Hungarian Vineyards among the World’s Best

Hungary Today 2023.07.19.

The UK’s World’s Best Vineyards list showcases the very best of wine tourism, highlighting the world’s most beautiful and diverse wineries. For the first time in the history of the award, established in 2019, two Hungarian wineries have made it into the top 50, reports Turizmus.com.

Each year, the World’s Best Vineyards list showcases the world’s best vineyards, from modern architectural marvels, UNESCO-protected ancient cellars and Michelin-starred restaurants, to family-run wineries. This year’s list is headed by Argentina’s Catena Zapata, with Spain’s Bodegas de los Herederos del Marqués de Riscal coming in second for its futuristic architecture. In third place was a Chilean vineyard, VIK.

More important than the podium finishers, two wineries from Hungary also made the prestigious list’s top 50, with Szepsy Winery ranked 35th and Disznókő 45th.

Furthermore, in the top 100, we can also find another Hungarian vineyard from the Tokaj region as well. The Tokaj Oremus Vineyard got the 74th place on the prestigious list.

Fact

The Tokaj wine region is the first closed wine region in the world, since 1737. It is located in the northeastern part of Hungary, at the southern and southeastern foothills of the Zemplén Hills, covering an area of 88,124 hectares. In 2002, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed it on the World Heritage List as a cultural landscape under the name of Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape. The symbol and one of the centers of the wine region is the town of Tokaj, which has become a symbol for the whole of Hungary thanks to its worldwide fame. The town is the guardian of centuries of the tradition of wine-making, unique architectural heritage, and local traditions.

Szepsy Winery now covers 52 hectares, mainly in the Mád area. The family-run winery is considered one of the emblematic estates of Tokaj. Its director, István Szepsy, is one of the country’s best-known winemakers and a leading face of the Tokaj Wine Region, winner of the 2001 Wine Producer of the Year and 2009 Winemaker of the Year. Furmint, a white Hungarian wine grape variety, is a dominant variety on the estate.

Photo: Facebook/Szepsy

Disznókő is a French-owned winery in the southwest gateway to the Tokaj wine region. It takes its name from the Disznókő rock on the estate, shaped like a wild boar. Their typical wines are dry furmint, late harvest furmint, and sweet aszú wines made from botrytized grapes. Disznókő tries to preserve the wine-making traditions of Tokaj as much as possible.

Photo: Facebook/Disznókő, Tokaj

Hungarian wines are becoming increasingly prominent on the international scene, as evidenced by the number of awards and recognitions. Most recently, the Wine Spectator, one of the most influential wine magazines in the world, awarded three wine lists in Budapest and one in Miskolc (northeastern Hungary). It honors the world’s best restaurants in three categories: the most exciting wine lists in the world, with one (Award of Excellence), two (Best of Award of Excellence), and three (Grand Award) glass awards. To qualify for the award, restaurants must meet a number of criteria, which Wine Spectator representatives personally verify during their visits.

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Featured photo via Facebook/Disznókő, Tokaj