Furmint
It may come from the Mediterranean region, but it is also possible that it may have origina­ted in the Szerémség, at the confluence of the Danube and the Száva. It is the principal variety in Tokaj-Hegyalja, where its cultiva­tion was recorded in the early seventeenth century. Its spread is probably connected with the rise in aszú production, as it is most amenable to this process. An excellent wine is made from it in several regions that produce mostly white wines; dry, full-bodied, with a pleasant bouquet, it is delicate, well-balanced and complex in flavour. This grape yields a wine of marked acidity which is slow to mature. As well as that of Tokaj-Hegyalja, the Somlói furmint is worthy of special mention.
Hárslevelű
The ‘LINDEN-LEAF’ is also an ancient Hungarian variety, and is grown mostly in Tokaj-Hegyalj a together with furmint, but it is also to be found in numerous other Hungarian wine regions. It is fruity and has a very fine fragrance in which, as the name implies, the linden flower and honey dominate. It has a softly, herby bouquet, is quite full-bodied, and its acids are more elegant that those of furmint, with a slightly sharp after-taste. In Tokaj-Hegyalja itself dry, demi-sec and medium-sweet wines are made from it, while in Somló dry and in Villány-Siklós medium-sweet and sweet wines are in vogue. It has gained its true value as an ingredient of aszú wine.
Kövidinka
The ‘ROCK-PINK’ is believed to be Hungarian in origin, and is primarily cultivated in the Alföld region. Under local soil conditions and despite late picking the wine retains its acid content excellently, which means that it keeps well. Because of its high yield it survived the communist era quite happily, but like the kadarka, this variety too could not maintain quality under mass-production. In recent years more and more attempts have been made to revive the reputation of this wine and its connection with the region. The reve­lation of its characteristic acids, its distinctive bouquet, reminiscent of mignonette, and of its numerous forgotten positive qualities promise something really special.
Juhfark
The ‘SHEEP-TAIL’ is of Hungarian origin, and before the phylloxera blight was well-known and wide­spread in Hungary. Its name is nowadays mostly connected with Somló, but it is sprin­ging to new life as an independent variety in several places, mostly on the northern shore of the Balaton. It takes its name from the shape of the bunches, which are slightly curved, like a sheep’s tail. This white hunga-ricum, like furmint and kéknyelű, yields a wine of restrained bouquet but strong character, full-bodied and high in acid. It amply repays being allowed to mature, and ages excellently.
Cserszegi Fűszeres
The white Cserszegi Fűszeres is a cross between the Irsai Oliver and Roter Traminer, a member of the Traminer family closely related to Gewürztraminer. It was created in 1960 by Karoly Bakonyi at the Pannon University of Agriculture. The grape variety has a high yield with high sugar content and is less sensitive to cold. Its wines are dry or half dry and have a distinctive aroma, spicy taste with a harmonious acid.
Kéknyelű
At one time the reputation of the hunga-ricum ‘BLUE-STEM’ was known throughout Europe. In places its wine fetched twice as much as the most expensive 5-puttony Tokaj aszú. (A puttony is a bucket used for measuring quantity of specially selected grapes.) It has female flowers, and therefore crops poorly and is hard to cultivate, and so it is usually planted together with the budai zöld (‘Buda green’) variety. That is the primary reason for its decline, because in times gone by it was mostly found in the big vineyards of Bada­csony, as the cultivation of this noble grape was permitted only there because of its low yield. Only in Badacsony can it be found cultivated as a varietal. It has a marked but not intrusive bouquet and a sharp acidity, which leads to a better balance after a long period of maturation.
Olaszrizling
Although the ‘Italian Riesling’ spread to Hungary from Germany in about the middle of the nineteenth century, it has for many years been the best known and most popular grape variety from which white wine is made. It is grown in every region with the exception of Tokaj-Hegyalja, and as it is found in Hungary in greater quantity than in any other winegrowing country because it adapts excellently to the natural conditions of our wine regions, nowadays we regard it as a hungaricum. It has a restrained bouquet and flavour, is endowed with delicate acids, and through those properties reflects perfectly the peculiar qualities of the soils of the various areas where it is cultivated. Depending on year and place of cultivation, it is liable to shrivel in fine, sunny autumn weather and is susceptible to noble rot, as the result of which it permits the making of sweet and medium-sweet wines. It is a real experimental variety, which can offer great opportunities to the viticulturist. Its aftertaste is often redolent of bitter almonds and sweet mignonette.
Sárfehér
The ‘MUD-WHITE’, as a Hungarian variety, was found in many regions before the phylloxera blight, but mainly in the Dunántúl and on the Alföld. By our day – like several hungarica – it is only cultivated in very few places. It must have been so popular because of its delicate acidity and pleasant, fresh bouquet, reminiscent of the grape. Like its fellows, it too did not care for the directives of the communist planned economy, and under its constraints, culti­vation fell to insignificant levels. Its revival is in progress.
