Not all great wine stories begin in Bordeaux or Tuscany. Central and south-eastern Europe are destinations where traditions, hospitality and grapes with tongue-twisting names meet in the glass. Who dares to look beyond the classics?
Text: Jacques Hermus | Image: Pexels
For my first story for the very young WINELIFE in 2010, I had to chew quite a bit on names like furmint and hárslevelû, juhfark and kadarka before I swallowed them. But to Hungarians, they are as common as peppers and goulash. They are grapes, and they make the oldest and most beautiful wines from them. I often swayed from the shores of Lake Balaton to liquid lava from Somló , drank Bull's Blood from Eger and sipped the sweet nectar of Tokaj. Those wines graced the tables of restaurant Gundel, Empress Sissy sipped them with the greatest pleasure, Liszt and Bartok topped their musical triumphs in the small pubs next to Budapest's Music Academy with wine, locks of wine. And the many times I was in Budapest we invariably got drunk on palinka. But the biggest party was at a small restaurant near Tokaj, where I mashed Tokaji Eszencia, a wine that, with a residual sugar of 600 grams per litre, was more like syrup or jam, through crumbly blue cheese.
Those troublesome Dutchmen
In Limburg, wine lovers on both sides of the border get their money's worth. Especially on the Flemish side, they know better than anyone how to spoil ‘the Dutch’. For example at top domain Genoels-Elderen in Riemst. The Netherlands' finest bubbles can be tasted at Domein Holset in Lemiers. But you are also welcome at the Apostelhoeve and Wijndomein St. Martinus.
Further reading? You can, of course, in our festive anniversary issue 100. Shop it here.
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