As the title suggests, Kadarka is not an originally Hungarian grape but still one of the most popular and successful variety on the country’s winemakers selection. That is thanks to its crucial role in the blend of the famous Bull’s Blood from Eger and Szekszárd. About Bull’s Blood you can read more HERE and but now let’s focus more on Kadarka and why we should put a nice example in our cellar.
The origin
Kadarka is a very historic grape, its origin is still unknown although it has been traced back by DNA profiling to the Montenegro/Albanian border, where the Turkish variety Papazkarsi supposedly met with Serbian variety Skadarsko. In Hungary, it was probably brought to the country by Serbs fleeing from the Ottomans. It has many synonyms, such as Törökszőlő and Fekete Budai, Skadarka in Serbia and Gamza in Bulgaria. Kadarka has become a real Hungarian treasure and many producers have stood by it despite how difficult is to deal with it in the vineyards.
Nowadays, Kadarka is grown on almost 1,000 hectares around the world, with 325 of those in Hungary. It is late-flowering and ripening, with medium-sized, slightly square-shaped leaves and quite large, cylindrical, dense clusters. It tolerates drought well but does not like very low temperatures, while it prefers loess soils and low training. Kadarka is most common in the Szekszárd wine district in terms of proportion, while the greatest quantity is to be found in the Kunság wine district. Outside Hungary, it is also cultivated in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Romania (Minis wine region).
Vinification
As I have mentioned before, it is a grape that’s fairly difficult to vinify. Green unripe grapes used to be used for white sparkling wines. Ripe Kadarka has generally been a blending grape, but with the new investments going into the vineyards, with better clonal selection and vineyard managing, Kadarka is starting to show its true potential and is often called Hungary’s answer to Pinot Noir. Oak aging is the norm and one can also in the colder vintages in Hungary find some surprisingly decent rosé wines from Kadarka.
All in all it gives some beautiful red wines usually with medium ruby-purple colour, red berry fruit cherry, fresh spices, paprika and gingerbread with appealing herbal and delicate floral notes. It is light to medium in body with restrained tannins and bright acidity. Not a surprise that one of the best pairings includes the famous goulash and all sorts of Hungarian dishes which made with a proportion of paprika spice. However from the Italian cuisine we can find a couple of matches such as lasagna and pizza with some of the tomato pasta dishes.
You can store the best examples usually with some oak aging from 5-10 years easily, but most of them made for early consuption to enjoy its light, fresh style at its best. If you are more into this lighter bodied wines like a Pinot Noir, I am sure you should try and discover a great Kadarka as well!
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You forgot Romania as Cadarca it was the favourite variety of Franz Jozes who built a road from Minis to Viena to facilitate freight of his wine.
I have mentioned the region which is the most notable from Romania, although as the title says I was focusing on the Hungarian part and cultivation of the variety. Thank you for your feedback and have a great weekend!