Havas & Timár, 2018 “Franom” Cabernet Franc
Established in 2011, Havas and Timár is a partnership between two childhood friends Balázs Havas and László Timár. A Budapest native, winemaker Balázs fell in love with food and wine from an early age and always dreamed about one day having his own cellar and vineyards. During his viticulture and oenology studies, he made several friends in the Eger and seeing the diversity and beauty of the region, he made the decision to establish the winery here.
Today the winery has 1.5 hectare of their own vineyards, and have partnered with growers to source additional grapes as well. Since the beginning, Cabernet Franc has been a passion and focus for Balázs winemaking journey, and today he's making wine from about about 2.5 hectares of Cabernet Franc in total. The first vintage of his Franom - which translates from Hungarian to me "My Cabernet Franc" - was in 2008, and in addition to this he will bottle an additional barrel selection of Cabernet Franc in the best vintages his Franom Hordóválogatás, and he also makes his Franom White, which is a white wine from Cabernet Franc.
As it has been some time since I've done a video featuring a wine from Hungary, let me provide everyone a bit of context for the importance of this grape here. Cabernet Franc has a long history in Hungary dating back to around the time of phylloxera, when rootstock breeder Zsigmond Teleki established an experimental vineyard international and Hungarian varieties at his home in Villány to test the grafting technique for his rootstocks.
Over time, Cabernet Franc has become very well-adapted to the climate of soils of Hungary, and today the grape is the 5th most planted red variety, and it is grown in every region in the country, and is emerging as a signature red variety for Hungary alongside the country's most planted variety Kékfrankos. Today, there is around 1450 hectares of Cabernet Franc planted in the country, with the top three principle regions being Villány with around 340ha, Eger with 253ha and Szkeszárd with 235ha planted.
There are currently about 5500ha under vine in Eger, of which about two-thirds of the plantings are red varieties, which are used in the region's most historic and famous wine, Bikavér, or bull's blood, which is a Kékfrankos red-blend that has a history dating back to mid- 19th century. Cabernet Franc is the 5th most planted red variety in Eger, and plays a supporting role in Egri Bikavér, but we are also starting to see some single-varietal examples emerge from across the region.
So Eger is in the northern part of Hungary, and is one of three wine districts that make up the larger Upper Hungary region, along with Mátra and Bükk. The region is at about 47.5 degrees north latitude, which is similar to that of eastern Loire Valley, and for a bit of context the region of Tokaj is about 80km to the northeast and Villány is 270km to the southwest.
The region is comprise of 19 villages that are dotted along a 25km or so stretch of land in the southern foothills of the North Hungarian Mountains, with the Bükk mountain range to the northeast and the Mátra mountains to the southwest. The vineyards are planted on the undulating foothills on moderately steep slopes with mostly southeast, south or southwest-facing exposures. In terms of elevations, most vineyards planted at elevations ranging from around 150m to upwards to 280m above sea level, with the region's most famous vineyard - the Nagy-Eged hill - situated at an elevation of upwards to 500m above sea level.
Eger's climate would be characterized as cool continental. One of the key features that influences the climate of the region is its proximity to the Bükk mountains. These mountains protect the region from winter frost, but during the summer months the breezes that descend down from the mountains in the late afternoon and evenings help to cool the warmer temperatures that are experiences during the day. These mountains also help to block out excessive precipitation, so it receives only around 600mm of precipitation annually. In general, the region experiences long cold winters, and a late spring, so the region's growing season is relatively short. But the autumn conditions are generally dry and sunny, good for ripening longer season varieties.
In terms of soils, what makes Eger particularly interesting is that the area is dominated by subsoils of volcanic origin, particularly rhyolite and rhyolite tuff, which is softer, more porous and made up of consolidated volcanic ash and rock fragments. In terms of topsoils, we tend to find more clays and gravels in the north and northwest, and more sandier soils in the south. There are also pockets of calcareous soils and loess in the region as well.
So today's wine is coming from about 1ha of vines from a single vineyard site, the Rádé vineyard, which is in the village of Eger, just along the eastern border of the village. The vineyard is situated on a southwest-facing slope of moderate steepness, ranging in elevation from about 215m to 260m above sea level. This is about an 11 hectare vineyard that was planted in 1989, and is actually planted with mostly Cabernet Franc, which is kind of interesting. In terms of soil, we have a moderate amount of brown clayey topsoil, which has very good water holding capacity, over a subsoil of volcanic rhyolite tuff.
In terms of winemaking, the fruit is all hand-harvested, destemmed, and then crushed. The fermentation is in open top vats with selected yeast, with hand punch-downs during the active fermentation, and the fermentation temperature is on the cooler side, around 22-23C. The total time on skins is 5 weeks. Aging takes place over 20 months, in 225L Hungarian oak barrels, 40% is new, the rest is in 2 to 5 year old barrels. The wine is bottled unfiltered, and for the 2018 vintage the production was around 3900 bottles.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Havas & Timár Pincészet
Region: Upper Hungary
Wine District: Eger
Village: Eger
Vineyard: Rádé
Soil: Brown forest clays over volcanic rhyolite tuff
Alcohol: 14.5%
