Nivegy-völgy

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The Nivegy Valley is a geographically well-defined unit on the middle section of Lake Balaton's northern shore, surrounded by hills on three sides and bounded by Lake Balaton to the south.
• Beneath the clayey layer, Triassic limestone is the dominant bedrock everywhere in the soil.
• The area receives an average of 1,950–2,000 hours of sunshine a year, and the mean annual temperature is 11–12 °C.
• Average annual precipitation is 650–700 mm, of which an average of 350 mm falls during the growing season.
• The climate of the area is shaped by the cold air flowing down into the valleys of the Bakony Mountains and by Lake Balaton, which stretches along the southern side of the basin.
• The vineyard hills lie within a vast expanse of forest, so the humid warmth that drifts in from Lake Balaton during summer days is replaced in the evening by cool mountain and forest air between the vine rows.
• Both warmer and cooler vineyard sites are found in the valley, which brings stability to viticulture, and the area is sheltered from frost and hail.

• The formation of the growing area is the result of deliberate human work: for millennia, local growers have planted vines only on frost-protected, quickly warming hillsides, rather than on the low-lying, marshy ground that is prone to frost and favourable to disease.
• Local growers based their viticulture on Olaszrizling, a late-ripening white grape variety well adapted to the ecological conditions of the area, and half of the varieties grown in the Nivegy Valley are Olaszrizling.
• In winemaking, the wine may be fermented only with yeast that does not alter the varietal character of Olaszrizling, including its almond notes.
• Yields are tightly regulated; for single-vineyard wines the harvest may only be carried out by hand, and the maximum permitted yields have been set according to the requirements of quality wine production.

• The aromas of Nivegy Valley wines are discreet rather than showy, yet the wines are marked by richness of flavour and aroma.
• In their younger years, the fruit aromas show green apple, pear, occasionally quince and citrus notes, while the nose also carries chalky, mineral, flinty notes.
• On the palate, alongside a ripe and complex acid structure, the chalky notes derived from the soil's bedrock dominate, and after tasting, a long almond aftertaste, owed to the variety, lingers.

• Because limestone is the dominant bedrock everywhere beneath the clayey layer of the soil, the wines produced in the Nivegy Valley, especially Olaszrizling, are dominated by mineral, chalky and almond notes on both nose and palate.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Hungary

Sources

• Specification (EUR-Lex, single document)
• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-HU-02816