Grand Vin de Barnag Diszko

Vintage: 2021

Origin: Balaton, Hungary

Grapes: Furmint

Alcohol: 13%

Diszko is Bence Szilagyi’s first foray into Hungary’s most notable grape variety, Furmint. For this inaugural vintage Bence has decided to go for an orange wine, with half of the grapes being whole bunch direct pressed, and the other half being macerated on skins. An electric wine, with racy acidity and a touch of extremely well integrated VA this is unlike any Furmint we’ve ever had before.

Young and talented winemaker Bence Szilágyi is headquartered in Barnag, a sleepy town next to Lake Balaton, the biggest lake in Central Europe. Bence may have studied winemaking in Germany and Hungary, but Grand Vin de Barnag was only ever intended to be a side project for him. Bence produced the inaugural vintage of Grand Vin de Barnag, a play on the name of the more renowned Grand Vin de Bordeaux from France, in 2017. Bence grows 50% of the fruit he uses in his wines himself using rented vines, and he purchases the remaining 50% from a negociant farmer, whom he considers to be extremely lucky to work with. Bence creates his wines in a cellar that is carved into the limestone bedrock and is located beneath his home. As a result, fermentations go very slowly and typically only finish in the following spring. For Bence, this is a crucial aspect since, in his opinion, it is essential to the growth of structure and aromatics. He always ferments and ages his wines in old oak barrels (he employs a blend of French, Austrian, and Hungarian oak), and the 2020 vintage was the first one without sulphur additions. Today, about 10,000 bottles are produced annually.