The bottle includes a handy map so you don't get lost in varietals

Having visited Pfneiszl last year, I've been intrigued by the wines that Birgit and her sister Katrin have been making.     In preparing for her career as a winemaker, Birgit literally traveled around the world to learn about winemaking in Italy, California, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. The result of this was an interest in trying out the various wines from these regions in their vineyards in Hungary. These few vines were just starting to produce last year and they had they have had their first proper harvest of them.     The end result is the távoli világ, a wine that is a blend of Shiraz, Carmenére, Malbec, Zinfandel, and Sangiovese. Definitely a wild blend (that I hope I never have to pronounce in front of a Hungarian), but one that is done quite delicately reflecting the fact that Birgit learned these grapes well in her travels. It's quite subtle at first, but then opens up with mint and watercress in a decently mineral nose. That watercress then turns in to a peppery, enjoyably spicy body that is light and fresh with the slightest tinges of strawberry and much more prevalent dark chocolate flavors. Raspberry also comes out after some decent breathing. On there finish there is a slight effervescence which is also in the nose when first opened.     An interesting wine that, due to the small amount of vines is not a large production, which is shown in the 500ml bottles and the fact it's most likely not going to be available outside of Hungary and Austria.

The main winery headquarters and tasting room.

The same day that we paid a trip to the Hungarian side of Pfneisl (which is actually the separate company of Pfneiszl), we also took a trip across the Austrian/Hungarian border that no long exists due to the 2007 Schengen enlargement. After a bit more of a trip, we were able to see how wine making was for the Austrian side of things. As we quickly saw near the small town of Deutschkreutz, winegrowing appears to be going very well. The family has been making wine for over a century in this area and to date now harvests from an astounding 70 hectares (175 acres) of vineyard land. It's quite overwhelming to stand in the middle of it. This is of course made all the more impressive by the extremely modern tasting room and headquarters that they constructed, which you can see in the photo above. The structure has won numerous design awards and is often featured in roundups of impressive winery architecture.     Naturally, buildings are great because you need somewhere to age and taste the wine, but what is of course most important is the wine itself. Pfneisl offers a lovely range of wines with potent reds that are typical of the Burgenland area, punctuating their repertoire. Overall the wines are telling of a winery that has been in business for a long time. There is common consistency to everything that they do. Whether you're tasting a Shiraz, Merlot, or a Cabernet Sauvignon, you know that it's from Pfneisl. It's an admirable quality that speaks well of the wines, although I often enjoy my wines a bit more wild, which you see a great deal more in the ones from Pfneiszl in Hungary.     We had a brief tasting, but it included their 2005 Shiraz, which is aged in American oak. It's a very smooth, enjoyable wine. The flavors are consistent to the point of being a bit bland, but they stop just short, giving some strong, underlying elements. The oak is rather strong, but it does give way to subtle blackberry aromas in the nose.     The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon puts forth a lot of dark oak aromas on the nose. Surprisingly, these give way to a lovely, smooth body that makes for great sipping and could easily be paired any number of foods, especially spicy dishes like Thai or Indian curries. As the wine opens up, it develops a sweet pine quality to the nose that is very pleasing. Naturally, the finish is smooth.     We then moved on to the upper echelon wines which started with the 2005 Pentagon. This wine is a blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot, and Blaufränkisch/Kékfrankos. It wasn't any surprise that after tasting the single varietal Cab Sauv, that this was once again very, very smooth. It opens up with a touch of bite coming from the oak, but mellows out with air with the body being easygoing the whole time. There is a bit of sweet berry to the finish. Oddly enough, to me it seems like the Pinot comes through quite a bit, despite it being in the least amount of the blend.     We finished with the Hexenberg. This is a 55/45 blend of Merlot and Shiraz. The aging regimen includes three years in French barrique which the first half of is in new barrels before being switch the those that are aged. We were told it could even stand for another decade of aging if one wished. Again, the wine was smooth and silky. It had a complex makeup to it that only slightly betrayed like boysenberry in the body, but to a slightly higher degree some young citrus as well, which was a surprised. The finish is dead-on clean and perfect. It's an excellent wine, but when trying to decide which I would choose between this and the Pentagon, I would have a tough choice as they are both excellent.     Everything concluded a great series of wines from an established winery. While often hard to find outside of Europe if in the area and you see a bottle, give it a try, you will absolutely not regret it a glass, or two, or... maybe even a whole bottle of any of these wines.

A tasting out amongst the Pfneiszl vineyards that started with their Sparkelina.

