Small Doors, Big Wines: Discovering Hungary’s Hobbit Cellars

Looking for something out of the ordinary to do with our first full day in Budapest, we luckily stumbled upon a wine tour in the nearby countryside led by a local wine expert who is also a wine journalist, judge and wine bar owner. I love learning about different wines around the world, and not just the ones that get most of the attention (I’m looking at you, France).  I love the small production and offbeat wines that are great and (sadly) can’t be found at home.

I think it is safe to say that most Americans don’t know that Hungary has excellent wines.  During the socialist regime, good wine in Hungary was not to be found.  Our guide Miklós Csizmadia tells us that during this period, wine was so bad that they would mix it with Coca-Cola to make it palatable.  And yes, Coca-Cola was available, even produced locally starting in 1968.  However, prior to this era, Hungary was indeed a producer of fantastic wines. In fact, one of the most sought after and exclusive wines in the entire word, treasured by the aristocracy of Europe, is Tokaji (“toe-kai”) which was famously called by Louis XIV  “the king of wines and the wine of kings.”  Hungarian wine is now seeing a revival, once again producing excellent, award winning wines from its twenty-two wine regions.  

Okay, so I’m not a wine writer and I’m trying to keep this short and sweet, so let me tell you about our day.  We met Miklós (“Miki”) downtown and along with 3 other tourists, piled into his Honda for a comfortable ride about 30 minutes outside of Budapest to the town of Páty.  Along the way, Miki told us all about Hungarian wine and answered all of our questions.  When we reached our destination of the small hamlet of Páty, Miki left the paved road and the adventure began. In this small area, there are 250 wine cellars dug into the ground, all along twisting narrow hilly roads weaving through the woods. It was magical.  Each wine cellar has an entrance resembling a hobbit house, leading into a long and narrow tunnel where the wine is aged and stored. Through an amazing symbiotic relationship between fungus and wine, the cellars are naturally kept at the perfect temperature and humidity level. 

We went inside two different cellars and learned about the local wine production and tasted quite a few varieties while we snacked on local products Miki had sourced from farmer’s markets.  You would enjoy this tour even if you don’t know much about wine, because Miki was very approachable and explained everything very clearly for any level of knowledge. Plus it’s a fun, out of the ordinary thing to do in Budapest.  To book, look for him on AirBNB Experiences, Viator or on Facebook. 

The Wines