Viticulture in Hungary

Growing regions in Hungary:
1 Sopron (Soproni BORVIDÉK)
2 Nagy-Somló (Nagy-Somlói BORVIDÉK)
3 Zala (Zalai BORVIDÉK)
4 Balatonfelvidék (Balatonfelvidéki BORVIDÉK)
5 Badacsony (Badacsonyi BORVIDÉK)
6 Balatonfüred-Csopak (Balatonfüred-Csopaki BORVIDÉK)
7 Balatonboglár (Balatonboglári BORVIDÉK)
8 Pannonhalma (Pannonhalmai BORVIDÉK)
9 Mor (Móri BORVIDÉK)
10 Magyarkut-Buda (Magyarkut-Budai BORVIDÉK)
11 Ászár-Neszmély (Ászár-Neszmélyi BORVIDÉK)
12 Tolna (Tolnai BORVIDÉK)
13 Szekszárd (Szekszárdi BORVIDÉK)
14 pécs ( Pécsi BORVIDÉK (Mecsekalja))
15 Villány (Villányi BORVIDÉK)
16 Hajós-Baja (Hajos-Bajai BORVIDÉK)
17 Kunság (Kunsági BORVIDÉK)
18 Csongrád (Csongrádi BORVIDÉK)
19 Mátra (Mátrai BORVIDÉK)
20 Eger (Egri BORVIDÉK)
21 Bükk (Bükki borvidék)
22 Tokaj-Hegyalja (Tokaj-Hegyaljai borvidék)

The Hungarian wine has been run ancient times, when large parts of the later of Magyars settled in Hungary (z. B. in established already by the Romans Szombathely ) were part of the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, wines from Ödenburg ( Sopron ) and Eger were known and loved.

Even under the Turkish occupation, when the eastern part of Hungary was Turkish, viticulture continued there, as the Sultan of Constantinople did not want to lose this source of income.

During the communist rule, the Hungarian viticulture suffered, because less attention was paid to quality than rather large quantities - especially for the USSR - were produced. Individual winegrowers for commercial purposes were severely restricted. The state wineries dominated the offer. Nevertheless, some great wines such as the Tokaj were able to be pressed during this period .

Wines from Hungary are good value for money. Decent red wines are already available for little money and need not shy away from comparison with mass bordeaux. Simple quality wines are even traded for significantly less.

Since 1990, Hungarian viticulture has once again developed diversity and high quality. There is now a large number of private wineries of all types and sizes again, many of which are also nationally and internationally known. In addition to classic Hungarian grape varieties, previously atypical ones are also used for wine production in Hungary. In many cases, traditional methods are used (e.g. red wine must fermentation in open concrete containers).

Although Hungary produces a lot of white wine , wineries have established themselves in many regions that produce full-bodied red wines both in high quality and in top quality with up to 14.5 percent by volume. In the meantime, viticulture is also of great importance for tourism, especially along the Villány-Siklós wine route with its renowned top wineries. In view of the high achievable prices for Villány wines, some winegrowers are now also using ecological cultivation methods.

In Hungary itself, all walks of life drink a lot of wine.

The best vintages in recent years were 2000 and 2003, but 2006 and 2007 also produced excellent wines.

climate

Climate diagram Budapest

Because of its inland location and the shielding effect of the mountains , Hungary has a relatively dry continental climate with cold winters and warm summers. Average temperatures in January are between –3 ° C and –1 ° C and in July between +21 ° C and +23 ° C. The most abundant rainfall is recorded in early summer. The average amount of precipitation in the west is around 800 millimeters due to the prevailing, rain-bringing west winds, while in the eastern parts of the country it can fall below 500 millimeters in dry years. The amount of precipitation generally decreases from west to east. The climate offers good conditions for growing aromatic white grape varieties. On the other hand, red grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon are still fully ripe .

