 to exotic wine travel. I am your host Matthew Horky. Welcome back to the show. This is a little hybrid episode. It's gonna be in our normal video series episode, but it's also a Kickstarter update for Discover Hungarian Wine, a visitor-friendly guide. If you haven't backed it, back it now. There's not only a few days left in the campaign. We're going to try to get this. Let's get some momentum going. Get this to snowball. I want to help bring Hungarian wines to the outside world. Serena and I, but we need your help. It's going to take all of us. If you haven't backed the campaign, back it today. Every little bit helps. We're going to talk about the wines of Villain. I just got back from the annual 2019 frunk and frunk symposium down in Villain. It was a couple of days of visiting sellers, masterclasses, workshops, and dinners. We tasted through a variety of wines. I'm going to break down the region of what you can expect here. It was actually, this is surprising, when Hungary came on to communism, moved to a free market economy, Villain was the first region that actually registered for a denomination origin. These producers were the first producers to chase high quality after communism. Actually, it wasn't until a few years later that the foreign investment started to happen in Toka. Toka started to raise up in general. What are you going to expect to find? It's a red wine region in the south. You're going to see the flat hot plains of Hungary in the south as you head towards Villain. All of a sudden you see a couple of mountains around the village of Villain and Siklos and Harkkan. Those are where, and on the south side of those slopes, that's where you're going to see vineyards. The mountains kind of block the cold air that comes from the north, and then the hot air from the plains comes in. It creates a really unique microclimate. You're going to find all types of grapes there. What are you going to find? Portuguese, Cadarca, Quex Francos, Blau Frankes, then the Bordeaux varieties. You're going to see Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc. A couple of people have Petit Verdeaux, and there's some white grapes, Oles, Riesling, Chardonnay, Riesling, although they play a small, small, tiny role in Villain. What other styles can you expect to find? At the bottom end, a group of producers in Villain have created this style of easy drinking wines called Redi. What you need to know about these wines, you're only going to find them in bistros, not in supermarkets. They're made of 50% Portuguese, and then from them the producers can play Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Quex Francos, Cadarca. They can throw it all in there. These wines are smooth, fruity, easy to drink, really juicy, low tannins. They're perfect bistro wines for the most part. A lot of producers had a hard time really moving high-end Portuguese, so this is the kind of way to introduce it to the market. These are wines you definitely check out. You're also going to see in small quantities Cadarca, which is a little bit more riper down in Villain, a grape you know that I like very, very much. You can also be made in the Chilar, a darker rosé, and then you're going to see varieta wines, Quex Francos, which I think does exceptionally well down there in Villain. A little bit riper, a little more Austrian style. You're going to see single vineyard Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sierra, which I think also does very, very well, and Cabernet Franc, in addition to Bordeaux blends or creative blends. So once you see those raw wines, the next step up, oh, so the next step up you're going to see is what Villain has kind of branded themselves for. Villainy Franc. So just a little tip, when you see the eye at the end of a Hungarian word, it's like a place of origin. Villainy Franc, Franc from Villain. Cabernet Franc from Villain. Now only the top wines, when they're blind-tasted, can be named, their top Cabernet Francs can be named Villainy Franc. And a lot of times these are some of the most expensive wines in the portfolio as producers. And to even take that a step further, they've introduced a category system breaking that down into even further qualities. For Villainy Franc you can have classicus, premium, and super premium. So to be a super premium wine, they have to be blind-tasted through the Villain Commission. It has to pass, you have to go through strict yield controls. Basically, they're trying to make the creme with the creme. So how do you break down those styles? At the classicus, and these are wines that I kind of like to drink. You have the rightness, the right Cabernet Franc there, but you still have juiciness. It's not overly woody. Premium, you're going to see a little bit more structure, you're going to see a longer oak aging. Super premium, these are highly structured wines. Most of the time these are wines to be laid down in the cellar, because in the beginning the oak and the tannin can be a little bit too strong unless you're having it with meat. Why did the region choose Cabernet Franc as the style? So in the 1990s, Michael Broadband from the U.K. was tasting through a barrel samples of Cabernet Franc, and he said, wow, I think that Cabernet Franc has found its natural home, its second home in Villon. So that's what producers have been trying to brand, and some of these wines can be lovely. Like I said, we got in the Hungarian wines because we did a 2010 Bordeaux tasting right next to a Villeney Franc tasting, and we were shocked by the level of quality in the Villeney Francs. On the top end, you're going to see some producers that also have really premium Bordeaux blends, and if you get the right one, the right vintage with the right amount of age, I think these can be phenomenal. Villon is the only region in the world that I've found outside Bordeaux that gives me some of those tobacco, some of those earthy, graphite flavors that I really want in Bordeaux. So if you're a big, big, huge red wine fan, Villon is for you. Like I said, look out for everything from easy drinking fruity to the ready, all the way to Villeney Franc, all the way to the big Bordeaux blends. Those are stuff worth checking out. It's also worth noting that Villon is the best region in Hungary that's developed for tourism. As you go through the village of Villon, there's tons of cellar rows. You can walk in at any time. All out of the big wineries are going to have accommodation. Like Gary Attila, Bok, Gary Thomas, Jolt. There's a lot, and then there's nice restaurants. Showshka owns a nice restaurant called Showshka 48. There's a lot of different tourist options. So it's really easy to just kind of go in and taste without an appointment. So if you're down that way, that's something to keep note of. So guys, if you haven't backed our Kickstarter already, back it. We want to bring Hungarian wines to the world, but it's going to take all of us. And if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you at the next episode.