Zoo, music and Szekszárd wine this summer in Budapest

July 7, 2017

Zoo, music and Szekszárd wine this summer in Budapest

As Best of Budapest reported, this year, in addition to the great line-up of concerts every Wednesday for 2 months at the Budapest Zoo, visitors now have a chance to taste wines from 8 different Szekszárd wineries before the concerts, adding an extra dimension to an already exceptional evening. Expecting summer heat, the winemakers are focusing on light and fresh wines like rosés and schillers, but also with an emphasis on Kadarka and Kékfrankos both sporting the new Szekszárd bottle. These fruit-forward, lively reds will offer refreshment even on a hot, balmy night.

The Zoo’s guest animal: a fox from Szekszárd!

Rosé is a refreshing wine in the summer, and Szekszárd has its own style of it, called schiller. It’s a Swabish tradition, winegrowers used to harvest red and white grape together, resulting a darker pink wine, which was often referred to as ’Fuxli’, because of the colour reminding of the fur of a fox. In Szekszárd most of the winemakers used to make Schiller only from Kadarka. This tradition came to life when producers of Szekszárd decided to bottle their cchiller wine under the name of Fuxli. And this ideal collaboration is not yet complete: they even promote each other’s Fuxli on every label to urge consumers to taste the other Fuxli’s as well!

Screen Shot 2017-07-07 at 13.52.44 In the current vintage (2016) six wineries made Fuxli: Eszterbauer, Garai, Heimann, Hetényi, Sebestyén and Takler wineries. Eszterbauer made its Fuxli of 75% Kadarka and 25% Kékfrankos. Flowery and spicy, light and vivid wine, ideal for a summer night.

July 12th: Klezmer music and Eszterbauer wines

The next occassion to enjoy a concert within the Zoo is the performance of Budapest Klezmer Band – and before the show you will have chance to sample one of the best Kadarka in Hungary. Known and loved across Europe and the United States, the Budapest Klezmer Band is a remarkable performer of traditional Jewish music. The melodies they play come from various regions of Central Eastern Europe where the culture of Jewish music has deep roots. The band’s founder and leader, Ferenc „Fegya” Jávori was born in Mukacheve (Munkács) and received the Kossuth Prize for his accomplishments. On this special occasion the band is accompanied by the well-known actress, Kátya Tompos as a guest singer.