In early May, Tamlyn Currin, sustainability editor and staff writer for jancisrobinson.com, has tasted wines from Gere Attila Winery and rated eleven of them in the superior category or above. The widely acclaimed wine review website uses a 20 point system to evaluate wines and the ones rated 17 points or above are categorized as ‘superior’.
Tamlyn Currin and Andrea Gere met years ago at a trade event. After a pleasant and meaningful conversation, Andrea contacted the expert again last autumn as the winery felt that their wine style had become more sophisticated over the past few years and they were curious to get objective feedback from an expert with extensive international tasting experience. The atmosphere of the Autumn 2023 tasting and their previous acquaintance had already set the stage for a casual conversation, and the wines had piqued Tamlyn’s interest.
So we decided to meet regularly online, the last time being at the beginning of May. We feel very honoured and happy that the interest in Villány wines is mutual, to quote Tamlyn: „…It’s a real joy and privilege to taste your wines, older vintages along with the younger releases – a true testament to how beautifully the Gere wines age even as they are beautiful when they are young. It’s also very meaningful to be a small part of the Gere journey, even just as an observer…”
Most of the wines tasted were from current vintages available on the market, but we also included some older vintages to provide context. The wines were rated 17 points or above by Tamlyn, including the 2022 Fekete Járdovány, the 2021 Syrah, the 2020 Ördögárok and Csillagvölgy Villányi Franc, the 2021 and 2020 Kopar, the 2021 Solus and the 2020 Attila, as well as the 2015 Attila Merlot. A valuable feedback for us regarding the ageing potential of our wines is that the two highest scores of 18 were given to two of our wines that are more than 15 years old, the 2007 Cabernet Franc Selection and the Kopar from the same vintage.
The notes and scores by Tamlyn Currin:
Fekete Járdovány 2022
„It’s pretty special and pretty exciting to be tasting an autochthonous wine as rare as this, and the Gere team really seem to have unlocked the soul of this extraordinary wine. Every time I taste it, I can’t help thinking that it tastes as if it’s the crossroads of Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. Of course, Fekete Járdovány is itself and not like any other variety or wine, but for most wine drinkers, unfamiliar with it, this is one way of understanding it. The 2022 has wild-strawberry sweetness, hibiscus-petal tang, a rim of rust and a prickle of pepper. The trim, taut tannins come sheathed in Cabernet Franc-like graphite, and the wine has a steady, quiet earth-bound pulse of Sangiovese’s terracotta dust. Roses on the end. Such a beautiful wine for seared duck breast or rare venison. I wish someone in the UK would import this unique, thrilling wine.”
17 points
Syrah 2021
„This seems to be much more restrained than the 2017, which I tasted five years ago. The fruit is ripe, dark, glowing; blackberries spliced with lavender fragrance. But it’s ineffably elegant. No chocolate, no longer big and full-on. The 2021 is soaring with freshness and elegance. The tannins feel like rose petals. The fruit is brushed with sage and there is a whisper of black pepper and clove dust. It has New World frankness of fruit and Old World restraint. Bravo, Gere!”
17 points
Villányi Franc Csillagvölgy 2020
„The Csillavölgy Villányi Franc has an almost ethereal, haunting perfume. It’s like walking through the woods in very early morning, late spring, when the forest floor is still cold and the mushrooms are still an invisible, life-scented hush underfoot, but there are faint traces of tiny flowers in the air and autumn’s long-left footprints are appearing again as winter recedes and just before summer erodes them completely. It’s a naked wine. You can trace its bones and sinews and breath and nerves. It’s structural but it’s not a severe wine. The tannins are pliant and the musky fruit is rich. There is a tenderness. Damsons and tea leaves. Fragrant to the last breath.”
17,5 points
Villányi Franc Ördögárok 2020
„Spicier and more voluptuous than its Csillavölgy sibling, the Ördögárok glows with the warmth of its vineyard home, tasting of damsons and crushed black cherries, peonies and bitter-orange peel. It sings the most beautiful aria of apricot-sweet acidity, which lifts the dark-red-velvet fruit into a crescendo and the tannins tremble at the purity of pitch. Taut and vibrato. It may be more opulent, but the aristocratic finesse of this wine is unmistakeable and magnificent. And there is a long life ahead of it, judging by older vintages of Gere wines.”
