Hungarian Wine Workshop in Hong Kong

The School of Hotel and Tourism Management hosted the very first Hungarian Wine Workshop yesterday in a bid to expand the horizons of trade professionals, media and students in the city to the world of diversity that is Hungarian wines.

Ms. Helga Gal, special Wine and Gastronomy Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held captive audiences in both seminars that took place in the schools Vinotheque Room (used for training our future local sommeliers) and spoke at length about all facets of Hungarian wine.

Ms. Gal highlighted the Hungarian wine culture and history of tradition and quality whilst elaborating on the long and distinguished history of Hungarian wine. Fossils have been found in the Tokaj region in the 1920’s of vine leaves proving that vines grew in the area as far back as the Miocene era and continued as a ‘wine hub’ of Europe well into, and after the Roman times.

Tokaj is the world’s oldest vineyard classification system and dates back to the final years of the 18^th century and Ms. Gal highlighted the other major regions for winemaking in Hungary and how Mr. Haraszthy founded Californian wine making and is thought to be the ‘father of Californian winemaking’.

Many of Hungary’s wines are made from indigenous grapes but there is also a significant production of wines made in the country from traditional international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Veritas Wine director, Csilla Marotti Fisher, herself a daughter of a winemaking family in Tokaj provided the basis of the wines tasted at the event with other companies such as Wiseville and Watson’s also providing wines at the tasting.

Wines tasted at the event were:

Benedick Winery Cserszegi Fuszeres 2011 from the Matra region of Northern Hungary

Szepsy Tokaj Furmint Tokaj 2009 from the Tokaj region

Etyeki Kuria Pinot Noir 2010 from Etyek in North Pannonia

Gere Attila Kopar 2007 from Villany in Southern Hungary

Malatinszky Kuria Cabernet Franc 2007 from Villany in Southern Hungary (pictured above)

Tokaj Nobilis Tokaji Sargarmuskotaly 2008 from Tokaj

Disznoko Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 2005 from Tokaj

Wine Times has written numerous times about Hungarian wines in Hong Kong but it was still an informative and interesting seminar. More stories on Hungarian wines can be found on our blog pages by following these links:

http://winetimeshk.blogspot.com/2012/02/eastern-european-wines-come-further.html

http://winetimeshk.blogspot.com/2012/03/hungary-spotlight-szepsy-wines.html

http://winetimeshk.blogspot.com/2012/10/hungary-interview-istvan-szepsy.html

http://winetimeshk.blogspot.com/2013/01/tokaj-region-not-grape.html

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Gal for her time to come to Hong Kong to educate our up and coming wine aficionados on the diversity of Hungarian wines and Ms. Fisher for organising the event.

More information can be found by contacting either Ms. Gul on Helga.gul@mfa.gov.hu or Ms. Fisher on csilla.fisher@vertias-wine.com