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When
the final judging was being completed for the Restaurant
of the Year, one of the comments of the selection
committee stuck in my mind. That was about the restaurant
price of Hungarian wine, however good it is, being
out of all proportion to it's International quality/value.
In the last few months I have been looking at restaurant
wine prices with renewed interest. And attending
the regular tastings of the Budapest Wine Society
I have been exposed to the quality and the reasonable
prices of some of the best wine produced in Hungary.
In reality there are very few wines, made in Hungary,
that really stand up well against their equivalent
in say France or California.
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| In the last few years
a group boutique (terrible name) wine producers has
appeared and gained some quite good reputations. They
have put back wine making in Hungary by fifty years
and with the introduction of modern methods and technowledgly
have been producing some very palatable generic wines. |
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| Towards the end of
last year, after a prolonged stay in Hungary whilst
writing the Good Living Guide, I actually began to
think that the best Hungarian wines had developed
to become genuinely good. Then I had to go to France
and Italy. Silly me I should have known better, and
I did as soon as the very first taste of very ordinary
'vin ordinaire' passed my lips in Udine, but it just
goes to show what brainwashing does. Now, when people
ask me about Hungarian wines I simply say that there
are some very drinkable ones about and that in a few
years, when older stocks build up there may be some
truly great Hungarian wines. Of course I am talking
about general table wines and excluding Tokay, and
just occasionally some old Egri Bikvar turns up. |
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| The sun shone on Good
Friday and I decided to take the Dog out of town for
a little run in the country and thus ended up at the
Tanne Hotel and Restaurant (2092 Budakeszi, Ese Tamas
u. 6.). The Tanne has long been a favourite spot for
escaping. Located just that little bit of the city,
it has a splendid sheltered garden from which there
is a great view. The garden suburb that surrounds
the Hotel is a pleasant change from the grime of Pest. |
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As an aperitif we asked
for wine and a Chardonnay was agreed upon. I glanced
at the wine list which simply said Hungarian wine
from Ft.900 - Ft.2,900. The wine produced was Bápaapáti
and although I had drunk this wine it has usually
been with, let us say, an unclean palate, and since
this was the first drink of the day the full flavour
came through, and both the Dog and I remarked on it's
quality immediately. I was genuinely impressed and
if the bottle had said Chablis I would have believed
it ( I am not a wine buff who can nominate the maker,
the row and the vine). As we approached the second
course we asked for some red and demanded a wine list.
It seemed there was not one available, and in the
end we settled for a Kékfrankos, which again
turned out to be from Bápaapáti estates
and was perfectly acceptable. We ordered and received
a good meal in the early spring sun. I had some excellent
Malossol caviar, some of the best caviar I have had
for a long time and the Dog enjoyed his bowl of Goose
liver. When my dining companion lent back, to allow
the waiter to clear his plate, the chair leg gave
way. Suggestions that Bápaapáti wines
reached parts quicker than other wines, were met with
a growl. In the Dog’s defence the offending
chair was then placed at another table and the next
guest, a middle aged women, did a similar undignified
roll across the flag stones of the restaurant, only
this time the Dog laughed with me.
The main courses were also excellent with good presentation.
A very pleasant 'al fresco' lunch , particularly good
since it was the first of the year. However the rub
was to come, namely the bill of Ft14,500 which priced
the three bottles of wine at Ft.2,500 and Ft.2,600.
Particularly bearing in mind that we had been seemingly
deliberately kept away from a priced wine list, one
could only feel cheated at these prices which elsewhere
in Europe would be considered outrageous for what
is after all a single grape generic wine.
Just to ram the point home I had lunch the next day
with the man who had originally made the comment about
the price of wines. We went to the Marco Polo (V Vigadó
tér. 3) where we ordered exactly the same bottle
of wine, from a priced wine list, for Ft.900 per bottle.
I like the Marco Polo and whilst I have had a few
indifferent meals there I have for a long time considered
it one of the better restaurant in the city, with
slick service and good genuine Italian food. The duck
raviolis were first class but the lamb was a little
over cooked, but then they don't refer to rare cooked
food around here as 'angolish' for nothing. As we
enjoyed our meal a forlorn looking expert from the
SPA* wandered in and we held a brief conversation,
until he suggested that he was working too hard. The
riposte, that giving away rubbish had never been easy,
touched a nerve and sent him back to his own table.
The moral of this story, apart from one of avarice
and ripping off silly kulfoldi, is there are some
very good Hungarian Wines but like everything else
they have a value, and as my friend in the SPA has
found out that value may not be the price wanted by
the owner.
C YA
*State Property Agency selling off state owned businesses
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