Ezerjó
The same sort of thing can be said about the ‘THOUSAND GOOD THINGS’, which spread from the Upper Danube in the second half of the nineteenth century and found good conditions for cultivation in a number of Hungarian wine regions. It first became known in connection with the Mór region, but is common in Pannonhalma-Sokoróalja and the Alföld, too. Its wine is acid, firm, with a restrained bouquet, and it is possible to produce from it wine with good intrinsic qualities even on soil noted for wines of less character. In good years it can attain a high sugar content, and then a full-bodied, assertive wine of strong character can be made from it. In exceptional years it can even yield aszú grapes in Mór, which indi­cates that, like other hungarica, it may be put to a range of uses. Its distinctive acids make a long maturation possible.
Muskotály
The MUSCAT OTTONEL appeared in Hungary in the 1880s and has enjoyed unbroken popularity ever since. It can be found in small or large areas of all wine regions. It is popular not only for use as a varietal, but also for blending with other wines, as it lends to those of less character excellent bouquet and flavour. By itself it yields an exceptional muscat-scented, soft, easily recognised wine which is capable of arousing the enthusiasm even of those not much interested in wine. Fine, rounded wines can be made from it on limy or volca­nic soils that give rather significant acidity, and in good years these can develop into demi-secs or medium-sweets. Flowering and ripening early, it is worth harvesting before fully ripe and treating under reduction, the better to preserve its acids and aromatics.
Sárgamukotály
The MUSCAT LUNEL which probably came to Hungary from the Near East. It is the world’s oldest and best known grape-variety, and is mentioned in Greek and Roman specialist literature. Under favourable circumstances it can make aszu, and in the process retains its acidity, as it has better acids than the Ottonel. It displays the most refined and delicate bouquet and flavour of the odorous varieties.
Szürkebarát
The ‘GREY FRIAR’ is the most widespread of the pinot varieties in Hungary, and because of its origin in Bur­gundy is known elsewhere as pinot gris. It is popularly but incorrectly labelled a Hun­garian variety, and characteristically a Bada­csony grape. In almost all years it produces good quality wines, shrinks well and makes good aszú, and can produce numerous types of wine from young and fresh to heavy, high in alcohol and tannin and of well-balanced acidity.
Tramini
The TRAMINER is favoured less by growers but, on the other hand, all the more by winemakers and drin­kers, as its wine is strongly characteristic of the variety, with a slightly muscat and herbal flavour in which there are strong traces of rose. Several types of wine, from dry to sweet, can be made from it.
Leányka
We can date the spread of the LEÁNYKA ‘MAIDEN’, which originated in Transylvania, to the mid- nineteenth century. It favours primarily vol­canic soils, as these encourage its discreet bouquet and soft acids. Thus we find it mainly in the Eger and Mátraalja regions, where the wine from it often becomes nectar-sweet in bouquet and pleasant in flavour. It is an ideal ‘conversation-wine’. In better years it reaches quite a high level of sugar, which makes it not only medium- sweet but also slower to mature.
Királyleányka
The KIRÁLYLEÁNYKA ‘PRINCESS’ is also Transylvanian in origin, and is pro­bably the result of crossing leányka and kövérszőlő (‘fat grape’) in the years preceding the First World War. It is a favourite variety in numerous regions. It can yield a wine which is extraordinarily fine, balanced, per­haps, one might say, occupying a ‘central position’ among the white wines. A sharp but unassertive acidic tinge matches the fantastic bouquet of grape-flower and fruit which give it an excellent character. On the other hand, it is not too heavy and acidic, with the result that it may easily be enjoyed by those accustomed to softer wines. It has found its favourite place of cultivation in the Eger region, where it displays its true qualities to the full.
Sauvignon Blanc
The SAUVIGNON BLANC, which also enjoys great popularity world­wide, is the type of sauvignon best known in Hungary. It has appeared there only in re­cent decades because of certain cultivation problems, and has become popular over the last few years. It lacks the winemaking flexi­bility of chardonnay, and generally prefers firm, limy soils, so that it has made itself at home in Etyek-Buda and Balatonfiired-Cso- pak, and in parts of the Mátra and Bükk ranges. Like the sauvignons of the Loire, its principal features of bouquet and flavour are those of birthwort, nettle, herbs and fresh fruit. It can be very smooth with its balanced acids, but as it lacks body and quickly changes character this is a wine for drinking young.
Zenit
It is one of the outstanding results in Hungarian white wine breeding in the twentieth century. Due to its numerous advantageous features this wine is very popular. The grapes ripen early, they can be harvested in the first half of September with a reliably high stum content. The wine is rich in odours and flavours in most years, the acids are gentle, delicate and harmonious. Zenith suits the Hungarian palate and milieu really well.
Zéta
An intraspecific Hungarian hybrid of Bouvier and Furmint. Effectively limited to 62 hectares in Tokaj. Zéta ripens earlier than either Furmint or Hárslevelű, but it is an equally good substrate for botrytis, and a competent sugar producer also noted for its fine acidity. Never bottled under the varietal label, Zéta usually ends up in the base wine blends used in making Tokaji Aszú.
