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’Tokaji Barátnők Társasága’ is an association of ladies who do charity work to support the great wines of Tokaj wine region. They organize a charity ball every year, and this year for the first time the event will take place in Budapest, in the capital of Hungary instead of the town of Tokaj. The event will be a special one for sure, especially because it will be held in a boat and it involves a 1.5 hours cruise on the river Danube. The culinary partner of the ladies is another reason to participate: SVÉT (Stílusos Vidéki Éttermiség) is an association which unites the highest quality restaurants from the countryside of Hungary. The six course dinner will be made of only local quality ingredients, and will be paired with selected wines from Tokaj. Symphonic orchestra, singers’s band, wine casino and other attractions make the evening even more unforgettable. The price of a ticket is 45 000 HUF (around 145 euros).

Tickets: info@europahajo.hu or +36-20-961-6995 (Vivien Molnár)

The website of the event is not translated into English, if you need help, we are glad to help you: info@hungarianwines.eu

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Stuffed cabbage (for 4 people)

• 1 pickled cabbage (around 1,3 kg)
• 100 g rice
• 100 g onion
• 10 g garlic
• 500 g minced pork
• 100 g smoked bacon
• salt, pepper, fresh bay leaf and pennyroyal
• 1 dl sour cream

Preparation

• First tear the cabbage into leaves, throw away the hard stalks. Put aside 8 beautiful leaves, cut the others into small stripes.
• Cut the bacon into small cubes and fry them in a saucepan. Add the two third of the finely chopped onion. When it is fried, add the chopped cabbage and spices (garlic, salt, pepper, bay leaf, pennyroyal). Pour some stock onto it, to cover the cabbage and boil. Take out one third of it, make it smooth in a mixer and add it back into the saucepan.
• Boil the rice (until it is almost ready), mix it with the minced pork and the rest of the finely chopped onion (after fried on some bacon fat), garlic, salt and pepper. This mixture should be stuffed into the 8 cabbage leaves.
• Take out half of the boiled cabbage from the saucepan, put in the stuffed leaves, then put the second half of the boiled cabbage on the top of the stuffed leaves. Put a lid on it and put it in the oven for 1 hour at 150 Celsius.
• Serve it with sour cream and crispy fried bacon, and you may add some more previously cooked smoked meat.

Wine pairing

Balázs Csapody recommends a Rhine Riesling from around Lake Balaton: Bencze Cellar is a small, quite new artisan winery on Szeng György hill, Badacsony wine region, and their complex, mineral ‘Rajnai Rizling 2015’ pairs well with the complex and rich dish.

Kistücsök

Some more recommendations with stuffed cabbage

The food is really rich and complex: sour, acidic, smoked, fat, therefore you need wine with at least this level of complexity. A matured, full bodied with wine a good amount of acidity will do, like the Rhine Riesling above, but a Chardonnay, a Hárslevelű, a Juhfark or an Ezerjó is also a good choice.
If red wine is preferred, a fruit, acidic red grape is the perfect match. Pinot Noir, Kékfrankos or the well known blend, Bikavér would be the royal wine pair of this rich and exciting dish.

Frittmann Ezerjó, 2013, Kunság region

Koch Hajós–Bajai Late Harvest Chardonnay, 2015, Hajós–Baja

E^H, Csetvei Cellar, 2015, Mór

Etyeki Kúria Chardonnay, 2015, Etyek

Béres Magita Cuvée, 2013, Tokaj

Öreghegy, 2013, Haraszthy Winery, Etyek

Pannonhalmi Rajnai Rizling, Babarczi Winery, 2015, Pannonhalma

Kreinbacher Juhfark, Kreinbacher Estate, 2015, Somló

Monopole Chardonnay, 2013, Kovács Nimród Winery, Eger

Egri Chardonnay Superior, Szarkás, 2015, Gróf Buttler Winery, Eger

Serena 2015, Malatinszky Kúria Organic Wine Estate, Villány

Tanyamacska Szekszárdi Kékfrankos, 2014, Eszterbauer Winery, Szekszárd

Badacsonyi Pinor Noir, Szászi Estate, 2015, Badacsony

Liszkay Pinot Noir, 2011, Liszkay Wine Estate, Balaton-felvidék

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Date: 21 January 2017
Location: Villány (and the neighbouring villages)
Type of event: traditional consumer event, some programmes are open air

Celebrating the patron of the vineyards is a living tradition in Hungary: vineyard workers, winemakers, cellar workers celebrate in their own way: they take a day off and drink wine. Besides their well deserved feast wineries organize pleasant consumer events, most of them offering flexible program points for the whole day. Villány wine region is probably the best destination on the 21st of January.
– In the morning several wineries offer barrel tasting – visitors should choose one of them.
– During the day a buses will take the visitors around to see the famous Kopár, Ördögárok and other vineyards.
– In the evening a handful of wineries offer wine dinners in their cellar or estate building including the famous Óbor restaurant of Bock Cellar and the wonderful Mandula restaurant of Gere Attila Winery.

