Wine Wisdom: Fröcc til you drop

Wine is so essential to the people of Hungary that it’s part of their everyday hydration too. Famously bold and high in alcohol, Hungarian wines might not be the first bottle you’d reach for if you were thirsty—mine’s a Vichy Catalan actually, thanks very much. And that’s the point—that’s where their ingenious culture of fröccs comes in.

Summer in Hungary can be hot, and to cool down there are no fewer than 20 types of wine spritzer known as “fröccs” to choose from, and there may even be more. The names of them are as fun as drinking them is – allow me to share a few:

• Kisfröccs – a dash of wine with a larger dash of soda water, It means “small step”.

• Hosszúlépés – a dash of wine with half a glass of soda water. It means “stride”.

• Sportfröccs – a dash of wine then fill the glass with soda water. Sporty.

• Viceházmester – 2:3 wine to soda. Translates as “deputy landlord”.

• Házlúr – Basically just a dash of soda with your wine. It means “landlord.”

• Piszkos víz – Literally “dirty water”, it’s not a spritz, it’s soda water in a glass that used to have wine in.

The history of this spritzy little drink comes from deep in Hungarian lore. Soda water was actually invented here by inventor Ányos Jedlik in 1826, or at least he devised the method to manufacture it on a large scale. It wasn’t long before the salons and cafes of Budapest caught on, and began serving wine mixed with this newly readily-available sparkling water. Local poet Mihály Vörösmarty would drink his wine and fizz with his friend Ányos and then write poems about it. It was he who came up with the name fröcc, which literally translates as “spritz”. So now you know. Go bore your friends at the bar like I do mine.