Monarchia Wines: Introducing Quality Hungarian Wines to the U.S.

You're into wine and have sampled your way through a good sampling of French, California, Australian, and even a few other domestic wines. Now you're ready to branch out to try other wines, but you're not sure what direction to take.

After touring a variety of Hungarian vineyards a few months ago, I'd strongly recommend Hungarian wines - to enjoy now - and look for even greater things from Hungarian winemakers in the future.

Hungary, you might well ask, and with good reason. In the past, you may have picked up a dusty bottle of Egri Bikivar (also called Bull's Blood) on the bottom shelf at your local supermarket and were, let's say it as politely as possible, not very pleased.

Put that experience down to Communism, when the Hungarian wine industry was reduced to the lowest common denominator with emphasis on quantity, not quality. Actually, the 40 some years under Communism were just the most recent invasion the courageous Hungarians have endured. For centuries, this little crossroads in the middle of Europe has been continuously invaded, trampled and bombed by other people.

As in any wine-producing country, there are those who are more interested in quantity than quality. But, that's not how many wine growers want to proceed. They've had enough of that. Now, we're not talking about just any wine but artisan-type wines, from small family estates, where winemaking is a true labor of love. In just a little over a decade and a half since the fall of Communism, many Hungarian winemakers have made tremendous strides and are now producing the quality wines their ancestors have made for centuries. To paraphrase the lyrics in "My Fair Lady," we're talking premium "Hungarian wine of royal blood."

In the past, when anyone spoke of quality Hungarian wines, it was the famous Tokaji Aszu, that luscious dessert wine that richly deserves the title Louis IX gave it: "the wine of kings; the king of wines." Tokaji Aszu is still a prize from fertile Hungarian soil, but now, talented Hungarian winemakers are also producing quality table wines as well. In addition to producing well-known wines such as Chardonnay and Merlot, a number of Hungarian winemakers and making excellent progress by looking to their heritage and producing truly Hungarian wines from indigenous cultivars. Wine sellers Select Wines calls it "a true renaissance in Hungarian winemaking."

Up until now, it was extremely difficult to purchase quality Hungarian wines, especially if you didn't live in a major metropolitan area. But now, thanks to Monarchia Wines, these outstanding wines are now becoming more widely available in more high-quality restaurants, as well as for purchase in the U.S. Monarchia, is the first producer and negociant (wine seller/broker) to work with Hungarian artisan winemakers and help them introduce them to the U.S. market. Since Hungarian is a very challenging language, Monarchia is also helping U.S. consumers identify quality wines by giving some of these wines names that are easier to pronounce - and remember.

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