The program is not translated into English yet on the official website of Villány wine region, but we are happy to help if anyone is interested!

info@hungarianwines.hu

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Budapest is still among the affordable places. The city has a fairly good public transport system (though be careful with the controllers, they are eager to catch you without ticket), the spas are really stunning, they have their own culture (for example) you can see old citizens playing chess in the pool), cafés tell you stories about the poets who used to spend there whole lives there, and of course there are numerous wine bars where choose a pearl of Hungarian wines by the glass.

Imagine! – an example of Budapest latest wine bars

Tanyamacska 2013

‘Képzeld el’ is a cosy wine bar in the heart of the city with lesser known Hungarian wines and a good selection of foreign sparkling wines. The name ‘képzeld el’ means ‘imagine!’ They also act as a wine club organizing wine tasting events. The wine bar offers small selection of bistro food (soups, sandwiches, spreads, cheese and ham plates).

If you pop in, taste Eszterbauer Pincészet (Szekszárd) “Tanyamacska” Kékfrankos 2014, only 3 euros a glass of 0,15 l.

You can find more wine bars here

Read the whole New York Times article

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FurmintUSA, the organization to promote the indigenous Hungarian grape variety will have a masterclass on 17 November called ‘Furmint – Ancient grape variety – Modern wines’, the speaker will be Tim Geiser Master Sommelier. FurmintUSA will exhibit as well at the Trade Tasting.

The conference still accepts registrations! Trade Tasting is free for qualified members of the trade.

https://www.sommconusa.com

Here is a short video shot by FurmintUSA at VinCE Budapest Wine Show in March 2016, Natasha Hughes Master of Wine is speaking about Furmint grape and the wines made of it.

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El Greco Spanish painter’s work of St Martin donating half of his military cloak to a beggar

Saint Martin has a special importance for Hungarians, since the famous bishop was born in the province of Savaria in 316 in the Roman Empire, in the territory of Hungary. Savaria is now called Szombathely, a city of about 90 000 inhabitants, and the church stands at his presumable birthday to commemorate him.

As a teenager, he became Christian to his father’s dislike. His father was a soldier of the Roman Empire and made his son to join the army as well. According to the legend once Martin cut his coat with his sword and gave half of it to a beggar in the street who had been robbed of his clothes. At the age of 22, Martin baptized, and devoted all his life to God. He founded the first monastery in Europe. He was so modest, that – as the legend says – he hid among the geese to a avoid being made a bishop. As a memory to his modest character, people eat dishes made of goose on his name day on 11 November.

The year 2016 is dedicated to Saint Martin to celebrate his birth 1700 years ago.

St Martin’s Day is the time to celebrate the new vintage as well, since most of the wines have already been fermented by this time. As a consequence, several wineries prepare with special goose dinners paired with wines from the new vintage.

Tornai Winery in Somló wine region offers a gourmet dinner on 11 November, where all the courses – except the dessert – are accompanied by wines from vintage 2016. The wines will be introduced by Ákos Kamocsay junior, chief winemaker of Tornai Winery. The menu includes dishes like smoked goose breast with wine jelly and salad with pumpkin seed oil, paired with Irsai Oliver 2016.

More info and booking: jegy@tornaipince.hu or Csilla Nagy: +36-70-3399-821

József Bock

József Bock in Villány wine region is a real pioneer of celebration of new vintage wine. Two decades ago it was him who bottled his new red wine made of Portugieser grape for St Martin’s Day. This weekend the winery is ready for the guests: 10 000 bottles of Portugieser 2016 is awaiting the fans of Bock Cellar. As for the food, Bock Cellar is not a small player: they are preparing 2 tons (!) of goose for the 2 day celebration of St Martin on 11–12 November. However the weekend is not only about eating and drinking, the winery has a charity action as well: special pieces of art have been made for the commemoration of the 1700 anniversary of St Martin’s birth, and the profit of these pieces of arts will entirely go the Order of Malta.

More info and booking: monika@pincemuvek.hu or +36-70-204-7531

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This year almost 200 samples arrived, the renowned experts had the hard and sweet job to choose the best ones. The main principle was to pick wines that are made of indigenous grapes (from the Carpathian basin) and ones that reflect our country. Of course the judges were keen on choosing wines that are of high quality and ones that are elegant and enjoyable all around the world. Hungarians love high acidity, but maybe our tongue is ‘calibrated’ to higher acidity then all the rest of the world – thus at the tasting this fact was taking into consideration.

The results are to be calculated yet, but since the editor of this site was member of the tasting panel, we can give some insider information.

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