Pfneiszl is a young winery on old lands. Or actually, it's an old winery on its own old lands if that makes any sense. You see Pfneiszl (or Pfneisl depending on which side of the Hungarian/Austrian border you're on) is an old family winery based in both Hungary and Austria. It's just that in Hungary, the 27 hectares that made up their wine growing lands were seized by the former communist regime of Hungary in the name of collectivization. After that happened, they had to "make due" with the 70 hectares that the family kept in Austria just on the other side of the border. In 1993, these lands were returned to the family after decades of pumping out cheap bulk wine that was mostly sold to Russia. By this time, on the Austrian side they had been making very well-recognized wines and in what must be one of the most incredible gifts I've ever seen from a parent, they gave this 27 hectares to their daughters to work up and establish as a Hungarian winery.     These stories are not uncommon in the area of Sopron (pron. Shohprohn) in the far east of Hungary on a peninsula of territory that sticks in to Austria, right in to the middle of the very nice Burgenland winegrowing region. The Pfneisl sisters (they grew up in Austria, thus the spelling), Birgit and Katrin have now been running the vines for several years and bottled their first vintage in 2004. A good deal of replanting happened 10 years ago to replace a number of vines, although some of their older vines still remain. These days, they're growing Kékfrankos, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Sangiovese, Malbec, Carmenére, Zenit, and as amazing as it is, even some Zinfandel. Birgit's study of winemaking around the world quickly becomes evident in the diverse selection of grapes.     While they have a tasting room near the center of Sopron, they took us out to a tasting amongst the vineyards overlooking Lake Fertö, which is a wide, flat, reedy lake that is at most two meters deep. Once up in the vineyard, one can see that it creates for an excellent micro climate that allows for a great deal of sun to hit the vines all year. Overall, you can taste this in the wines, as they hold a great deal more depth than other wines from just over the hill. But, enough about history, let's talk about the wines themselves.     We started off with their take on the Sparkling White Wine, which they call Sparkelina. We tasted the 2007 vintage and found it to be not too dry and very even-tempered. It has a clean finish and while I'm not a huge fan of the bubbly in general, I found their version to be quite pleasant and pleasing to drink. From there, it was on to the Kékfrankos 2006 'Classic'. It's a blend of grapes that have been aged in stainless steel with 30% in old Hungarian barrique. The nose is very calm and mild. The body is easy to drink and rather light and seemingly typical of Kékfrankos from the region, but light blackberry tones give way to a touch of pepper and other spices that you can taste near the end and in to the finish of the wine.     It was then on to one of Pfneiszl's signature wines, which is the Tango. We tasted the 2006 which is a blend of 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 60% Merlot, and 10% Shiraz. The nose is light with a hint of vanilla and stronger blackberry elements to it. The body is smooth and the finish is pleasing. As the wine breathes more, it becomes more and more pleasing and is a wine that I would really recommend for just bout any meal as it is even-tempered and mellow, while at the same time carrying a good deal of flavor.     The Kékfrankos 2004 is a vintage that was aged in barrique for 22 months. Again, the nose has blackberry aromas to it, but it develops a slightly more complex nature with herbs coming through. A number of the aromas drop out in the body, but the berry tones stay quite prevalent and the body is a good deal more dry than the other wines of theirs we tasted, yet it is still quite pleasant.     The 2005 Shiraz has what I describe as a very creamy body which according to Birgit is from an extended fermentation period in the barrique. The barrique are French oak due to the 18 month stay in them, the wine takes on a number of vanilla qualities.     Their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon proved to be a nice surprise. Other Cabs from the region, I've often found to be rather flat given that I've been spoiled growing up on California Cabs. But the Pfneiszl Cab is not flat at all. It is dry, but very flavorful. The body is complex and earthy. It doesn't have the "cherry nose" to it that I've often found in other Central European Cabs. Birgit said that it had just been bottled a few months previous, so it was still under a bit of bottle shock, but irregardless, it was a very enjoyable wine to drink. Perhaps this is due to the 24 months it spends in Hungarian barrique.     The Impression Rouge is a blend of 50% Kékfrankos, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Merlot. There is good deal more oak to it, which is probably due to the newer barrique that are being used. The finish has a delightful touch of boysenberry to it, which was quite unexpected. It is also a delightful wine to drink with deep, woody tones.     One thing to note about these wines is that Birgit's style is to allow the wines to be a bit more "wild" in their flavors. She doesn't try to force a particular consistency to the wines and this allows them to each be their own and age as they may. While this may be a death knell for other younger winemakers, she manages to work the wines in this manner with a great deal of success, making each Pfneiszl vintage quite unique. To this end, they also give each wine vintage its own name based upon how they feel the grapes tasted for that year. For instance, 2004 was, "Cool Elegance" and 2005 was "Starling's Favorite". It's a nice touch that makes the wines have a bit more character than just a numerical year on them.