&nbsp;

Calling all curious wine drinkers! Let&#39;s raise a glass to Furmint, a captivating white grape from Hungary with a fascinating history and an impressive range of styles. Buckle up, as we delve into the world of this intriguing grape variety.

A Hungarian Legacy: Imagine yourself in Tokaj, Hungary, a region steeped in winemaking tradition. For centuries, Furmint has thrived in its volcanic soil, basking in the warm sunshine. These grapes, loved for their thick skin and high acidity, became the cornerstone of Hungary&#39;s most famous wine: Tokaji. These sweet, honeyed treasures were once enjoyed by royalty and popes!

Furmint&#39;s Versatility: But Furmint is no one-trick pony. Besides the world-renowned dessert wines, it can also be vinified in a variety of dry styles, ranging from light and refreshing to full-bodied and complex. Think of it as a chameleon, adapting to different winemaking techniques to offer a spectrum of flavors &ndash; from citrusy and mineral to floral and even slightly smoky.

Comparing Furmint: If you&#39;re familiar with Sauvignon Blanc, you might find some similarities in Furmint&#39;s crisp acidity and zesty citrus notes. However, Furmint often boasts a richer texture and can develop intriguing honeyed or almond-like aromas with age. Compared to Chardonnay, Furmint tends to be lighter-bodied and less oaky, making it a great choice for those who prefer a more refreshing white wine.

Food Pairings: Furmint&#39;s versatility extends to food pairings. Lighter styles go beautifully with seafood dishes, while richer Furmints complement creamy pastas or grilled chicken. For the adventurous foodie, try pairing a dry Furmint with spicy Thai cuisine or Hungarian goulash &ndash; the acidity cuts through the richness, creating a harmonious symphony of flavors.

Ready to Explore? Now that you&#39;ve peeked into the world of Furmint, here are 4 renowned producers to get you started:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://bevmo.com/products/34547">Royal Tokaji:&nbsp;</a>Experience the legacy of Tokaji with their classic dessert wines.</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.winemadeeasy.com/wine/white-wine/disznoko-tokaji-dry-furmint-2021-750-ml-60182.html">Diszn&oacute;kő Tokaj:</a>&nbsp;Discover their range of dry Furmints, showcasing the grape&#39;s versatility.</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.plummarket.com/store/2019-vega-sicilia-oremus-tokaji-furmint-dry-mandolas.html">Oremus:&nbsp;</a>Explore their award-winning dry and sweet Furmints, produced with meticulous care.</li>
	<li><a href="https://con-nois-seur.ca/products/furmint-2021">Patricius Winery:</a>&nbsp;Delve into their single-vineyard Furmints, each reflecting the unique terroir.</li>
</ul>

So, the next time you&#39;re at the wine shop or restaurant, don&#39;t be shy &ndash; ask for Furmint! This Hungarian gem is waiting to introduce you to its captivating world of flavors and history, one sip at a time.

&nbsp;

A Hungarian Legacy: Imagine yourself in Tokaj, Hungary, a region steeped in winemaking tradition. For centuries, Furmint has thrived in its volcanic soil, basking in the warm sunshine. These grapes, loved for their thick skin and high acidity, became the cornerstone of Hungary's most famous wine: Tokaji. These sweet, honeyed treasures were once enjoyed by royalty and popes!

Furmint: Hungary's Hidden Gem for Wine Lovers

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

Ayza Wine & Chocolate Bar

Grace Hood

Ayza

Ayza

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!&nbsp;

A podcast where&nbsp;we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your host Robert Tas along with Grace Hood, wine educator and certified sommelier. Hello Grace,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s great to have you!

GH: Hey Hey Robert!

RT: Before we jump in, let&rsquo;s talk about those wine lists. We created CorkRules to help demystify wine list&rsquo;s because we know from experience, that sometimes when we get that list handed to us, well&hellip; it can be intimidating, and even a little daunting.

Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list, find those hidden gems, or value wines or that special bottle that will take your dining experience over the top.

RT:&nbsp;So today we&rsquo;re talking about the wine and chocolate bar, Ayza - Grace what are your initial thoughts?

GH: I mean who doesn&#39;t love wine and who doesn&#39;t&nbsp;love chocolate? I&#39;ve done chocolate and wine pairings in the past so this will be fun!

RT: Oh man I&rsquo;m excited! So where do we start?

GH: When it comes to pairing wine and chocolate, the things to be mindful of are dryness and sugar content. It&#39;s&nbsp;good to pair wines with similar styles of chocolate ya know. Like milder&nbsp;chocolates go well with lighter-bodied wines, while chocolates with more intense flavors can stand up to fuller-bodied wines.

