HUNGARY: Villagers celebrate St Martin's Day in the Northern wine region of Neszmely

The day of the new wine, or St Martin's Day has a special meaning for Hungarians. They celebrate St Martin as one of their own saints and honour him with wine. In the northern wine region of Neszmely, wine knights began the celebration with a procession with traditional banners and baskets of new wines. St Martin, who became a patron saint of France as bishop of Tours, was born in the 4th century in the former Hungarian area of the Roman province of Pannonia in Szombathely and is therefore considered to be Hungarian. Although many people claim that he was actually born in the Hungarian town now known as Pannonhalma. The day of St Martin, November 11, was the day in Hungary when the economic year ended, the animals were herded in from the fields and when new wines were ready to be tasted. Winemakers in Hungary revived the wine tradition, which was dormant during communist years, in 1997. Since then the new wine celebration has become linked with St Martin's Day. The Aszar-Neszmely wine region centres around Neszmely and Esztergom with its north-eastern part running along the Danube. While it only recently regained the status of a wine region, the area has had a long history. The famous estates of the Esterhazy family were located in Aszar and the wines of Neszmôk were held in high regard by the great Hungarian statesmen. The Aszar-Neszmely white wines are rich in fragrance and aroma and have a pleasant acid content. Visitors at the tasting in Neszmely seemed to be satisfied with the new wines. "Well, I know this Sauvignon Blanc, it is one of my favourites, it's very nice," Rezso Nyergesi from a nearby village said. "I cannot really chose one, but the Irsai Oliver has an irresistible nose, it will be a wonderful wine by January. But I think all of them already are very nice indeed," another visitor, Katalin Simon said. One of the special Hungarian grape varieties, Irsai Oliver, is very popular in the region. It was invented by a winemaker who made a hybrid of two old muscat grapes in the early 20th century and named it after the money-lender he was in debt to. Irsai Oliver produce fragrant, soft wines that are best drunk young. Traditional food for St Martin's Day in Hungary is roosted goose leg with steamed red cabbage and boiled potato. Geese are central to St Martin's Day as legend has that St Martin did not want to become a bishop and hid in a geese barn. However the geese made so much noise, he was soon found. Visitors at Neszmely could also taste new wines from the region's leading winemaker, the Hilltop winery. Hilltop is the 4th largest winery in Hungary with 560 hectares, producing 7-8 million bottles per year, using 60% of their own grapes. They are the largest exporters with 90% of their wines sold abroad, primarily in the UK. Hilltop's winemaker Akos Kamocsay is pleased with this year's wines and says the crop is especially promising. "All the winemakers were a bit afraid of this vintage, but luckily we had a fantastic autumn, a very long and beautiful autumn, I don't even remember when we had it warm so long. It helped us a lot and the grapes became ripe nicely and we now have an exceptionally excellent vintage," Kamocsay said. Kamocsay was selected winemaker of the year in the UK in 1997, and again in Hungary in 1999.

ITN Source | November 13, 2006

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