17,5 points
Cabernet Franc Selection 2007
„The cork crumbled badly when I opened the bottle and we had to sieve the wine (not a bad thing, as there was a lot of thick black sediment as well). Most likely as a result of the uncorking exertions and decanting the wine ended up pretty cloudy. But despite all this, and despite its nearly 17 years of age, the wine is extraordinary. A revelation. It smells of blood and smoke and bruised plums. But the fruit is still rich and vibrant: damsons, dried cherries, nectarines, hawthorn berries, crushed strawberries gently coddling in the sun on an old stone wall. There is a patina of age, but it’s beautiful – as if someone spilt coffee on the page and smudged the words. A sepia haze to the edges. A whisper of cigar, a soft kiss of melted milk chocolate. The acidity, coiled in the beating heart of the wine, tastes like dried apricots. The tannins have sunk into the wine like tree-bark fissures into amber, feeling now like silken memories of themselves. A wine that has almost been suspended in time. When Jancis tasted it in 2010, she thought it would last until 2015. It might outlast us all!”
18 points
Kopar 2020
„There are top-class Pomerol producers who would be jealous of this wine. It’s long sheath of cigar-spiced tannins – buffed to a sheen but not so polished that they’ve lost their heartwood grain – is drenched with sumptuously ripe fruit. So knee-bucklingly crimson it’s like liquid rubies staked with kohl-black stilettos – Louboutin, eat your heart out. It’s silky, fluent, softly pressed with dried oregano, sweet paprika and green peppercorns. But more than anything else, it’s a lavish flood of crimson fruit. It’s not too soon to drink it now (I dare you to resist), but it will also stay the test of time.”
17,5+ points
Kopar 2007
„Cloudy old-blood garnet. A warm, souk-perfumed tea of tobacco, oolong, pot-pourri, dried strawberries and damask roses. The tannins have gentled into velvety kitten paws and breathy pauses, giving the fruit a smoky-sweet aura. It’s gentle, gently insistent, beautifully contoured; as iridescent as the rosewood tonewood of a cello. It sings like baritone, the vibrations running slow fingertips down the back of your spine and holding strawberries between your lips. A sentinel for how gracefully the Gere wines age.”
18 points
Solus 2021
„Young and intense and deeply fragrant – blackcurrant, blackcurrant bud, blackcurrant leaf. Inky and silky, like calligraphy shining new black-ink drops and bleeding black lines on wide, creamy, linen-woven spaces waiting for words. Deliciously, robustly ripe, and you could drink this now but it’s almost raw in its exuberance. I’d hold this back for at least three years.”
17+ points
Solus 2007
„The rim is just beginning to acquire a garnet tinge, and the ruby colour is just beginning to fade, but this does not look like a 17-year-old wine! Jammy and rich; cooked plums wrapped in golden tobacco leaves with a delicious roast-beef savouriness and tea-leaf senescence. Incredible sweetness at its heart, and although the alcohol is high and certainly throat-warming, it fits the wine. The tannins have mellowed into autumnal gentleness, although they haven’t let go. It’s really aged extraordinarily well. What a treat to taste this side by side with its 2020 sibling.”
17 points
Attila 2020
„So very young, and the long tannins are still tightly clenched and coiled, but they cannot hide the richness and sumptuous opulence of the fruit. Gleamingly ripe blackcurrant and black plums with an undertow of coffee bean and cacao husk. There’s a hint of dried herbs and black-olive bitterness, a trace of pencil lead. Lots here, but it really is a baby still.”
17,5 points
Attila Merlot 2015
„This smells glorious. Dark cherries, plum jam, a little smoky, some chipotle. Dramatic concentration and magnificent intensity. The oak and tannins tightly corset the plush, velvety fruit, so that despite the swanky luxuriance, there is restraint. Sweet tobacco and cigar-box spices lengthen in the finish. Just beautiful and so ready to drink.”
17,5 points
