Furmint

Furmint is a high-acid white grape best known from Hungary’s Tokaj region, producing everything from bone-dry whites to intensely sweet Tokaji. Expect green apple, pear and citrus with quince, herbs and a mineral edge, while sweeter styles bring apricot and honey. It’s brilliant with seafood, roast chicken, pork, spicy Asian food, blue cheese and fruit desserts.

Taste:

Fresh, sharp and capable of a fairly dramatic personality change.

Dry Furmint is typically light to medium-bodied, with high acidity and flavours of green apple, pear, lemon and lime. You may also find quince, white flowers, herbs and a distinctive stony or mineral character.

Richer examples can bring more texture, ripe stone fruit and subtle spice, particularly with oak ageing.

Then there’s sweet Furmint. As the key grape behind many Tokaji wines, it can produce intensely concentrated flavours of apricot, peach, honey and marmalade while retaining enough acidity to keep all that sweetness beautifully balanced.

Bone-dry one minute, legendary dessert wine the next. Furmint clearly hates being pigeonholed.

Food Pairings:

Furmint’s high acidity makes it brilliantly versatile around food.

Dry Furmint is excellent with seafood, including prawns, crab, mussels, grilled fish, sea bass and cod. Sushi and sashimi work beautifully too.

For meat, try roast chicken, grilled chicken, roast pork, pork chops or schnitzel, particularly with fresh herbs.

Its acidity also works well with creamy dishes, including mushroom pasta, mushroom risotto and creamy chicken dishes.

Off-dry styles can handle spicy Asian food brilliantly. Try Thai curry, spicy noodles or dishes featuring chilli, ginger and aromatic spices.

Sweet Furmint is a completely different proposition, pairing beautifully with blue cheese, cheesecake, apricot tart, peach desserts, fruit tart and crème brûlée.

Similar Wines:

If you enjoy Furmint, Tokaji is essential exploring – Furmint is the key grape behind many of the region’s famous wines, including its legendary sweet styles.

Riesling is a natural next move for another high-acid white capable of producing everything from bone-dry to intensely sweet wine.

Chenin Blanc shares that same impressive versatility, while Grüner Veltliner is worth trying if it’s dry Furmint’s crisp, mineral and food-friendly side you love most.

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More About Furmint:

Furmint is most closely associated with the historic Tokaj wine region in northeastern Hungary, although it’s also grown in neighbouring countries including Slovakia.

It’s the most important grape in Tokaji Aszú, where its naturally high acidity is crucial for balancing the enormous concentration and sweetness created by noble rot.

Furmint has thin skins and is particularly susceptible to Botrytis cinerea, which is exactly what producers want when conditions are right for making sweet Tokaji.

In recent years, dry Furmint has also gained considerably more international attention, showing that the grape has plenty to offer without a gram of dessert involved.

Spent centuries famous for sweet wine. Turns out it was excellent dry too.

Quite the side hustle.