Hungary has a long tradition of wine making that goes back to the Romans and possibly earlier. The climate and soil is ideal for wine growing.
Communist rule did no harm to the traditional techniques of wine making in Hungary. It could even be argued that Communism preserved the old
ways better than in the West.
In France, and to some extent in Italy and Spain, the big labels dominate the market. But in Hungary there are many small producers. The market
is more like it was in France in the 1950s. It makes it more difficult to read but it means that there are always some serendipitous discoveries to
be made in Hungary.
There is a tremendous uniformity about New World wine and increasingly so from French wine. This is great for the supermarkets who want to
stock their shelves with a product that remains the same year in year out but it is very dull for the wine lover who wants to be adventurous.
Choosing Hungarian wines demands that you know something about the different regions and the types of wine they produce. There are at least
20 different regions in Hungary and many different varieties of grapes. This tends to produce a great range of wines that reflect the soil conditions
and climatic variations of the country.
Tokay Aszu has always been one of the most famous of Hungary’s wines. It became popular among European aristocrats in the seventeenth
century. Louis XIV called it the king of wines and Voltaire wrote a poem about it.
It was thought to have healing powers. Who knows whether that is true? The wonders of red wine are only just beginning to be investigated by
scientists. Whether it cures all ills or not this is one of the best Hungarian wines to try.
The long warm moist autumn in this region allows the grapes to ferment on the vine. This is known as the noble rot. It produces a characteristic
wine that is allowed to age in small casks in tunnels cut into the volcanic rock of the region.
Tokay wine has been called the ultimate desert wine. But it can also be drunk as an aperitif like sherry.