2018 Tempos Vega Sicilia Oremus Mandolas Furmint Tokaji 750 ml

Hungary isn’t on most American wine-drinkers’ radars, and when savvy collectors look its way, it’s typically for Tokaji, the rich dessert wine made primarily from Furmint, the country’s most famous native grape. But dry Furmint is perhaps the nation’s greatest hidden treasure, comprising some of Europe’s most profoundly complex, mineral-driven white wines.

Few bottles channel Furmint’s citrus vibrancy with more balance, nuance, and clarity than the 2018 Oremus Mandolás. Hailing from historic terroir, it’s tailor-made for lovers of Loire Chenin Blanc and top-tier Sancerre, with waves of minerality accented by white flowers, beeswax, and tarragon that linger on an exceptionally long finish. 

“Gloriously refined” and “Furmint at its most precise,” according to Decanter, Mandolás earned a spot on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list and illustrates why Tokaji was a mainstay in royal banquet halls and courts for centuries. 

Oremus is a passion project of iconic producer Vega Sicilia—in fact, it's their only venture outside of Spain—and one of the premier wineries of central Europe. Hungary’s vineyards were the first in the world to be formally classified, and Mandolás comes from one that has been ranked as First Growth-quality since the 1600s.

Oremus is one of the pioneers of intense, dry whites in the region, and the Mandolás bottling is a prime example of why there’s a growing buzz about the wines. The grapes for the wine are hand-harvested into tiny baskets to avoid prematurely crushing them, then gently pressed. Fermentation takes place in new oak barrels, and the wine then ages in 136-liter barrels that are unique to Hungary. 

The result is a stunning white wine that will only grow in complexity over the next few years.