“Since when do they make wine in Hungary?!”
Some readers may have clicked on this article because they shared the above sentiment, but the reality is that vine-growing and winemaking has been practiced in what is now Hungary since the days of the Roman empire, when it was known as the province of Pannonia, and the Magyar tribes who populated the area in the 9th century found themselves surrounded by flourishing vineyards and sophisticated winemaking practices.
Hungary has a history of winemaking broad enough to warrant entire books devoted to it, so in the interest of brevity I’ll take a big leap forward to the 17th century, and the emergence of what has since become Hungary’s most famous vinous export: Tokaji Aszú.
In 1711 a failed bid for independence from the ruling Habsburg empire had the surprise benefit of spreading the word of a local Hungarian delicacy: Deliciously sweet white wine made from grapes affected by Botrytis Cinerea, otherwise known as Noble Rot (if either name sounds familiar, you may be a fan of another glorious sweet wine: Sauternes).
Word made its way to the reigning French king Louis XIV, who was sent bottles of Tokaji Aszú as gifts by Ferenc Rákóczi, Hungarian nobleman and leader of the failed coup, and a man now regarded as a national hero in Hungary. It was King Louis XIV who so adored the wine that he coined the now famous (to wine buffs at least) phrase “The King of Wines, The Wine of Kings”, and helped popularise its consumption in Western Europe.
Taking another big leap on our journey through the history of this enigmatic Central European country takes us to 1947-1949, when Hungary fell into the grip of the Soviet Union, and one-party communist rule. During this time, the National Association of Hungarian Vine-Growers, Wine Trades, and Wine-Growing Communities was forced to suspend its operations as the communist state monopolies took over, which lead to decades of state farms and state wineries. The wines produced by these businesses were exported in bulk to the Soviet Union, and unsurprisingly, as quantity increased, quality plummeted, earning Hungary a reputation for producing dreadful wine that has taken a long time to shake off.
However, after the fall of communism in Hungary in 1989, a welcome reversal of winemaking business and practices began, and by the dawn of the 21st century a great many ambitious, quality-focussed producers had emerged. Better vineyard site selection, planting material, and a new-found respect for terroir led to a boom not just in Aszú and other sweet wines, but also dry white and red wines that show real quality and character.
As I write this blog post, I can see bottles of historic Tokaji Aszú, richly sweet and ripely fruited, sitting shoulder to shoulder with young dry Furmints, with their lip-smacking acidity and zingy citrus fruit. A glorious example of Hungary’s oenological past and present, and what I hope will be the start of a fun series of blog posts about one of my favourite winemaking countries. Egészségére! (that’s “Cheers” in Hungarian by the way).