While "blind" wine tastings may be the new rage among Hungarian wine fans, I and a small group of discriminating Budapest boozers have actually been doing them for years. I haven't ever written one up for the simple reason that I usually get so soused I forget to take notes, or lose my notes on the way home. But the last such event was interesting enough that I followed-up with some of the swishers and spitters - i.e. the people who don't drink down every drop of wine which passes their lips - to refresh my memory.

As is customary in our group, we focused on eight reds. Though instead of our usual practice of pairing one Hungarian red with one foreign in each flight, the featured players were all Hungarian, and all from the 1997 vintage. To mix things up a bit, we added two younger wines, a 2002 Gere Solus and (don't hate me) a 1998 Château Mouton Rothschild, the latter of which at one point scored 96 points from American wine guru Robert Parker. So just in case you are wondering how some high-end Hungarian wines fare after a decade plus underground, and facing some very young and stiff competition, here's how they placed:

• Tiffán Grand Selection: This was apparently Tiffán's first attempt at making a "showcase" wine, but it did not show very well when it was young. Ten years out, however, it had a rather nice tobacco nose, and still had some acidity, and otherwise was a pleasant surprise given its dubious origins.
• Bock Cuvee: A somewhat nice nose and drinkable, but sharp enough on the palate that it was not really enjoyable. All thought it a great pity, given that not so long ago, the wine was going down very nicely and always offered good value for money.
• Vylyan Pinot Noir: Also a fine and value-oriented wine in its youth. (Our group probably last tasted it four or five years ago.) But whether because of bad storage conditions or just the inherent age-limitations of the grape, it was dead by the time it reached the table, and not even readily recognizable as Pinot.
• Gere Merlot Selection: This was apparently the only year the Great Gere made this wine, and it was very expensive when it came out, if not particularly drinkable. It does not seem to have improved at all with age, and aged it did seem.
• Heimann Cervus: Cloudy and otherwise showing its age. Some (me) thought it was not utterly dead, but one other taster summed up the mood of the table by calling it "totally shot in the head."
• Thummerer Egri Bikavér: This was a very inexpensive wine in its youth. Unfortunately, it should probably have been drunk up in its youth, though some thought the bottle we sampled was simply off. Either way, it was a goner.
• Takler Trio: I thought this wine - which quaintly came in a bottle with a Bortarsaság label - had a nice Cabernet Franc nose and was very much alive, though other members of our tarsaság thought it not at all charming.
• Gönczer Cabernet Sauvignon: Very, very fine and the clear winner among the '97s. Some even thought it was the Mouton - almost.