Some bottles grace moments that stick with us forever – it's really at the core of our love for wine, isn’t it?

With the arrival of István Bencze's Pinot Noir, I’m taken to a gauzy August evening at Mon Lapin; which has become a haunt for Leon & Son employees visiting Montréal (for good reason). I was there in '22 after a lazy croissant-crumbed afternoon in the nearby park with best friends (truly the day was about killing time before our reservation); after picking a couple things from the day’s list, we asked our server to choose something they were excited about. To be honest, among the many culty things on the list, I was not expecting a bottle of vaguely familiar Hungarian Pinot Noir to land on the table.

What followed was an experience: velvet-fruited, savory, with enough bright acidity to move deftly between the (many 😅) courses of very-much-in-season chanterelles, perfectly crisped chicken topped with caviar, *the* tomatoes . . .

It’s an extremely impressive bottle of wine.

They say a bottle will never taste as good as it did on vacation but – that is not the case here. I made sure to snag some of this release, and I hope you do, too. More below! – Carolyn Negri, Director of Marketing

István Bencze’s circle is a who’s-who of benchmark central European producers: he studied with Tscheppe and Tauss; was mentored by Strekov; complimented heavily by Nestarec. So it’s no surprise that he is making Hungary’s most expressive natural wine.

He’s an IT entrepreneur with a family history of winemaking, whose passion project a decade ago has spiraled into an eye-opening, 18ha Demeter-certified biodynamic estate. There’s Pinot Noir (featured today); and he farms Riesling, Chenin, and a docket of Hungary’s indigenous grapes (Furmint, Harszlevelú, Keknyelú) – which includes a claim to the only plot of Bakator left.

István; his bucolic estate. 📷 via @benczebirtok

The locale is Hungary’s answer to Lake Garda, a Mediterranean microclimate in the mountains north of popular vacation destination Lake Balaton. Southeast of the (surprisingly, much smaller) Neusiedlersee, it’s central Europe’s largest lake; and, the ancestral home of Hungarian winemaking. István’s vineyards may well be on the most beautiful spot in Hungary, on the slopes of historic extinct volcano Szent György-hegy (which is also conveniently dotted with clay and limestone).

His style is always in pursuit of energy, harvesting earlier than the rest of the region and maintaining a lower ABV.

And the winemaking has evolved over time to be zero-zero: no sulfur, fining or filtration here. Native fermentation is in amphora, with a mix of stainless steel, concrete and wood aging.

This isn’t a very expensive bottle, which is shocking given the level of care and detail that goes into it. I guarantee you’ll be impressed and perhaps – more interested in Hungarian wine than ever before.

2022 Bencze Pinot Noir, Balatonmelleki, Hungary $30; Magnum, $80

It's hard to impress a Jersey girl with tomatoes, but, here we are . . .

Bencze's Pinot Noir among crisped chicken and caviar, tomatoes with pillowy dumplings

I can't imagine a more beautiful thing.

The list. 😍

📷 via Carolyn Negri