Our resident sommelier, Julius P. Johnson IV, answers your questions on wine as part of our monthly series…
Dear Sir: I want to surprise a wine-freak friend of mine with a really crazy bottle from a distant land. Not Chile, Argentina, USA, France, Spain, Australia, South Africa, or Italy– get the picture? But it’s got to taste great.
Good question. OK, gas up the G-V, let’s go trekking to the “birthplace” of wine: Hungary. Which reminds me of a hilarious saying, “if you are hungry – drink”. It is funny because it is true.
Ibn-Rostech, the Arabian writer mentions Hungarian vine growing already in its Xth century chronicle. Vine growing and wine production after the Original Settlement of the Magyars was based upon three things: the Greek-Celtic tradition, the Roman tradition, and the knowledge that the Hungarians brought along from the East.
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