Wine districts in focus: Szekszárd

Most of Hungary’s serious reds want to muscle you into sensory submission, and jolly good they are at it too. In the country’s warm south though, Szekszárd would prefer you to be wowed by displays of dexterity than strength. A veritable a sun-trap of rolling loess hills between the Mecsek and the Danube, Szekszárd has wines that tend to be supple and finely tannic, with a rounded, almost Mediterranean sense of suave charm.

The vineyards here are old, as they are almost everywhere in Hungary. The Romans were making wine on these hills in the 3rd century, under an emperor – the pythonesquely-named Probus – remembered for championing viticulture across the province. But the region as we know it was rebuilt in the 18th century by German-speaking Swabian settlers, invited in to repopulate land the Ottoman wars had emptied. 

By the 1800s, Szekszárd’s feisty reds had a national reputation, and it was here that the poet János Garay crowned Kadarka the region’s emblematic grape, while the composer Franz Liszt, an admirer, also made the trip. Inevitably, phylloxera flattened the vineyards at the end of the century, as it did everywhere, and the eventual rebuilding leaned even harder on red varietals, with which Szekszárd has been tightly associated ever since. Communist-era cooperatives then planted the easy, low-lying ground that machines could work, while the steep hillside plots were left to families or left altogether. It was those slopes, reclaimed family by family after 1990, that made the modern reputation.

Today, the Szekszárd Bottle alliance unites leading wineries from the wine region to showcase its rich winemaking heritage. The hallmark of this collaboration is its focus on the region’s signature wines: Kadarka, Kékfrankos, and Bikavér. Only wines selected through rigorous monthly blind tastings by member wineries earn the right to be bottled in the Szekszárd Bottle, which features a unique design with the Szekszárd logo on its neck.

Sheltered by the Mecsek Hills to the west and warmed by the Danube to the east, the district gets long, sunny autumns that ripen red grapes fully and gently. Underfoot is a deep layer of ‘red loess’ – wind-blown, lime-rich and generous – the soil most responsible for the fine-grained tannins and smooth texture that define a Szekszárd red. 

FAST FACTS

Vineyard area: 2,116 hectares

Signature wines: Szekszárdi Bikavér; Kadarka, Kékfrankos

Signature style: Velvety, elegant reds with fine tannins