Hungary

Hungarian wine production dates back to the Roman Era. Its most famous product is a lusciously sweet wine made with Botrytis infected grapes called Tokaji. Tokaji was long a favorite of royalty and was known as the wine of kings. In 1730 Tokaj became the first wine region in the world to create an appellation control system, classifying vineyards based on their quality over 120 years before Bordeaux ever attempted the same. Hungary was hit hard with Phylloxera in the 1880's as was the rest of Europe but unfortunately was much slower to recover. Hungarian soils are unusually rich in limestone and volcanic rock which has proved ideal for high-quality wine production. The three main wine producing regions here are Tokaj, Eger, & Villány. While Tokaji is still the most well-known and widely distributed wine produced in Hungary, various red and white dry wines are gaining notoriety across the globe as well.