Discover The Best of Hungarian Wine with Tasting Table Budapest

One of the best ways to learn about a new culture is to taste the food and wine. If it is my first time to visit a region, I usually do some research and book at least one food and wine pairing experience. Not only is it an excellent way to get a quick overview of the history and culture, but it’s also one of the best ways to learn about local wines.  

On a recent trip to Hungary, I visited Tasting Table Budapest. Before my visit, I had never tasted Hungarian wine but I knew of Hungary’s famous late-harvest wine, tokaji aszü,  a sweet white wine. After doing my research, I booked the Wine, Cheese, and Charcuterie Experience at Tasting Table in the heart of Budapest, Hungary’s capital city.

Discover the best of Hungarian food and wine

Tasting Table is a wine tour company and tasting room offering daily wine tastings. Owners Carolyn and Gåbor Bånfalvi have led food and wine tours around Budapest for years. In 2014, they purchased what had been a cellar in the Palace District of Budapest—and Tasting Table was born.

 

 

The Wine, Cheese, and Charcuterie experience included five wines, four types of meat, and four kinds of cheese. The selection of cheeses changes often; Carolyn and Gåbor have relationships with many local, small production farms. The wine selection includes unique wines from a mix of boutique wine producers and larger wineries, such as Oremus and Havas & Timår, in other words, you’ll find only local wines from Hungarian wine regions. 

Taste 5 Hungarian wines

All of the wines I sampled at Tasting Table were good examples of the wine regions of Hungary.  The white wines were made from indigenous grapes, such as Furmint and Olaszrizling. There were two red wines served, a single varietal Cabernet Franc, and a blend unique to Hungary called Bull’s Blood. Bull’s Blood or Egri Bikavér must contain at least 50% native grapes and they are all red wine grapes.  If you’d like to know more about each wine the tasting notes are listed…keep scrolling!

My personal favorite was the Tokaj (toe-kye). It’s a late harvest wine that is a deep golden color, tastes like ripe apricots and honey, and according to Royal Tokaj Winery founder, Hugh Johnson, “is a wine that will make angels sing out loud in praise.” I’m no angel, but I have to agree.

 

 

Community style tasting experience

The Tasting Table only has communal-style seating so you will meet new people and the host encourages interaction. If you’re a little introverted don’t worry, after a few sips of wine, you’ll be just fine!  I found it very informative and also fun!

In addition to guided wine tastings, Tasting Table Budapest has a new wine shop across the street from the cellar where you can buy bottles. The cellar also has some bottles for sale and you can buy wine by the glass. If I lived in Budapest, I’d be there all the time! 

Take home a bottle of Hungarian wine

Tasting Table Budapest feels like a well-kept secret—which is exactly what the owners intended. On their website, they state: “We want our guests to go home feeling like they discovered things they didn’t even know existed, and that it was worth their while to dig deeply into new flavors, a new country, and meeting new people.” Perhaps that is the secret to the success of Tasting Table Budapest.

Whether you fancy, a red, white, sweet, or dry wine, Tasting Table Budapest is a great place for a truly unique place to explore the world of Hungarian wines and a bit of Hungarian history too. 

If you live in the U.S., you can still enjoy wines curated by Taste Hungary through their wine club options. You can find out more about that on their website.

Tasting notes 

Szászi Winery. Olaszrizling 2018

Szászi is a family winery located on the beautiful Szent György hegy (Saint George’s Hill) on the shore of scenic Lake Balaton. Basalt, a type of volcanic soil,  gives an excellent balance between fruitiness and minerality to the wines of this region. 

The Olaszrizling had notes of ripe peaches, ripe melon, river stone, and flint, so many nice aromas. Pair it with light meats like pork and chicken. Olaszrizling is Hungary’s most widely planted variety and is often confused with riesling from Germany but is not the same thing at all. 

 

Oremus Winery. Mandolas, Furmint 2011

Oremus is one of the most famous wineries in Hungary. Owned by cult winery Vega Sicilia,  Mandolas, is the name of the vineyard. The 2011 Mandolas Furmint is a single-varietal, dry white wine. It is fermented and aged in oak and has notes of sweet spices, vanilla, and coconut with the sharp acidity of the Furmint variety. This wine has aged well and should be good for several more years. Furmint is the principal varietal in sweet Tokaj wines. Today, dry wine made from the furmint grape gaining strong popularity. 

Vida Winery. Bikavér 2016

Bikavér – also known as Bull’s Blood – is Hungary’s most popular red wine. Of the twenty-two wine regions in Hungary, Bulls Blood can only be made in either Eger or Szekszárd.

Peter Vida’s family winery is located in Szekszárd city, in the south of Hungary. His Bikavér is a red blend of five varieties: Kékfrankos, Kadarka, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah. Aged for 20 months in 500 and 1,000-liter barrels. It exhibits earthy, spicy, crunchy red fruit and is a well-balanced red wine. Try it with duck and mushrooms. This wine is available in the US via Taste Hungary wine club (tastehungary.us)

Havas and Timar Franom, Cabernet Franc 2016

Cabernet Franc is the new star of Hungarian wine thanks to MW Michael Broadbent who called Hungary the home of Cabernet Franc.  Franom is a great example of a northern Hungarian Cab Franc: rich and concentrated but easy to drink–this is a pretty wine with aromas of violets, blackberry, graphite, tobacco,  and blueberries. This wine is also available via the Taste Hungary wine club.

Royal Tokaj Winery. Aszú, 5 puttonyos 2013

The sweet wines of Tokaji are the jewel in the crown of Hungarian wine. Tokaj regions is the most popular wine region in Hungary and has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.  It is the wine Hungarians sing about in their national anthem. Louis XIV declared tokaj the king of wines and the wine of kings. 

Note that Tokaj can not be made every year due to the unpredictability of the climate. Too much rain and the grapes may rot. Too little and the botrytis doesn’t develop.  

2013 was the last exceptional vintage of the 2010s. This is a rich, concentrated, fruity, and fresh dessert wine. The sweetness is balanced by a high level of acidity. Aromas of dried apricot, acacia honey, orange marmalade, and candied ginger.  Bounissimma! Try it with blue cheese or foie gras. This was my favorite of the five wines.

 

 

Hétszőlő winery. Aszú, 5 puttonyos 2008

This 12-year-old wine shows why the Tokaj region is one of the best in the world for producing sweet wine with an incredible balance between sweetness and good acidity. I tasted walnuts, dates, dried figs, and ginger. Drink this now or keep it for twenty-five more years. These wines are luxurious. I love to savor it was a bit of cheese and fig or honey.  The Royal Tokahi 2013 was not included in the tasting but the host surprised us. A very delicious surprise.  It was served with a Hungarian version of blue cheese, some dried apricots, and walnuts. 

 

Tasting Table invited me to experience their Wine, Cheese, and Charcuterie tasting while I was in Budapest. Please note that all of my reviews are meant to enlighten, educate, and inspire. All opinions are my own.