Wine-growing areas

Hajós wine cellar

Landscape from the Tokaj-Hegyalja region

For a long time the official statistics on planted vineyards were very imprecise. From May 31 to November 15, 2001, a complete survey was carried out in accordance with EU Directive 357/79. In 2001, in addition to 91,421 hectares of commercial vineyards, 1,686 hectares were added to the smallest of vineyards (area <500 m²) for domestic use. Of the 91,421 hectares, 80,042 were devoted exclusively to viticulture. Almost 73,000 hectares of this were allocated to the 22 recognized wine-growing regions. The rest is attributable to hybrid vines not approved for quality wines or to areas outside of the 22 designations of origin. The denominations of origin are distributed all over Hungary (see map above):

position	Surname	Vineyard area (ha)	Surface white	Area red
1	Sopron	1800	317	1483
2	Somló	315	311	4th
3	Balaton-melléke	921	878	43
4th	Balaton-Felvidék	1351	1318	33
5	Badacsony	1639	1559	80
6th	Balatonfüred-Csopak	2131	1900	231
7th	Balatonboglár	2663	2030	633
8th	Pannonhalma-Sokoróalja	679	653	26th
9	Mór	868	843	25th
10	Etyek-Buda	1868	1737	131
11	Ászár-Neszmély	1601	1484	117
12	Tolna	2739	1579	1160
13	Szekszárd	2149	495	1654
14th	Mecsekalja ( Pécs )	773	658	115
15th	Villány-Siklós	1801	651	1160
16	Hajós-Baja	1940	1141	799
17th	Kunság	25935	20273	5662
18th	Csongrád	2683	1681	1002
19th	Mátraalja	6844	5869	975
20th	Eger	5080	2197	2883
21st	Bükkalja	1504	1072	432
22nd	Tokaj-Hegyalja	5662	5659	3
23	Hybrid vines	1972	1515	457
24	Unclassified areas	5124	3831	1293
	TOTAL	80042	59651	20391

Source:

Grape varieties

The lists of varieties approved for commercial cultivation provide a more complete overview. This also includes the varieties selected only for trial cultivation.

Permitted white wine varieties
Aletta Aligoté Arany sárféher Bacchus Bakator Bánáti rizling Bianca Blue Silvaner Bouvier Budai zöld Chardonnay Chasselas Cirfandli Csabagyöngye Cserszegi fűszeres Csillám Csomorika Ezerfürtű Ezerjó Furmint Generosa Gesztus Göcseji zamatos Goher	Hárslevelű Heuréka Irsay Oliver Anniversary 75 Juhfark Carat Kéknyelű Kerner Királyleányka Kocsis Irma Korai piros veltelíni corona Kövérszőlő Kövidinka more closely Kövidinka rose Kunbarát Kunleany Lakhegyi mézes Leanyka Lira Magyar rizling Mátrai muskotály Mezes Muscadelle	Nectar Nosztori rizling Odysseus Olaszrizling Orpheus Ottonel muskotály Pátria Perlette Pinot blanc Pints Piros chasselas Piros veltelíni Pölöskei muskotály Pozsonyi fehér rajnai rizling Refrén Rizlingszilváni Rozália Rózsakő Sárga muskotály Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Szürkebarát	Táltos Tarcal 10 Taurus Tramini Vértes csillaga Viktor Viktória gyöngye Villard Blanc Viognier Vulcanus Zalagyöngye Zefír Zengő Zenith Zeta Zeus Zöld szagos Zöld szilváni Zöld veltelíni

Approved red wine varieties
Alibernet Alicante Bouschet Bíbor kadarka Blue burger Pinot Noir Cabernet Franc Cabernet Sauvignon	Dominatrix Duna Gyöngye Gamay Hamburgi muskotály Kadarka Carmine Kékfrankos	Kékmedoc Kékoportó Korai bíbor Magyar frankos Medina Merlot Mészi kadarka	Nero Pannon free Pinot Noir Piros szlanka Rubintos Syrah Turán Zweigelt

history

→ Main article : History of Hungary

The oldest seeds of the grapevine plant Vitis sylvestris in Hungary were found near Tiszapolgár and estimated to be 5,300 years old. The so far oldest find of a preserved core of the noble grapevine Vitis vinifera comes from the time of 1300 BC. BC and was found in Sopron

Area of ​​influence of ancient Greece in the 6th century BC Chr.