Kadarka
If anything in this category can be called a hungaricum the kadarka certainly can. It would really deserve a whole chapter to itself, as Hungarian wine tradition has for centuries been based on this variety. It began to spread over the Balkans with the Turkish occupa­tion of Hungary in the sixteenth and seven­teenth centuries, and was considered the dominant black grape in Hungary until very recent years. In its most famous place of cultivation, Szekszárd, even in the 1960s more than half the vines were of this variety. In the face of the heavy-industrial agriculture of the communist period, however, it clung on, and only from the 1970s has the amount cultivated gradually fallen.
KADARKA is firmly established in all the red wine regions of Hungary, preserving its strong qualities. It is therefore no surprise that for centuries it has been the definitive variety, yielding a pleasant wine both as the basis for ‘Bull’s Blood’ or as aszu. In traditional culti­vation – although much affected by climate -it possesses excellent, incomparable elements of bouquet and flavour. Its herbiness, high acidity and slightly restrained complex of flavours make it an excellent accompaniment to traditional Hungarian cuisine, in addition to which – especially in ‘thinner’ vintage years – it is eminently drinkable by itself. In outstanding years it is capable of offering a quite remarkably complex taste of chocolate, morellos and paprika. Although this has been for the most part unknown to drinkers of recent years, more and more winemakers are beginning to take this Hungarian variety seriously. It has much greater potential than many winemakers and wine-writers think even today.
Kékfrankos
As in recent years kadarka has lost the hegemony of black grapes, its place has been taken by Kékfrankos ‘Blue Frank, a variety of no less stature and one which still holds much promise. In the prolonged communist race for ‘markets’, in which the absolute emphasis on quantity caused several hungarica to lose their former places, perhaps the only fortunate exchange of position was that between kadarka and kékfrankos. Its origins are obscure, and it became widely known only in the mid-nineteenth century, but its advantages were appreciated even before that in the Sopron region. According to legend it received its name during the Napoleonic wars, when French soldiers billeted in Sopron bought wine from local Germans for francs, but only the better sort, the blue francs, were accepted. ‘Let’s have blue francs!’ was the watchword, and from then on this grape and its wine have been called kékfrankos.
As it adapts well to a range of natural conditions it has spread to almost all wine regions, but yields a quite distinctive, always characteristic wine. In addition to being the grape used everywhere for Hungarian roses, its styles are now being sketched as a red wine. In addition to the ‘chatty’, light-hearted tone with its crisp acidity produced by the quite graceful red fruit, big kékfrankos wines are now appearing which are substantially fuller, more robust, with nuances of tobacco, coffee and pepper. It is no exaggeration to say that, although it will take a few years, there may very likely emerge a kékfrankos that will compete at both domestic and international levels with the cabernets that dominate the world of red wines. Not only as a varietal, however, but also in blends it displays excellent properties, preserving its distinctive character, and is a defining element of most Bull’s Bloods.
Kékoportó
‘BLUE OPORTO’ is found in several regions, but its best reputation has been gained in Villány. It ripens early, has low acidity, velvety tan­nin and good colour, and produces a fine, rounded wine both as a varietal and blended. For this reason it is the most popular of the red wines, and with its bouquet reminiscent of violets and its flavour, which is sometimes compounded of chocolate and vanilla, it can easily steal into the regular daily intake of winedrinkers. Its beauties, however, quickly ‘turn wrinkly’, as it ages fast and will only really remain enjoyable for a year or two. As is the case with kadarka and kékfrankos, this wine can also be counted on for a few sur­prises.
Pinot Noir
In addition to these three, which may be regarded as traditional Hungarian black grape varieties, a few world varieties of French origin have also achieved popularity in recent years. The PINOT NOIR, a member of the pinot family, the chosen variety of the Burgundy region, can show its greatness and true worth in only a few places in Hungary, but there the discerning drinker is starting to pay serious attention to it. Discerning, that is, because the pinot noir lacks the easily recognised charm of the cabernets and merlots but can present a substantially more complex range of flavours, the really good production of which is as difficult as its appreciation. Once the best way to handle this variety has been learnt through constant study of the rules of the ecological conditions of the Hungarian wine regions, it may become the major red wine of the future not only in Hungarian wine-makers, but also among wine drinkers.
Turán
It is a Hungarian grape variety, the result of multiple crossing. Irrespective of the vintage it is deep coloured, velvety, very rich in tannin. Even if it is harvested late the fragrance of flower and honey – inherited from Blue medoc – can be felt. It is harmonious, soft, matures quickly and improves the quality of blended red wines.
Zweigelt
Zweigelt was introduced in Hungary in the 1960′s, and it instanly became a staple for industrialized mass production. It claims the largest vineyard area in the Great Plain, followed by Eger, Szekszárd and the Mátraalja. Except for large wineries, few growers take the trouble to deal with it, even thought in conscionable yields it can make rather nice wine distinguished by buoyant acidity, spicy cherry and morello aromas, and a smooth structure.

For more interesting information
Hungarian wines and wineregions.

Authors: Zoltán Benyák, Tibor Dékány.		 Terra Benedicta 2003: Tokaj and Beyond
Authors: Rohály Gábor, Mészáros Gabriella, Nagymarosy András.