Hungary is a landlocked country in central Europe with Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia as its neighbors. Budapest is its capital with the  Danube dividing the city into Buda and Pest.

I think it could be counted as one of the most beautiful Capital cities in the world, with a variety of architecture speaking of its immensely checkered past - the Celtic, Romans, Ottamans, Hubsburg  and later the Communist rule have left a strong impressions on the landscape of the country.

It was our second day in Hungary. We had visited Tokai the day earlier and now were to visit Szbki badacsony (Research Institute) in the same region.

During this visit  we tasted various Hungarian wines and also voted the best wine out of all that we tasted. They then choose the wine we voted to send for a wine show in Hungary.

Our next halt for the day was Tourna Pinceszet Somlo. This vineyard consists of 50 hectares spread out in various villages. Established in 1946 they grow a variety of cultivars like Fourmint, Harslevelu, and Riesling etc. Most of the vineyards are manually harvested.

The climate makes Hungary best suited for white wines except for the region of Eger where they have some good reds wines.

We took a closer look at Bor-marketing (Bor - meaning grapes, surprisingly it is almost similar in marathi!) in the region of Sopron at a wine cooperative.

This cooperative is a good example of proactive thinking and innovative marketing. They have used European Union sponsorship for their brochure to their maximum advantage.

They have marketed the region of Sopron as a wine trail with various wine tastings and restaurants are used to add to the USP of this wine trail.

This cooperative has some high quality red wines like the Kekfrankos which is the most popular red in the country. Zold Veltelini is also another popular late harvest wine. Catch you next Friday for more on our wine adventures!