Hárslevelű

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Hárslevelű, white grape variety, whose name means ‘linden leaf’, which is most widely grown in hungary, where it produces characteristically spicy, aromatic white wines. This is the variety which brings perfume to furmint, the variety that has been shown to be its parent by dna profiling whose grapes make up the majority of the blend for the famous dessert wine tokaji. Hárslevelű is widely planted elsewhere in Hungary, to a national total of 1,659 ha/4,098 acres in 2011, and produces a range of varietal wines which vary considerably in quality and provenance. Good Hárslevelű is typically deep green-gold, very viscous, full, with the powerful flavour of linden honey. In Somló, it produces a less aromatic wine with some minerality while in Villány-Siklós it gives a softer, more perfumed wine.