A few weeks ago, I published an article on wine from Romania, a country that is one of the oldest wine producers in Europe. This week, we’re going to look at Hungarian wine.
The Most Important Hungarian Wine
The only Hungarian wine I know about is Tokaji (pronounced to-keye). CitySiteseeing – Budapest (Hop On and Off Budapest) tells us that this wine is “known as the ‘King of wines’, and it’s the most famous sweet wine of Hungary. You can find this dessert wine in every (or at least, almost every) traditional restaurant of the country! The wine is classified according to puttonyos, which refers to the wine’s sugar content. The scale ranges from three to six – the higher it is, the sweeter the wine will be!”
Recently, I wrote an article on Sauternes, a French wine impacted by noble rot or botrytis. Tokaji is the Hungarian version of this wine.
How do the two compare? They have completely different grapes. Tokaji is made up of Furmint, Hárslevelű, Sárgamuskotály, Kabar, Kövérszőlő, and Zéta, with the first three grapes accounting for the majority of the blend. Sauternes is made up of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle.
Tokaji is from the north. of Hungary. Sauternes is from the south of France.
On the nose, the two are pretty similar, with notes of honeyed apricots, caramel, ripe tropical fruits like mango and pineapplee, touches of ginger, honeysuckle, citrus marmalade, and baking spices.
On the palate, the taste is quite different. Taste of Hungary says that “While Tokaji Aszú wines often have more residual sugar and thus are much sweeter than Sauternes, they also have a higher level of acidity. This acid balances out the extra sugar, resulting in a very refreshing and fruity ensemble. The balancing act of acid and sugar gives Tokaji a certain tension that is difficult to find in Sauternes wines, which are typically creamier, more concentrated, and more straightforward in their sweetness.”
Other Hungarian Wines
CitySightseeing – Budapest provides a great writeup on other wines from Hungary:
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“Egri Bikavér (Bull’s Blood): This dry red wine is originally from Eger, which is a famous historical city of Northern Hungary. This is the most successful and well-known wine of the country, and it has an interesting legend as well: nobody knows when it was created for the first time, but they say when the Turkish soldiers invaded the city in 1552, they believed bull’s blood have been mixed to the red wine of the Hungarian forces – that was the only possible explanation for the Hungarians strength and defiance!
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“Kadarka: Szekszárd is located in Southern Hungary, and surprisingly the city has it’s own Bull’s Blood as well. As locals say sometimes, this wine is truly underrated, and even better than it’s more famous version from Eger. One of the three type of grapes used in Szekszárd Bull’s Blood is Kadarka, which is a common grape of the region and once it was even the most popular grape of the country.
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“Irsai Olivér: This white, fruity, fresh wine is the most popular in Hungary. Especially in the Summer, you can drink it clear and cold, or if you’re up for a refreshing spritzer – or „fröccs” in Hungarian – Irsai Olivér is the perfect choice to mix with some ice-cold soda water.”
Have you had Hungarian wine? What kind? And what did you think?
