If you have further questions on the exhibited wines or on the Hungarian wine industry, please contact our agricultural attaché Attila Tóth (totha@kum.hu).

 

February 19, 2009

Hungarian Wines at the Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival

The Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival is the most comprehensive indoor wine event in the Mid-Atlantic. The event was organized the 10th time and attracted a record number of attendees between February 14-15. The first time ever, wine enthusiasts had the opportunity to taste excellent Hungarian wines at the ‘Wines of Hungary’ table co-sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary.  

 

The Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival

We were proud to represent a wide scale of varieties, wine regions – including Villány, Szekszárd, Ászár-Neszmély, Etyek-Buda and Eger – and wineries. Our goal was to get the American consumers and wine people acquainted with the diversity, tradition and excellent quality of the Hungarian wines. Our table was very popular and the reactions from both trade and consumers were more than promising.

 

The Wines of Hungary table at the festival: Wine Importer István Flesch, Agricultural Attaché Attila Tóth, and his wife, Nikoletta Nagy

While having great traditions, Hungarian wine industry has undergone a significant change in the last ten years. Valuable investments have been made to improve equipment, technology, vineyards, and wine making methods and by now we are ready to produce wines that can stand the competition with the top-wines of the world. Fortunately, besides the so-called ‘world varieties’ – like cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or chardonnay - we have a wide range of our own native grape varieties – like furmint, hárslevelű, irsai olivér, kékfrankos and kadarka – which provide great potential for our wine industry in the future. It is a good sign that Hungarian wines won 15 gold and 30 silver medals at the four most significant wine exhibitions of the world last year.

We believe that many people who tasted our wines at the Wine Festival have discovered the wines of Hungary and have become an advocate of our wine industry. If you have further questions on the exhibited wines or on the Hungarian wine industry, please contact our agricultural attaché Attila Tóth (totha@kum.hu).