There are a few Z's to aim at in the world of white grapes, none of them particularly easy to find in the UK, but I didn't know that Zenit was one of them until I went looking for Zibibbo. As it turns out, Zibibbo is just a local name, in Sicily, for Muscat of Alexandria so it was good to find a less well known variety.
Zenit comes from Hungary (yes, we're back in Hungary) not that far from Budapest, where in 1951 it was created as a crossing between a local variety, Ezerjo, and Bouvier which hails from Slovenia. It is an early ripening variety and quite versatile, capable of producing light dry wines and also sweeter late harvest (hurrah!) wines.
Week Z (2014) is Viale Mandorlato, Etyek-Buda, Zenit, 2012. £7.99 from Laithwaites.
This wine is not the late harvest variety but a dry, Citrus and apple flavoured simple white wine.
Zenit comes from Hungary (yes, we're back in Hungary) not that far from Budapest, where in 1951 it was created as a crossing between a local variety, Ezerjo, and Bouvier which hails from Slovenia. It is an early ripening variety and quite versatile, capable of producing light dry wines and also sweeter late harvest (hurrah!) wines.
Week Z (2014) is Viale Mandorlato, Etyek-Buda, Zenit, 2012. £7.99 from Laithwaites.This wine is not the late harvest variety but a dry, Citrus and apple flavoured simple white wine.
It is a bright lemon yellow with limited aromas and moderate acidity.
Overall it is pleasant but unspectacular. At the price this is a good wine, simple and clean fruits with some gentle hints of the creamy products of having sat on it's lees (dead yeast cells) for 'a few months', as the back label informs.
The grapes were picked by hand in late August but there is no lack of ripeness in evidence in the finished wine. That would confirm the early ripening nature of the variety and makes me curious to try a late harvest version which I imagine could be very interesting.
Etyek is one of Hungary's oldest wine producing regions, on the Buda side of the river Danube, and also the home to Korda Studios, named for Sir Alexander Korda the British-Hungarian film producer who was in Hollywood during the start of the 'talkies'.
The grapes were picked by hand in late August but there is no lack of ripeness in evidence in the finished wine. That would confirm the early ripening nature of the variety and makes me curious to try a late harvest version which I imagine could be very interesting.
Etyek is one of Hungary's oldest wine producing regions, on the Buda side of the river Danube, and also the home to Korda Studios, named for Sir Alexander Korda the British-Hungarian film producer who was in Hollywood during the start of the 'talkies'.
Those of you who have accompanied me on the first walk through the alphabet (actually it's been a lonesome trail to this point, so this probably an extended indication of impending insanity) will be now have joined me in a virtual glass of 13 red and 13 white wines. Next week we start back at A, but this time the colours will be the other way round. I am pleased that we are still on track for 52 new wines this year but am already starting to wonder how the following chapters will be structured. More of the same? I don't mind if I do.
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