A few pictorial memories of trips to the Tokaj region over the past three decades
You'd be lucky to see a Trabbie in Tokaj today - but this was (I think) from my first trip to the region in 1995, and though by then the iconic East German car was already rare in Budapest, out in the provinces things were a little behind economically. The owner of BIY 331 certainly kept his or her kocsi in good nick, by the looks of it, here seen entering the village of Mád, one of the main viniculture hot spots of the region.
BTW, although it looks to English-speakers that it's 'mad' - in Hungarian it's pronounced more like 'mahd'.
I had to go to Tokaj for a story on tourism developments in Hungary's most famous wine region at the beginning of the month. That story - which focused on the high end of the market, namely the Gróf Degenfeld Castle* Hotel and Winery in Tarcal and contrasted this with the more homely rural accommodation available in many of the smaller villages like Erdőbénye - is now on the web here:
( * For the sake of accuracy, I should point out that this hotel, like dozens of others in Hungary, is telling a big marketing porky here. It was and never has been a 'castle' and in its particular case has never even been a kastély, which most Hungarian hoteliers gleefully mistranslate as 'castle' in order to sound romantic - even if staying in most genuine castles would be more freezing cold than 'romantic' I suspect. The Degenfeld building, beautiful as it is today, was in fact originally built as college of viticulture and viniculture.)
But this last trip reminded me of some of my earlier forays into north-east Hungary, and I thought I'd share a few stories and piccies here in the hope of entertaining a few readers.
Here's another slightly zany one that might stir a few memories of those who frequented the village of Tolcsva from about 2005 for a decade or more.
Pascal and Anne Leeman peer through the windows of their abode in the zany restaurant named ős Kaján which they ran from about 2005 for a decade or more.
I first ran into Pascal back in 1995, when I turned up on spec at the office of the Dereszla Winery in Bodrogkeresztúr. Things in Tokaj were more laid back in those days - you wouldn't have much chance of an interview today turning up unnanounced, I suspect, but Pascal, a Frenchman, gave me some time for a story for a long-defunct magazine called Business Europa.
I always remembered his kindness of that time, but assumed he had likely moved on and away. True, he'd move away from Dereszla, but he'd not left the Tokaj region, and thirteen years later I found him and his wife Anne at their 'alternative eatery' in Tolcsva.
Pascal & Anne Leeman in a more traditional pose outside their restaurant April 2008.
On this latest trip, I heard that the Leemans have now indeed moved to their native France. (If this reaches you, Pascal and Anne - all the very best and thanks for your hospitality when I visited you!)
At this point, I'm looking for some photos of other wine friends from that same 2008 trip - I'll add them later if I find them.
Found some! (Added 18/07/24)
Márta Wille-Baumkauff stands by some of her young vines in her Pendits vineyard, in the less visited village of Abaújszántó, on the north-eastern edge of the Tokaj wine region.
Márta is special in a number of ways, not least in her Trojan-like dedication to making wine as naturally as possible. Bio-dynamic to the core, she uses horses rather than tractors to turn the soil - and as she says on her website: https://pendits.com/about-us/
"We take a passionate interest in the long-term health of the soil. Vineyard work is timed to the cycles of the sun, moon and the planets. We respect rhythm and balance of nature targeting one objective: to harvest grapes of finest quality.
I haven't run into Márta for some years now, and from her website, it would appear her son, Stefan, has taken on the bulk of the work, allowing her some time off from her labours.
Back to the earlier, original post:
But to round off this post for tonight, a 'classic' Tokaj shot of the Hétszőlő vineyard, on the south facing slopes of Tokaj mountain.
Tibor Kóvács, who at the time was head of the Hétszőlő Winery (and now the head of the wine research centre in Tarcal) poses in front of his vines just outside Tokaj town.
This was for a Financial Times story on foreign investment in Tokaj back in 2013, investment which at the time (1993-4) was much resented by many locals - but it was the basis upon which Tokaj aszu was put back on the world map of great wines.
And let's not forget the workers! Without whose nimble fingers and knowledge of the aszu berries, there would be no sweet wine!
A seasoned picker of aszu berries - the key ingredient of the sweet Tokaj wines - proudly shows off her shrivelled harvest in the Hétszőlő vineyard in October 2013.
This post has taken me hours to hunt down the photos and write, so I'm off now - but before I go, I must give a shout out to my friend Katherine Chapman, who today lives in the village of Erdőbénye.
Katherine's website is here: www.tokajwineregion.com
It has been Katherine's generosity and time that have made my last three trips to Tokaj so rich in terms of meetings and insights. Even if the big shots in the tourism industry don't know her name, she is a true supporter of the region.
ps If you are a Tokaj-ist, you may like these two earlier posts