Péter Wetzer is based in Sopron, near the Austrian border in the foothills of the Alps, the fifth generation to live in a house with a cellar over 120 years old. But he sources well beyond his home region, seeking out Hungary's volcanic terroirs — Somló and Ság, both extinct volcanoes — for the particular character those soils give.

This Furmint comes from a cooler north-eastern site on Somló near Saint Martin's Chapel, where the exposure means botrytis rarely develops and the fruit stays clean and high-acid. The grapes are foot-trodden and gently basket-pressed into 500-litre used oak, where the wine rests around eight months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Wetzer farms 2.5 hectares organically across five parcels, working entirely by hand with zero tilling and a stated principle of little to no intervention. Fermentation is on native yeasts in open-top vessels, ageing in used Hungarian oak, sulphur additions minimal — typically around 21 mg/l.

At 12.5% this sits lighter than most Furmint, and it is all the better for it: taut, saline, smoky off the basalt, and genuinely refreshing rather than merely serious.

Drink it with: grilled or fried fish, roast chicken, fresh cheese, vegetable dishes, or on its own as an aperitif.

Details

• Producer: Péter Wetzer
• Region: Somló, Hungary
• Grapes: Furmint
• Vintage: 2022
• Alcohol: 12.5%
• Bottle size: 750ml