like no-other grape – so distinctly grapey and aromatic with a delightful freshness – but in terms of style, the dry Sárgamuskotály (Yellow Muscat) made in Tokaj probably bears most resemblance to Alsace wine styles.
Which were the most memorable dry Tokaj wines for you and why?
It would have to be the incredible single vineyard dry wines now emerging from the region from the hillside crus (dűlős in Hungarian). These vineyards have been renowned for sweet wines for the last 400 years, but are now home to fine dry whites rivalling the best of Chablis. What is also exciting is that Tokaj has room to grow as only half of the original 11,000 hectares are planted – and it great to see neglected vineyard terraces around Mad village being refurbished for example. The producers I have been most impressed with for their single vineyard dry wines have been Barta (Öreg Király), Balassa (Szent Tamás), Szepsy (Urbán), Royal Tokaji (Nyulászó), Hétszőlő (Kis Garai), Kikelet (Lónyai), Sanzon (Rány) and Zsirai (Középhegy) to name just a few.
I am also a huge fan of ‘dry’ Szamorodni wines from Tokaj which can be sensational, but are difficult to make and sadly not many wineries focus on this style today (look for Samuel Tinon, Breitenbach, Karadi-Berger and Dereszla).
Join us on the masterclasses at Wines of Hungary stand at ProWein! Please register HERE.