RT: Makes total sense. What is sticking out to you on the Ayza list?

GH: Yeah so they have a nice little list - short and sweet and super affordable. And Most of their bottle prices are under $100 so that&#39;s always awesome.&nbsp;They have it broken down not only into the regular categories &ndash; white, red, rose etc. But then within the categories they break it down by style - floral, citrus, herbaceous, earthy etc. you know I love a well-thought-out wine list! Makes it so much more approachable to customers.

RT: Love that. Less complicated the better. So how are you going to approach a wine and chocolate pairing?

GH: I think breaking it down by type of chocolate would be the best way to go! So, starting in white chocolate which&nbsp;has a sweet, buttery flavor with notes of honey and cream. Sweet wines help cleanse the palate of the rich flavors from the white chocolate. So, on the Ayza list, you could go with the sparkling Moscato d&#39;Asti from the Alasia vineyard from the Piedmont region in northern Italy. I would say that out all the sweeter style wines out there, Moscato is one of the most well-known universally. You could also go with a Riesling as well for white chocolate - they have one from the brotherhood winery in the Hudson valley of New York. Which, super fun fact is the oldest continuously operating vineyard in America! It&rsquo;s been around since the early 1800s and was one of the only wineries to be able to survive through prohibition b/c what is a brotherhood, monks! It made wine for the church so that&#39;s how it was able to stay open while the rest of the and spirits&nbsp;production of America shut down. People love that piece of knowledge - whenever I ask someone where the oldest winery in America is they automatically say California, but nope it&#39;s in New York!&nbsp;&nbsp;

RT: How about that! I&rsquo;ll have to go visit that spot soon. Oldest Vineyard in America. How neat. So, what about milk chocolate?

GH: When we&#39;re talking milk chocolate&nbsp;its usually sweeter and creamier with some hints of brown sugar, vanilla, and cream. It&rsquo;ll do best with a light to medium-bodied wine as to not overpower those lovely nuances of the milk chocolate. This Gewurztraminer&nbsp;from Chateau&nbsp;St. Michelle out of Washington would complement&nbsp;those flavors nicely. And you can even do some reds with&nbsp;milk chocolate. I would go with the 2019 Cline from Sonoma, or the 2017 Cote de Beaune from Bouchard in Burgundy

RT: Ohhhh yum that sounds like a great combination. Now, how about dark chocolate?

GH: So, this is arguably my favorite style of chocolate - it&rsquo;s also the most healthy for you! High in antioxidants! I always have some dark chocolate-covered almonds in my kitchen. Since dark chocolate has less sugar and more pure cacao, we&#39;re going to get a lot more bitter earthy qualities to it, so we&#39;ll need a deeper richer wine to stand up to those characteristics. This 2018 Merlot from Mollydooker out of Australia would be a great pairing for dark chocolate, as well as this 2012 St Estephe from Les Pelerins de Lafon-Rochet from Bordeaux&nbsp;

RT: Amazing Grace. Great choices as always. Thank you for helping us navigate the wine list at Ayza.

To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules.&nbsp; If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to:<a href="mailto:Info@CorkRules.com">Info@CorkRules.com</a> or visit our web website where we have a request form available and we will do our best to get it in the queue as quickly as possible.

We are looking forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime, please check out our website for other episodes of your favorite restaurant wine lists. Follow us on social media @CorkRules and @wineswithgrace

And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

Thank you.

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End

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BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

Gap Weekend: A Film Shoot in Wine Country

Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Banfi is a leading wine producer in Tuscany, known for its exceptional wines that blend traditional winemaking techniques with modern technology. The winery is committed to producing high-quality wines that reflect the unique terroir of the region.

Steak Frites

Alexis Percival is a New York City based CMS certified sommelier, consultant and event planner who puts the art in party.

Certified sommelier Alexis Percival

homepage

CorkRules application allows you to discover wines at your favorite restaurants, learn with friends and be confident with price transparency. Order wine with confidence at restaurants and retailers. Get personalized recommendations. #DrinkWhatYouLove

Ancient Spirits & Grille

Crosby Roamann Sauvignon Blanc, USA, California, Napa Valley 2020

Sauvignon Blanc

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Böen

Pinot Noir 2018

Pinot Noir

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Riff

Pinot Grigio NV

Pinot Gris

Italy

Pie de Palo

Malbec 2019

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Le Chiantigiane

Da Capogiro Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2019

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Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Italy

Red Newt

Riesling, Finger Lakes 2017

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Barrique Cellars

North Coast Chardonnay, California 2019

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Tensley

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Henry Varnay

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Henry Varnay

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Cormòns

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