As we reported earlier, Hungary won 140 medals at the latest edition of Decanter World Wine Award. Wines of Hungary UK – with the support of Best of Hungary Ltd. – invited trade members to the Hungarian Embassy in London to taste platinum and gold winner wines last week. 18 producers presented over 30 award winner wines. Wine writer of The Buyer picked his favourites, like Zelna Olaszrizling from Balaton (the big surprise), Heumann Trinitás Cabernet Franc from Villány, Barta Öreg Király and Patricius Tokaji Aszú wines.

“With its distinctive indigenous grape varieties, volcanic soils and labyrinth of historic cellars, Hungary would surely be one of the world’s most prestigious wine producing countries, were it not for the descending of theIron Curtain in the second half of the twentieth century” – comments David Kermode, wine writer of The Buyer. He also quotes Caroline Gilby MW, speaker of the tasting, expert of Eastern European wines and panel chair of DWWA: “There are some very high quality local grape varieties and it has been fantastic to see the improvement in quality over the years with more fruit forward wines, better use of well integrated oakand more of a sense of place. We are looking for harmony, for wines that meet global standards of excellence, with that extra wow factor.”

Read the whole article with David Kermode’s top 10 picks

How Decanted Hungary focused on the top medal winners