Vineyards come in all sizes depending on what can be afforded and how large a crop is required. Some individual vineyards can be less than 1,000 square meters and may just have an underground cellar on them with a shed for tools. Sometimes even the smallest yards have little wine houses on them that consist of an underground cellar, a living/sleeping/kitchen area and a grape pressing room.

If the owner does not live near to his vineyard (some yards are situated more than an hour’s drive away from the owners home) then living quarters are essential for the times of the year when several days at a time have to be spent on the vineyard in order to carry out the work that is required to produce a fine crop of grapes.

Some of the larger vineyards have beautiful wine houses on them that have room to sleep several people. They are used for social gatherings especially in the summer as often friends or other family members are invited for a day or for a weekend to the vineyard where there will be picnics and many bottles of wine to sample.

Some Hungarians are fortunate to be in the position to live on their vineyards. But, on a Friday evening, go to any road that leads out of the towns & cities and, except for in the winter when the weather is very bad, you will see a continuous line of vehicles heading for the countryside. To a dedicated Hungarian wine grower a weekend away from home, tending his vineyard is a very special part of his life.

Outside most cities, towns and villages you will find vineyards and you are sure to find them scattered about on any hill in the area. Many of them are on the flat lands but not knowing much about growing vines I was curious to know why a hillside is a prized position. It prompted me to find out more and after reading several articles some general facts emerged. Although Chris McKinley¹ was not talking specifically about growing grapes in Hungary I felt that the information he gave applied to grape growing in general. He states “The soil has a mild clay content, which allows water absorption and drainage. Steep hillsides also provide adequate drainage and prevent frost from accumulating on plants. Grapes like a good amount of rainfall, but also prefer a droughty summer”.

Also, L. Mawby² states that "In the late spring, when we have a cold, frosty morning, the cold air, being heavier than warm air, flows down the slopes into the valley. On those mornings, the slopes are warmer than the valley, and the tender grape buds are spared the cold. If the vines were planted in the valley, the buds would freeze, and the crop would be lost.
"In the fall, too, the same thing happens. Then, the leaves are spared, and they can continue to work to ripen the grapes.

If a Hungarian doesn’t have a vineyard that doesn’t mean that he cannot make wine because if you go to any large vineyard at harvest time then you will be able to buy grapes for winemaking.
In September an acquaintance bought 600 kilos of red grapes to make wine from. It seemed to be a large quantity for an individual household but asked if it was to make wine to sell we were told that they were only sufficient to supply his own table for the year and to give to guests who called.

Most areas have wine growers associations to which the local growers can belong and through which they can get advice from more experienced growers, agricultural supplies at reasonable prices and some associations organise wine harvest festivals in the autumn. On the last Sunday of September we were invited to go to the one held in Izsak ³. Besides being taken around exhibits of locally grown grapes (and tasting them) we witnessed a parade of dancers, men on horseback dressed in the traditional herdsmen’s costumes demonstrating the use of whips and teams of horses being driven through the town. Altogether a most impressive display.

It is November now and we have been to several houses where we have been given glasses of this years wine to sample and have been pressed to take several bottles home with us. I am sorry to say that a few were not very good – made mainly by individuals who have not had experience in winemaking and have no knowledge of how to prepare their utensils properly before fermenting the wine. Some had been spoilt because the wine had not been filtered from the sediment and been put into clean barrels to mature. But, others we tasted were equal to any fine wine we had ever bought in a wine store.

References:

¹Chris McKinley -http://users.midwestmail.com/nightlife/cdalerocks/treasures/14Wine.html

² L Mawby - www.lmawby.com/enjoy/article.asp?storyid=13

³ www.izsak.hu / fotók/ ünnepi felvonulás