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Hungarian Wine Is Reaching New Heights With Its Many Local Grape Varieties

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“During my lifetime, the wine industry in Hungary has changed incredibly, from the fall of communism in 1989 to our attempts to make heavy Bordeaux imitations in the early 2000s and the present-day focus on local grape varieties.”

The comment comes from Gábor Bánfalvi, who runs Taste Hungary in the city centre of Budapest, a business that includes wine and food tastings, a well-assorted wine shop and wine exports to the United States. “When communism fell,” he continues, “quality began to improve. The producers became more professional while showcasing local grapes and the local traditions. The young generation has worked abroad, has been well educated, and they want to do something different.”

A wealth of grapes

Kékfrankos, a synonym for blaufränkish, is the most widely planted variety in Hungary. It has its roots in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and it can be found here and there in Eastern Europe. Kékfrankos is included in many of Hungary’s most famous red wine blends, and it is the main grape in the Bikavér wines. Sometimes the wines are made in a refreshing, fruity style; sometimes, they are more structured and concentrated.

Other red grapes include for example cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, kékoportó (portugieser), kadarka, zweigelt and others.

Some important white grapes are cserszegi fűszeres, olaszrizling (synonym for graševina/welschriesling), irsai olivér and furmint.

Great diversity

Hungary is a small country with a continental climate but still with differences in growing conditions. Vineyards are found almost everywhere except in the far east towards the Romanian border. In total there are around 60,000 hectares (as a comparison, Bordeaux is around 110,000 ha and Chablis 5,800 ha).

Almost half of all wine in Hungary is made on the great plains south of Budapest. One of the major wine regions here is Kunság, the country’s largest region, with often a very sandy soil. Here, much of the Hungarians’ everyday wine is produced. Most of the wine is white, often made from olaszrizling and irsai olives but also cserszegi fűszeres. The wines are often aromatic and easy to drink, but styles differ. A lot of wine in Kunság is unpretentious, but the level of ambition is increasing.

The beautiful city of Eger, in the wine region of the same name, is two hours’ drive east of Budapest. Its baroque churches and the magnificent wine cellars make it a pleasant stop. Red wines dominate with 80% of the production. Egri Bikavér – Bull’s Blood from Eger - is Hungary’s most famous wine, although people’s perception of it might not be the best. It is a wine with a long tradition, at least 150 years, but in the 1970s and 1980s, it was at best mediocre. During the communist era, mass production prevailed, and little consideration was given to quality.

I remember the communist style of Bull’s Blood, and I can understand that producers of Egri Bikavér today feel the need to dissociate themselves from this style. They are working hard to recreate the wine’s good reputation. Many of today’s Egri Bikavérs are excellent.

Bikavér from Eger is the one that is best known, but the region Szekszárd (see below) can also make Bikavér (but these two regions are the only ones).

And why bull’s blood? The name probably comes from an old legend. When the Ottomans invaded the castle in Eger in 1552, the Hungarians drank red wine to become strong and brave. The wine coloured their beards red, and the Ottomans, not being wine drinkers themselves, though they had been drinking bull’s blood. And that was enough to scare them to withdraw!

In southwestern Hungary is Villány, the southernmost and warmest region in the country. The landscape is pretty, with vineyards sometimes on slopes. A well-known pioneer here is Attila Gere, who bottled his first wines in 1989. The quality is consistently high in Villány, which has good growing conditions with mountains that protect in the north and warm Mediterranean winds coming in from the south.

The grapes are mainly kékfrankos and kékoportó, but in recent years they have also started growing cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and pinot noir. Cabernet franc has become something of a signature grape.

North of Villány is Szekszárd. Here, too, a warmer climate puts its mark on the wines. The region is known for its kékfrankos and kadarka, this latter being an interesting red grape that gives bright, elegant wines. It thrives in Szekszárd.

Sopron is an up-and-coming region of 1,000 hectares, located on the border with Burgenland in Austria. Some exciting wines are made here, especially red.

The area around the scenic Lake Balaton makes a variety of different types of wines. Olaszrizling is the most widely planted grape. But you can also find the German riesling, here called rhein riesling, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, muscat ottonel, kékfrankos and many more.

Just north of Balaton is the small region of Somló. It is worth mentioning, not least for the white grape juhfark grown here. It is not yet so widespread in Hungary but well worth taking note of. It differs from many of the local white wines as it is not aromatic. Juhfark gives full-bodied wines, structured and dry.

And, of course, Tokaj

Tokaj, the region that makes one of the world’s greatest sweet wines, is located in the eastern part of the country, near the border with Slovakia and Ukraine. Tokaj Aszú is made from grapes affected by noble rot. The grapes are mainly furmint and hárslevelű. Today, however, the dry wines made from furmint are an essential part of the production. The wines are often outstanding. Dry wines from hárslevelű are rarer but can be magnificent.

Furmint has very high acidity, a reason why the Tokaj Aszú is never cloying despite being extremely sweet. This acidity also gives the dry wines a superb and refreshing vitality. They are often vinified and aged in stainless steel but are sometimes barrel-aged.

“The Hungarian wine industry has a good reputation now”, says Gábor Bánfalvi, “and it has enormous opportunities to grow.” However, domestic consumption is not growing, so it is vital to access export markets. Gabór mentions some important countries such as Poland, Germany, USA. “We should aim at selling some key wines to wine shops and restaurants, wines that are representative of Hungary as a wine country, perhaps a kekfrankos, a dry furmint, a tokaj aszu.”

After that, people surely will want more.

—Britt Karlsson

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