Comments on: Hungary’s Wine Regions

By: Sandra Shoji

Sandra Shoji — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 05:38:40 +0000

Hungarian wine had a big presence in Tokyo about 7-10 year ago due to the diligent work a woman importer connected with the Hungarian Embassy and trade office. Also, at that time I think the ambassador during that time was married to a Japanese lady, Madam Ambassador.

Since then and many changes, including the death of Gal Tibor, a visitor to Japan often. Now the Hungarian area at Food-Ex, Asia’s largest wine and food expo, has shrunk greatly. So has shelf space. While newer dry styles really suit food well, they are hard to find.

I won’t say just Japanese food as the Tokyo Metro has a huge number of international restaurants, a great amount of Michelin starred restaurants, and some of the more popular dishes for home cooking are curry, spaghetti and pizza.

We would love to have more Hungarian wines imported here.

By: The Hungarian Girl

The Hungarian Girl — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:20:49 +0000

Hi Sandra

Thanks very much for your compliments! It’s always nice to hear from others who share similar interests about Hungarian wines. I’m very optimistic about the future of wine in Hungary. BTW, I’ve heard that Tokaji is gaining popularity in Tokyo and other Asian cities? Do you know if that’s true?

All the best,
Suzanne

By: Sandra Shoji

Sandra Shoji — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:04:13 +0000

Love your blog design, beautiful and creative. Also, your information about Hungarian wine regions is excellent. I am a great admirer of Hungarian wines from ancient to modern, and I often pour them in wine class in Tokyo at Temple University, an American university.

By: john bentley

john bentley — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:32:22 +0000

Hi Hungarian girl,
What a nice piece about the Under reported Hungarian wines. Since my wife Melinda is of Hungarian decent and speaks and writes the language we often vacation there. Several years ago we had the good fortune to spend a week in Tihany. Our hostess has five brothers and while we stayed with her we visited a different brothers vinyard each day and sipped bor in the wine cellars. One day we went down to Badacsony and had a wonderfull dinner and drank the great szurkebarat. The last full day in Tihany we were up at the crack of “still” night, 5am had a full farmers breakfast meat, potatoes, paprika, strong coffee and off to the vinyard we worked all day helping to harvest one of the brothers grapes. It was a beautifull day and i worked with the women who actually removed the clusters while the men worked the wheel barows up and down the slope and others crushed and pressed the grapes. At the end of the day we were rewarded with fresh “must” and then some of the previous years finished product.
You may think that you have tasted all the great wines of the world but until you have tasted product of these ancient vines you will be missing something.
my humble advice is go to Hungary try to speak the language the people will love you for it and some english speaking Hunky will adopt you.
best wishes to you all. jb

By: The Hungarian Girl

The Hungarian Girl — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:37:15 +0000

Thanks Frank!

By: Frank Dietrich

Frank Dietrich — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:20:03 +0000

Hello Hungarian Girl,

Thank you for publishing this very nice article. Funny that it coincides with the arrival of our container of Hungarian wines in the Port of Oakland this weekend. On board are wines from 5 regions. You mention three of our wine makers by name as top producers: Gere Attila, Szoke Matyas, and Hilltop Neszmely. In addition we have Patricius with dry and sweet Tokaji, and Pfneiszl with a typical Soproni Kekfrankos. Try them – you might like them!

cheers,
Frank

By: The Hungarian Girl

The Hungarian Girl — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:08:24 +0000

Yes, there’s so many great wine regions in Hungary. It often gets overlooked by the larger producing wine nations. However, it’s starting to get more international recognition now especially because of tourism. Thanks for sharing this posting on your Facebook Fanpage! All the best.

By: The Hungarian Girl

The Hungarian Girl — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:49:42 +0000

Thanks Peter!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:16:05 +0000

Great list! I’ve never been to Hungary … and didn’t really realize the vineyards you have there! I’m going to be sharing this post on our Facebook Fanpage “Jennifer’s Review”. Thanks again! Cheers!

By: Peter Hegedus

Peter Hegedus — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:05:21 +0000

Very nice article. There are many great Hungarian wines, and this article points out quite rightly that Eger and Tokaj are the best known regions for producing native Hungarian grapes. For those that are looking for Hungarian wines made with the more familiar grapes of France, the Villany region is producing some fantastic results with Merlot and Cabernet Franc as well as pretty good results with Cabernet Sauvignon.