Furmint in Saumur (1925)

originally posted by Yixin:
So what happened? When did the Furmint get pulled out, and why? I guess it wasn't phylloxera?
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I'd guess the AOC did it in. That's not to say there still aren't vines growing somewhere.

Here's an 1868 text about trials of Hungarian grapes in France which includes a bit about Odart, his introduction of furmint in Touraine - and his skepticism re results in the Midi.

rapport.jpg

tokaytouraine.jpg
 
they are making a distinction between tokay and furmint (the real grape of tokay)... interesting.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Szepsy was a co-owner of Kiralyudvar in Tokaj with Tony, but I think Tony has bought him out, and he is definitely no longer involved in the winemaking. I had never heard that he was invested in Huet. It would seem implausible that a Hungarian vigneron would have accumulated enough forints by the mid-'90s to be making hard currency investments, just thinking about it.
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OK,
My friend weighed in and (surprise, surprise!) I was totally mistaken. Huet is 100% Hwang and my friend (who was brought in to help assuage Noel Pinguet's concerns about a Chinese-born investor) can't recall any role for Szepsy in the proceedings. He did also speculate that it was Szepsy's lingering hostility toward Communism that eroded his relationship with Tony Hwang and led to their eventual falling-out at Kiralyudvar.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
He did also speculate that it was Szepsy's lingering hostility toward Communism that eroded his relationship with Tony Hwang and led to their eventual falling-out at Kiralyudvar.
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??

What you take with one hand, you give with the other.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by MLipton:
He did also speculate that it was Szepsy's lingering hostility toward Communism that eroded his relationship with Tony Hwang and led to their eventual falling-out at Kiralyudvar.
Click to expand...
??

What you take with one hand, you give with the other.
Click to expand...

Szepsy was forced out as winemaker at Kiralyudvar and replaced by Pinguet. That much you knew, no? The story, according to my friend (who says that it's gleaned from the oblique comments of Mr. Hwang), is that Szepsy was doing things on the sly at Kiralyudvar and not being honest with Tony Hwang about it, which led to the personnel change there. My friend suspects that it was Szepsy's hostile memories of Communism that led him to behave so, but he also states that it is mere conjecture.

Mark Lipton
 
Hold on - I thought Tony Hwang was Taiwanese (not Chinese) and a banker. Not exactly pre-conditioned to be pro-Communist. I don't get it.
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Hold on - I thought Tony Hwang was Taiwanese (not Chinese) and a banker. Not exactly pre-conditioned to be pro-Communist. I don't get it.
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No one said that it was rational, Scott.

Mark Lipton
 
Szepsy has his own label now (or always did?) because I brought back from HU a bottle of 2006 Kiraly Tokaji Harslevelu with his name on the label.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by MLipton:
He did also speculate that it was Szepsy's lingering hostility toward Communism that eroded his relationship with Tony Hwang and led to their eventual falling-out at Kiralyudvar.
Click to expand...
??

What you take with one hand, you give with the other.
Click to expand...

Szepsy was forced out as winemaker at Kiralyudvar and replaced by Pinguet. That much you knew, no?
Click to expand...
I hate to torture you with this, but once again we have discrepant understandings. Szepsy was replaced by Zoltan Demeter, who is still winemaker there AFAIK, and a very competent guy he seems to be. Pinguet consults, and visits during the year, but it would be asking a lot for him to be the actual winemaker at two estates that are pretty much a full day's travel apart in each direction and that could have overlapping harvests.

I'll pass over the Communism thing because I don't get it at all. Tony has never seemed very Bolshie to me. And I suspect it's hard to find Hungarians without resentment at the old regime, but there I speak from almost pure conjecture.

Anyhow, there you are.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by MLipton:
He did also speculate that it was Szepsy's lingering hostility toward Communism that eroded his relationship with Tony Hwang and led to their eventual falling-out at Kiralyudvar.
Click to expand...
??

What you take with one hand, you give with the other.
Click to expand...

Szepsy was forced out as winemaker at Kiralyudvar and replaced by Pinguet. That much you knew, no?
Click to expand...
I hate to torture you with this, but once again we have discrepant understandings. Szepsy was replaced by Zoltan Demeter, who is still winemaker there AFAIK, and a very competent guy he seems to be. Pinguet consults, and visits during the year, but it would be asking a lot for him to be the actual winemaker at two estates that are pretty much a full day's travel apart in each direction and that could have overlapping harvests.

I'll pass over the Communism thing because I don't get it at all. Tony has never seemed very Bolshie to me. And I suspect it's hard to find Hungarians without resentment at the old regime, but there I speak from almost pure conjecture.

Anyhow, there you are.
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Has anyone considered that Szepsy's alledged behavior (his not being aboveboard) may have been the result of living under the Hungarian communist regime? With communism having nothing to do with Hwang?
 
originally posted by Tom Glasgow:
Has anyone considered that Szepsy's alledged behavior (his not being aboveboard) may have been the result of living under the Hungarian communist regime?
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When I visited Budapest last fall, one of the owners of the B&B had grown up and worked under Communism. (In fact, he was a performer and toured outside of Hungary... which made his Overlords all the more strict and watchful.)

Anyway, now he's a capitalist. Didn't cheat me. (Trust and verify, you know.)
 
originally posted by Tom Glasgow:
Has anyone considered that Szepsy's alledged behavior (his not being aboveboard) may have been the result of living under the Hungarian communist regime? With communism having nothing to do with Hwang?
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Ummmm, no. This would seem to be compounding a series of hypotheticals in parallel to the actual events with actual people and their real motivations, about which we seem to know rather little. I'd rather stay out of it, myself.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Tom Glasgow:
Has anyone considered that Szepsy's alledged behavior (his not being aboveboard) may have been the result of living under the Hungarian communist regime? With communism having nothing to do with Hwang?
Click to expand...

Ummmm, no. This would seem to be compounding a series of hypotheticals in parallel to the actual events with actual people and their real motivations, about which we seem to know rather little. I'd rather stay out of it, myself.
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Pure speculation on my part for certain, thus my title.
 
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