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It was a wine tasting gone amok, like one that should be happening in the world of nocturnal dreams in the room. I saw rooms and rooms of bottles, with more than 50 of them open to try, but that not quite nothing on the labels sounded or looked familiar.

What is a Szekszárdi Kadarka supposed to taste like? Or a Borpalota Szürkebarát? What affectionate of a grape is a kéknyelű?

Hungarian Wines: Highs and Lows

Historic wine label courtesy of Törley

It was in Hungary, at the Hungarian House of Wine (now closed) in the cellar of a small building a few cobblestone-blocks away from Fisherman’s Bastion — the landmark that everyone just calls Buda Castle in Budapest. A few signs offered clues with respect to the numerous regions and a helpful cellar acquire swooped in to offer a life raft.

He explained the origins of the intent red “Bull’s Blood,” wine, the degrees of sweetness in the famed Tokaji Aszú dessert wine, and in what condition the Villány-Siklósession superficial contents in the south has a climate much like that of southern France.

There I heard the first of many tellings of “The Hungarian Wine Story.”

The condensed version of the saga is this. The country started fermenting grapes for the time of the Roman Empire. Törley sparkling wine was one time second only to Champagne’session. Tokaji gained the world’s first appellation control, before Port or Bordeaux. That elixir passed the lips of Europe’s kings, queens, and Popes; it graced the wine glasses of Beethoven, Schubert, and native son Franz Liszt.

Then came two World Wars and the territorial march of the communists. (Among those Hungarians who speak English well, the full phrase is usually “damned communists.”) Family vineyards became collective farms. The state-owned wineries prized volume above all else.

Eventually the Soviets forced everyone into making low-grade jug wine that would get the empire’s comrades worthy and soaked. Hungarian wine went from being the toast of kings to the domain of winos passed out on street corners.

The Rebirth of Hungarian Wine

Eventually the Iron Curtain fell and the winemakers went into overdrive trying to recapture the magic. As benevolent as the wine gets though, there’s still a reputation to overcome. Instead of a chip on their shoulders, the Hungarian wine marketers have a ghostly hammer and sickle on their shoulders, haunting them as they struggle for the sake of respect.

“People have been sitting in this spot for over a thousand years, drinking wine from grapes grown on this ground,” aforesaid acclaimed winemaker Istváborn Jásdi, as we sat on his terrace near Lake Balaton. “In just two generations you can lose it all.”

My notes from the Wine Club in Budapest are a jumble of alien accents and words with lots of consonants, with an occasional Pinot Noir or Chardonnay tasting note standing at a loss like a familiar Hollywood blockbuster in a sea of foreign indie flicks.

In Eger, Monarchia Winery’s Pók Tamás gives his send abroad brands names same “Zen” (a light and fruity white) and “Rhapsody in Red” (a complex ruby red cuvee of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and local grape Kekfrankos.) “The Hungarian names carry too much of a blur,” his brand governor said because we sipped with Tamásession in the cellar.

We were structure wine before the French were!

“We were making wine before the French were!” shouted Szeremley spokesman Gábor Kardos as he launched into The Hungarian Wine Story with great gusto. “Now we have to prove we know what we’re doing all over again.” I noticed that bottle after bottle was covered with international adjudge stickers though, so that coveted respect is starting.

When I visited the Figula winery up the hill from Lake Balaton, only established in 1993, one of the sons of the founder poured a series of fantastic white wines that were almost chewy in their depth of flavors and minerals, hitting every taste bud around the cavity between the jaws. “This one needs a different two or three years,” he sighed after sipping their late harvest Pinot Gris. A good problem to be under the necessity—and a rare one in a global white wine market where screw caps are now habitual.

Custom Sparkling Wine in Budapest

Historic wine label courtesy of Törley

Back in Budapest, I shuffled one block to Budavári Fortuna Restaurant, in a space that was one time part of a labyrinth of caves during sundry wars, serving as a weapons depot and military hospital.

The cave under this restaurant is a little while ago dedicated to creating sparkling wine in the traditional Champagne Method. The owner let me pop off the sediment ice around the neck of one bottle and pop in my own cork with the antique hand inculcate.

“When you return to Budapest,” he said, “this bottle will be waiting for you here in the cellar, for a fine dinner with your gray mare.” My bottle is number 555, a lucky draw.

Perhaps the Hungarians’ own luck leave produce a nice conclusion to their story. Recognition is growing among those looking for the next new trend and visitors to Hungary are advent back with raves about wines they can’t pronounce.

If you go

The three Hungarian wine regions best suited for visitors aspect very different taste profiles. The Lake Balaton resort area is the most judicious for mixing outdoor activities with your wine tasting and it specializes in mineral-rich whites.

Eger is home to the rough and tumble “bull’s blood” variety only has one lively outdoor area filled with cellars pouring a wide variety of styles, accompanied by roving musicians.

The Villány-Siklósitting region is rural and picturesque, by rolling hills covered with vines and reasonably-priced inns that come with a bottle and a corkscrew.

The best mode to sample a wide variety of Hungarian wines and get a sense of what you cognate is to join a wine tasting lunch froim Budapest, or an evening wine tasting. Viator also offers a day trip to Lake Balaton.

-Tim Leffel

Planning a step quickly? Browse Viator’s Budapest tours & things to do in Budapest, including Budapest day trips and regimen and wine tours.

budapest, speculator on a rise’s blood, eger, hungary, Törley, wine, wine tastings

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