Limited Parcel - Szolo Parlando

It's Furmint February and to celebrate we are offering this limited parcel of Szolo Parlando. We only have 27 bottles of this Hungarian wine, so make sure you grab your bottle(s) before it's too late.

In a nutshell: A complex, off-dry white blend from the Tokaj wine region of Hungary

The lowdown: Parlando is made from two of six noble varieties of the famous Hungarian wine region of Tokaj. The two main varietals; Furmint and Harslevelu produces most of the regions dry, sweet and sparkling wines (no reds are permitted in the region). This example is about two-thirds Furmint which brings minerality and freshness and about one-third Harslevelu which adds body and floral character to the blend.

A third of the wine was aged in an old Hungarian oak barrel and two-thirds were kept in stainless steel tank for six months then it was blended in a concrete egg. The few grams per litre residual sugar which was left in the wine adds a hint of sweetness and the short lees ageing boosts its complexity. It carries the classic stone fruit and tropical notes of dry Tokaj wines and also shows honey and orange peel characters like it’s sweet counterparts.

Only 348 bottles have been produced.

When to drink it: Recommended companion to Asian influenced dishes.

Szolo Parlando

In 2009 Timea Eless inherited a 0.3 ha vineyard from her grandparents. Although, after graduating from university her life took a different direction she decided to revert back to winemaking later. Her first vintage of her own was in 2014 and she was helped by her husband Tamas, a lawyer from Budapest, who is now her partner in business too.

Their winemaking philosophy is very much aligned with many other natural winemakers, creating small quantities of top quality wines, doing everything by hand while using minimal intervention. Their vineyards are now fully organic, the certification was initiated in 2017 and took three years to gain. They currently own about 7 hectares of vineyard area in the Tokaj region.

Timea and Tamas are not just wine but also music lovers. All their wines named after musical terms such as ‘parlando’ (delivered or performed in a style suggestive of speech – used as a direction in music). On the back label of their wines, they added QR codes that take the drinker to a designated video for each wine which they suggest to listen to while you are enjoying their products.