In the history of Greek viticulture , the great influence of ancient Greece on viticulture in the countries bordering the Mediterranean and beyond becomes particularly clear. The Greeks developed new methods of viticulture and cellar technology. They shared the knowledge they had gathered about wine with the peoples with whom they were in contact. The Greeks also used the Danube to maintain trade relations with peoples far from the coastal regions of the Black Sea . One of the earliest mentions of the settlement of Sopron comes from the records Geographia of Ptolemy (* around 100; † around 175 AD) under the name Σχαρβαντἰα (transkr. Scharbantia) or Σκαρβαντἰα (transkr. Skarbantia).

As part of the province of Pannonia, the Romans pressed wine on what is now Hungary's territory. Scientists assume that around 500 AD the Magyar tribes left the steppe area in the southeastern Urals and moved west into the area of ​​today's Bashkiria . On their way to the Carpathian Mountains , the Magyars stopped in Levedia around 800 AD. Levedien (Hungarian: Levédia ), which was probably named after Levedi, a tribal prince of Hungary, was located roughly between the Don and the Azov Sea . In the immediate vicinity of their new settlement area was the Khanate of the Khazars , an association of Turkic and Mongolian tribes, which were ruled by a Khan and whose territory included the steppe north of the Caucasus . The Magyars also submitted to this Khan and began to part from their nomadism. Today, this can primarily be understood through the approach from a linguistic point of view. There are around 200 loanwords in the Hungarian language from the fields of agriculture, viticulture and horticulture (e.g. gyümölcs , "fruit"; szőlő , "grapes"), cattle breeding and handicrafts that were incorporated into the language at that time and point to the slow settling down of the Magyars. They settled in what is now Hungary from 895/896.

Words for wine in European languages

In the year 1000 the Kingdom of Hungary was established. The Christianization of the country began with the reign of Stephen I. The existing viticulture was strongly revitalized by the church's need for mass wine. In 1241 the Mongols ravaged the country under Batu Khan , so that King Béla IV. (1235–1270) brought many German, Walloon and Italian immigrants to the depopulated country. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Hungary flourished under kings such as Sigismund from Luxembourg (king since 1387) or Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490), elected by the petty nobility . The immigrants gave the local viticulture new impetus through their knowledge of other wine-growing regions.

With the death of Ludwig II in the Battle of Mohács (1526) , a large part of Hungary was conquered by the Ottomans .

literature

• Alex Lidell: The Wines of Hungary . 1st edition. Mitchell Beazley Classic Wine Library, 2003, ISBN 1-84000-789-3 .
• Jancis Robinson : The Oxford Wine Lexicon, 3rd revised edition . 1st edition. Gräfe and Unzer Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8338-0691-9 .

Web links

Commons : Viticulture in Hungary  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jürgen Zichnowitz: Hungary: Bull's blood was yesterday. In: Spiegel Online . September 18, 2006, accessed June 9, 2018 . 
2. ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/print-archiv/printressorts/digi-artikel/?ressort=sb&dig=2008%2F07%2F26%2Fa0208&cHash=b0f76cd69e
3. ↑ The wines of Hungary , Alex Liddell, p. 324
4. ↑ Grape (Vitis vinifera) seeds from Antiquity and the Middle Ages Excavated in Hungary - LM and SEM analysis (PDF; 4.4 MB) ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2012) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , published by Ahmet Güner, Gábor Gyulai, Zoltán Tóth, Gülsüm Asena Baslı, Zoltán Szabó, Ferenc Gyulai, András Bittsánszky, Luther Waters Jr. and László Heszky 
5. ↑ Claudii Ptolemei Geographia I-III , Repro Graphic Reproduction CFA Nobbe Leipzig 1843-45, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1966, p 129th